The prospect of grieving a property assessment falls above root canal, but below a walk in the park. Now there is a company to help with the process.
For New Rochelle native Michael Parchment, his entrepreneurial start stemmed from familiarity with this critical, and arguable, point of taxes.
“My (business) partner and I had done property tax grievances for friends and family for a number of years and last summer we kind of sat down and said, ”˜OK, can we make this a formal business?”™” said the cofounder of Legal Loophole L.L.C. in Rye Brook, a company that birthed breakout Tax-Leap, a tax grievance service.
“I think nobody particularly likes paying taxes and what we”™re trying to do is make sure people aren”™t paying more than their fair share,” Parchment said. “If you live in a $1 million house and I live in a half-a-million-dollar house, theoretically you should pay twice as much tax as I do.”
Parchment said clients are most surprised by price discrepancies between similar homes in similar neighborhoods, and “on average we”™re probably seeing a 22 to 23 percent reduction” in cases they represent.
“People do (file their own small claims assessment review petitions), but it”™s paperwork and it”™s time,” he said. “And I think that”™s why people turn to a company like us or a service like Tax-Leap.”
On the other side of the table, in the town of Bedford where assessments top out at a $35 million house, Tax Assessor Thomas Polzella said, “If I think there should be a reduction in the assessment, I do it myself and they don”™t have to file a grievance.”
Price discrepancies can occur because townwide reassessments have not been conducted “as frequently as they should, but that comes down to some of the economics also,” Parchment said. “It”™s expensive to go through a whole town and revalue a whole town.”
Polzella would agree, but attached an asterisk to the thought.
“Everybody thinks every house is overvalued in this market, but it”™s not true,” Polzella said. “We haven”™t reassessed in 36 years. The last revalue was in 1974. It takes a lot of money to update and it becomes a very hot issue. Most of the assessors would like it to reflect fair-market value.”
Town of Rye Assessor Mitchell Markowitz said, “The town of Rye provides residents with a summary of comparable sales that are available, either online or in the office. People can research anything they wish and we try to make it as simple as possible.”
Markowitz said that on the plus side, a tax grievance service “provides us with real information and perhaps an inequitable assessment will be resolved.” But, “a great number of complaints can be filed, some of which are founded and some of which are not founded.”
Parchment said his highest reduction thus far amounted to about 60 percent.
“Basically we do the things that people are aware of and never get around to doing themselves, or they”™re just looking for a professional to help them through the process,” Parchment said.
Assessors contend the system is readily accessible ”“ designed for citizens to act as their own representatives to grieve an assessment.
Next for Parchment”™s company is a launch of Energy-Leap, which boasts a similar model, but rather than property taxes, it focuses on energy and utilities savings.