Amityville settles assessment dispute with Newpointe Estates complex

Amityville has settled a decadelong assessment dispute with a condominium complex.

Newpointe Estates condominiums, located on Louden Avenue, has contested its property assessments since the 132 units were finished being built in 2009, said Village Attorney Bruce Kennedy.

While the taxes have continued to be paid, each year unit owners in the complex filed a tax certiorari against the village claiming overassessments. Kennedy said he did not know how much this amount has totaled but said by now it would have been well over $100,000. In a petition filed with the state Supreme Court in April, the unit owners claim overassessments ranging from about $1,500 to more than $3,800.

“Naturally that was a concern for the village, should they lose in court and have to pay,” Kennedy said.

Newpointe’s attorneys for the tax certiorari case, Cronin & Cronin Law Firm PLLC, of Mineola, did not respond to requests for comment.

The village has agreed to settle the certiorari case and pay the condo complex $20,000. As part of the agreement, the village also agreed to remove a covenant agreed upon when the condos were built, that states that each unit owner must pay the village $500 each year for a total of $66,000, with the cost adjusted annually in accordance with the consumer price index.

Kennedy said the fees were intended to offset the lower tax revenue the village would receive from the condominiums, which are taxed differently than single family homes. He said the fees were never collected by the village.

“It was like a potential liability hanging over their heads so they didn’t want it, which is understandable,” he said.

Last month the village board of trustees passed a resolution removing the covenant, noting that the move not only helps prevent litigation over the tax certiorari claims but will also “eliminate the possibility of future litigation regarding the enforceability of the provisions” of the covenant.

Kennedy, who said the change still needs to be recorded by the Suffolk County Clerk’s office and the $20,000 payment made to the complex, said the deal was a “trade off.”

“It’s a practical deal, that’s what it comes down to,” he said.

By Denise M. Bonilla

denise.bonilla@newsday.comdenisebonilla

Denise Bonilla has worked at Newsday since 2003 and covers the Town of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.