Time to appeal over assessments
Property owners will be receiving letters from Moorestown stating the revalued assessments for their property during December and January. These letters do not state the amount of tax you will be paying, but rather what is the fair market value of your property.
If your property is over assessed, even by as little as 1%, you can have a real estate tax appeal. This special provision only applies this year -2013 because this is a reassesssment year. Normally, unless your property is valued more than 15% above fair market value, you cannot appeal.
First reassessment of real estate since 2008
The last revaluation took place in 2008 and by law Moorestown has been compelled to revalue all of the real estate in Moorestown effective October 1, 2012. This includes both commercial real estate such as office buildings, warehouses, manufacturing plants and apartment buildings as well as residential real estate. The reason for the reassessment is the average assessment exceeds 100% of the selling price. This is due to the step decline in both residential and commercial real estate.Same Total Taxes
Moorestown is collecting the same amount of tax revenue. Therefore, even though your assessment may be lower, the tax rate will increase. That is why it is crucial to fight over assessments.100% of market value
The goal of reassessment is to have all property assessed at 100% of the current real market value. Unfortunately since it is such a large undertaking, very little time is spent considering the value of each property. Therefore it is not unusual for an improper valuation to be made of a particular building or home, or even entire neighborhoods. In this difficult market, finding true comparable sales is quite difficult and there is a lot of approximating in the valuation process.A taxpayer filing an appeal should consider the following questions:
1. What was the market value of my property of the pretax year?
2. Can I support my conclusion of market value with credible evidence?
3. Is my property assessed in excess of its market value if a reassessment/revaluation was implemented in the current tax year?
What should you do if you believe your property is over assessed?
First call your tax attorney, Ronald J Cappuccio, J. D., LL.M. (Tax) at 856-665-2121. As tax attorney, we can discuss this matter and see whether or not it is appropriate to obtain a real estate appraisal and begin the process of appealing the assessment.
What is the process to appeal an assessment?
If the property appears to be significantly over assessed, we will arrange for an appropriate real estate appraiser to give us a fair market appraisal of your property.
Secondly, we will discuss this with the Moorestown tax assessor and explain why your property is over assessed.
If the tax assessor will not agree, then we will file an appeal to the Burlington County Board for a hearing to determine fair market value. If your property is worth more than $1 million, we may file an action directly in the New Jersey Tax Court.
Once we win before the county board or New Jersey Tax Court, Moorestown will not be able to increase the assessment of your property for 3 years.