For more than a year-and-a-half, Greenburgh Assessor Edye McCarthy has refused to certify tax parcels at The Landing on the Water at Dobbs Ferry, according to the owners, thus preventing them from having their deeds officially recorded when they sell their property.
The Landing at Dobbs Ferry sued McCarthy and the town of Greenburgh last month in Westchester Supreme Court, demanding that a judge compel her to certify its tax lots.
“This action is governed by a simple statute which requires the tax assessor to issue certain tax lot certifications,” the lawsuit states. Her duty is a “purely ministerial, nondiscretionary statutory mandate.”
The Landing is composed of 36 buildings with 103 dwellings on 35.5 acres, built from the late 1990s to 2003.
The underlying controversy is money, brought on by changes in federal tax law that limit state and local tax deductions.
The Landing was organized as a homeowners association and the units were taxed as single-family homes, based on fair market values or resale values. Last year, the owners decided to convert to condominiums to achieve a lower tax rate.
The Landing estimated that homeowners would save an average of 40%, or $10,000 each. But then the village of Dobbs Ferry and the town of Greenburgh would collect about $1 million a year less, or have to shift the tax burden to other property owners.
Paul Feiner, the Greenburgh supervisor, said in an email that Dobbs Ferry officials contend that The Landing promised to be taxed as single-family homes when it sought government approvals decades ago.
“If it had not been taxed that way, the village probably would not have approved the homes,” he said. “We were advised by the village that if the conversion proceeded it would have had a major financial impact on the taxes on the rest of the village.”
Now Greenburgh is seeking state legislation that he said would allow local governments to prohibit condominiums built after 2021 from getting lower taxes but would not affect existing condos.
The Landing filed a condominium conversion declaration on April 30, 2018, just in time for the May 1 deadline for the 2018 tax rolls.
But village and town officials and the state Office of Attorney General, The Landing claims, declined to acknowledge the conversion.
The attorney general, for instance, refused to issue a no-action letter, confirming that The Landing was not required to file an offering plan.
The Landing sued, demanding the no-action letter, and this past July the letter was issued.
The Landing has also challenged its tax assessments for 2018 and 2019 and demanded that the assessments reflect its status as a condominium.
The Landing contends that under the Condominium Act, the development immediately became a condominium when it filed the declaration last year, and the new lawsuit has nothing to do with its status as a condominium.
But McCarthy”™s refusal to certify tax parcels “has had a real world impact,” because without the certifications the county clerk has declined to record new deeds.
McCarthy “has created a situation in which owners who wished to sell their homes have encountered serious problems in making those sales,” the petition states.
The Landing says the sole issue in the new lawsuit is whether the Condominium Act requires McCarthy to act.
“Simply stated,” according to the petition, “if the certifications are requested, they must be issued.”
McCarthy did not respond to an email requesting comment.
The Landing is represented by Andrew Schriever and Kempshall C. McAndrew of Cuddy & Feder LLP of White Plains.
