Ask anyone on the street and they’ll tell you: their primary concern is inflation and the ever-growing cost of living, especially when it comes to the residents of Long Island. With sky-high property taxes – combined with the record inflation that the nation itself is experiencing –holding on to as much of your hard-earned dollar as possible has become a chief concern amongst many Nassau and Suffolk County residents.
But one thing people can do in order to incur a significant amount of saving and make their lives just a little bit easier is grieving their property taxes, which takes the knowledge, skill, and wherewithal of a trained and experienced professional to do, and that’s where Heller & Consultants Tax Grievance comes in.
Heller & Consultants Tax Grievance, based out of Rocky Point with satellite offices in Deer Park and Farmingdale, first opened their doors for business in 2007, and services clients in both Nassau and Suffolk County. Owner Adam Heller notes that, due to the current economic climate nationally –in addition to high mortgage interest rates and home scarcity on Long Island driving up real estate prices astronomically –there’sprobably no better time than the present to grieve your property taxes.
“Due to the shape that the economy is in, it’s really important for people who are being hurt by record-high inflation to do everything they can to save some money,” he said. “In addition, the market values of homeshave really shot up, creating a lot of opportunities for homeowners to grieve, especially higher-end homes.”
In addition to the woes that the U.S. economy is currently experiencing –with inflation currently at a 40-year high and the rumblings of an impending recession ever present –town and county assessors have been jacking up estimates of the homes within their borders, leading to higher property tax rates for residents that a proper tax grievance could address.
“Because the values of the assessors have shot up so much, it’s created a lot of opportunities for people to grieve their property taxes who might not have qualified before,”Heller said. “The assessors have increased the value of homes by approximately 25 percent year-over-year, and the taxes of these residents are going up correspondingly by a large margin, causing a very large financial burden. So,it’svery important for people to grieve their taxes to help alleviate that burden.”
Heller noted that residents wishing to grieve their taxes have absolutely nothing whatsoever to lose by doing so; they’re only charged if their property values are successfully grieved and their taxes correspondingly reduced, and the fee is only one-half of their first year’s savings.
While the idea of grieving your taxes and saving some hard-earned money sounds good, Heller noted that it’s not something you can do whenever you feel like it; there are specific times of the year that this process can be conducted, and it’s important to know the dates in question to ensure that you don’t miss out.
“It’s different in Nassau and Suffolk counties. In Suffolk County, it’salmost always the third Tuesday of May, which is the final deadline to file a property tax grievance,” he said. “And in NassauCounty, that deadline is March 1st of any given year. So,it’s important to have your paperwork done and submitted by those dates if you wish to challenge the assessed value of your home.”
“I would recommend that people grieve their taxes on an annual basis,” Heller added.“Even if there is no case to reduce the assessed value of their home in any given year, residents can take comfort in the fact that they know that a qualified expert is looking into the matter and will only charge them if they can actually reduce their tax burden.”
It’s worth mentioning that sometimes grieving your taxes can take multiple tries; some years, it just depends upon the judge that’s hearing the case, so it always pays to do it every year because you never know…the outcome could be in your favor, and you could save a good chunk of money.
In addition, when you work with tax grievance experts such as Heller & Consultants, your information is already in their system, greatly streamlining the process; every year Heller sends his clients the appropriate application automatically to fill out to allow him to look into their situation and see if a tax grievance is indeed warranted.
“A tax grievance is also a great way to reduce your monthly mortgage payment,” he noted. “For most people, part of their mortgage payment is their property taxes…most people roll those into it, so if you do successfully grieve your property assessment, it can definitely lower your monthly mortgage payments as well.”
If you’re looking for an organization with a proven track record of saving people their hard-earned money – especially during these troubled economic times – you should look no further than Heller & Consultants Tax Grievance and their qualified, knowledgeable, and hard-workingstaff.
“Over the course of the past year, we’ve been more successful than ever on our cases, with larger reductions than ever throughout Nassau and Suffolk counties,”Heller said. “In addition, we’ve successfully grieved a higher percentage of our cases than ever before, so it really just makes sense to have us grieve your taxes for you.Approximately half of the people that apply through us are currently getting tax reductions, which is an incredibly high average. Just a year ago, it would have been two or three out of ten, so now is the opportune time.”
To find out more about grieving your taxes, visit Heller & Consultants at https://hellertaxgrievance.com.
