GARDEN STATE APPRAISAL SERVICES LLC

One obvious reason for filing a real estate tax appeal is to obtain a lower assessment on your real property and thereby save significant tax dollars. An equally important reason to keep taxes low is to help maintain the value of the property making it more saleable in the event that the tax appeal is successful.

It would be wise to review the assessment on the property each and every year to see whether a tax appeal is warranted. The problem is that most owners of industrial, commercial and apartment properties, as well as tenants under a net lease, are not aware that they may be prime candidates for successful tax appeals even after looking at their new assessment.

For obvious political reasons, many tax assessors discriminate against non-residential properties. Studies published each year by the New Jersey Division of Taxation prove this point clearly. Furthermore, although all municipalities in the state are supposed to assess real property at 100 percent of fair market value, these studies show that only a handful, in fact, do. Indeed, few property owners are even aware of the actual assessment/true value ratio in their municipality.

Property owners often feel that their property is worth an amount equal to the assessment on the property. This misconception leads owners to overlook the different ratios of assessed value to true value applicable in each of the assessing districts of New Jersey and to overlook the fact that these ratios generally decline each year. For example, if a property worth one million dollars this year is located in a municipality with a 60 percent ratio, it should be assessed at $600,000 this year. If that ratio drops to 54 percent next year, its assessment should be $540,000. If the ratio drops, but the assessment remains high, it may be time for an appeal

THANK YOU ,

WAYNE FAMULAR JR

GARDEN STATE APPRAISAL  SERVICES

27 BURNHAM CT SCOTCH PLAINS

NEW JERSEY  07076

(732) 939 3770