Town failing to send assessment notice, failing to correct false property information

[cheiden001]

New York. I recently built a house in Walworth, Ny. My house cost $256,430 to build and was exactly 2500 square feet. The assessor decided to assess my property when it was not yet fully completed at $325,800 based on incorrect square footage. However I had mailed the property data form with the corrections back to the town 2 separate times. The assessor failed to update the square footage properly and then assessed the house based on 3136 sq.ft. So my assessment was huge! She failed to send a letter of assessment that is required to let homeowners know if there is a change in assessment so they can grievance the assessment. I didn't find out until I was mailed another property data form in the mail with the incorrect sq. ft on it still! I went into the town and found out that they had received both copies of the form changes but neglected to change the information. I also found out inflated the assessed value and that I was never sent a notice. My taxes were escrowed and taken automatically based on incorrect information. My mortgage lender raised my mortgage $528 per month to make up for a deficient escrow account. I have been cooperating with the town and there games for months and still have no refund on overpaid taxes. Not to mention all the damages they have subsequently caused. I have consulted with lawyers and they seem to think it is not cost efficient to go after the town, I feel that my constitutional right not to be taxed in excess were violated, as well as my right to a notice of assessment and my right to grievance my assessment were taken away. Not to mention neglect on the town for not correcting the problem when I sent in the corrected data verification forms. There is a lot more detail but, I am trying to keep it short!
Advice as how to proceed?

 

[justalayman]

. My house cost $256,430 to build

and that means what in regards to property taxes? Building costs do not establish market value of the home. You can spend a million dollars building a home that is worth half that on the market and you can spend $100k building a home that is worth twice that on the market. A lot depends on what you are including in that $256,430 and if it includes everything it cost to get to the point of a completed building at market rates. Did that number include the property (lot) costs? Did you do any of the work so the costs were less than if it was built entirely by a contractor? Did you spend that money to put your house in an area where every other house was worth $1M, or $100K. That affects market value as well.

Simply put; tossing a number out like that doesn't mean a lot in itself.

She failed to send a letter of assessment that is required to let homeowners know if there is a change in assessment so they can grievance the assessment.

change in assessment? If you mean the change from raw property to the property with improvements, yes, there should have been notification. Have you asked if they were sent out? If so, where were they sent to? If they do not have an address other than the subject property's address, that is where it would be sent to. If there is no mailbox, or even completed house there, it surely isn't going to be delivered to that property.

The assessor decided to assess my property when it was not yet fully completed at $325,800 based on incorrect square footage

so, where did they get that number? Pull it from their nether regions? They should have had the building plans available to them which is what they would likely use. That was filed when applying for a building permit, correct?

I feel that my constitutional right not to be taxed in excess were violated, as well as my right to a notice of assessment and my right to grievance my assessment were taken away.

well, then get out the wallet and pay a lawyer his hourly fee to fight this. You have grieved the issue, correct? You have filed the proper protest to the taxation, correct? While it was not done in a timely fashion due to the error (if there actually was an error in mailing) you have still been given the opportunity to grieve the issue.

I didn't find out until I was mailed another property data form in the mail with the incorrect sq. ft on it still!

what do you mean; still. For it to be "still", there had to be an initial notice with incorrect info that you depended on. If there was, it sounds like you may not have followed up on the matter to ensure proper corrections were made when the error was first discovered.

I don't know about you but if I was building a new house, checking the tax records to make sure all is correct would have been one of the first things I took care of once the building was complete. Did you do nothing to ensure the data was reflected properly?

So, what have you done to properly protest the assessment?

http://www.tax.ny.gov/pit/property/contest/contestasmt.htm