Owners”™ legal appeals of tax assessments on commercial properties in Westchester County declined in 2012 for the first time in six years, according to the county clerk”™s office.
Tax certiorari filings in state Supreme Court in Westchester totaled 4,067 last year, a nearly 5 percent decline from 2011.
The appeal proceedings have risen steadily since 2006, when 3,288 tax certs, as the property assessment challenges are called, were filed in White Plains.
In the largest year-to-year increase since the recession and real estate market crash in 2008, owners”™ tax appeals jumped from 3,683 in 2009 to 4,151 in 2010, an approximately 13 percent increase. The filings peaked last year in the county at 4,268, a 3 percent rise from 2010.
“As our local economy struggled, many businesses looked at this process as a way to take advantage of declining property values and to save money,” Westchester County Clerk Timothy C. Idoni said when releasing the figures. “A decline in 2012 tax certiorari proceedings will hopefully be welcome news to local municipalities and school districts faced with tight budgets and declining assessment rolls.”
The county clerk, added, though, that as appeals continue to be resolved in court and varying levels of refunds are paid by municipalities to commercial owners, “It may still be a few years before the overall impact of the decline is felt.”
