Surge by Suffolk homeowners filing tax grievances

Nassau homeowners fed up with assessments, here’s a news flash: They’re just as mad in Suffolk now.

Last year, for the first time ever, Suffolk homeowners went to court to fight their taxes in roughly the same numbers as in Nassau, where  unrest over tax bills helped drive the Democrats from power last fall. 

Excluding cases against village and city assessors, the picture is more striking: Suffolk’s 10 town assessors had to defend 36,092 court cases, far more than the 28,445 filed against Nassau County.

As a result, last year about the same share of homeowners — 8 percent — wound up in court against Suffolk’s towns as against Nassau County, Newsday has found.

The do-it-yourself method

Some homeowners, such as Dominic Serrano of Smithtown, still opt for the do-it-yourself approach.

"I'm not a greedy person - I'm a veteran, I'm a good American . . . I believe in paying taxes," he told a hearing officer at a Central Islip courthouse session this winter. But a house identical to his had sold for about 75 percent of what the tax man said Serrano's was worth, he said. Smithtown agreed to knock about 20 percent off his assessment, saving him $2,000 in taxes.

The surge in Suffolk's caseload comes as state assessment officials find Nassau's residential tax roll more accurate than for any Suffolk town save Shelter Island. Shelter Island also enjoys the county's lowest rate of tax challenges, Newsday found.

But Nassau Assessor Ted Jankowski Jr. doesn't believe an issue with the fairness of Suffolk's roll is the main cause of the trend. "I think it's an indication of the amount of tax representation firms that are out there (in Suffolk now)," he said.

A multimillion-dollar cottage industry of grievance representatives has flourished in Nassau for years by charging homeowners a cut, usually 50 percent, of their first year's tax savings. That industry, which handles 90 percent of the grievances against Nassau, has morphed into an Islandwide phenomenon. The vast majority of Suffolk grievances now are filed by these firms, officials say.

Mailboxes bulge with offers

So Suffolk homeowners this spring have found their mailboxes stuffed with the kind of messages that used to be a lot more familiar across the county line:

"Did your property taxes go up again this year? . . . 8 out of 10 qualify for a tax grievance! . . . ACT NOW! . . . If we find that you are paying your fair share of property taxes, there is absolutely NO COST TO YOU!"

Powering the volume are new computer services that deliver automated comparable home appraisals over the Internet, which makes physical visits to a home unnecessary, and rapid-fire court hearings that typically resolve a case in four minutes or less. Indeed, the Town of Brookhaven often settles its grievances over the phone.

All of that makes the process cheap enough to be profitable for the tax-rep firms.

"If you don't win you don't pay - I'd sign up, wouldn't you?" said Gregory Hild, Smithtown's assessor. "Everybody wants to lower their taxes. They have no idea if they are fairly assessed."

Lewis is facing competition from a slew of new companies formed largely from the wreckage of the real estate industry - lawyers, accountants, brokers and newbies who have hung out shingles in the last year or two. At one recent hearing, Smithtown's representative had to show his adversary how to fill out forms.

That's keeping officials on the run. "My office is very hectic," Ryan said. "We've seen a shift in our workload moving from being out assessing to defending the assessments."

Lewis believes the surge in challenges will begin to subside this year. But what bothers Judge Daniel Loughlin, who has presided over thousands of cases as a small-claims hearing officer, is an illusion at the heart of the matter: There's no such thing as a "correct" assessment.

Appraisal valuations vary

Ask any three top appraisers what your home is worth, and they'll offer three different numbers, likely to vary by up to 10 percent. But Long Island's taxes are so high, tax-challenge firms can make a profit on a reduction of as little as 5 percent.

"I don't think that spread can be refined," Loughlin said. "No one is going to come out with a number that is perfect. . . . It's not a science, and these companies can live off the difference."

But reducing the volume of challenges is not something Suffolk's administrative judge, H. Patrick Leis, would support, however much work they have created for the courts. "I think it's a positive for the people. It gives them an opportunity to grieve something," Leis said. "Everything is dumped on them."