Statute of Limitations & Small Claims Procedure

06/12/20

   On June 6, 2020, the 30 day clock began to start filing commercial and residential tax certiorari petitions against Nassau County and Villages had begun June 6th. However, the deadline to complete tax certiorari filings has been extended by Executive Order 202.39.  Now, the deadline is August 6, 2020 to file petitions. While the extension certainly has its benefits, this extension has caused a serious concern that must be addressed, as it will affect every property owner in Nassau County, especially residential property owners. 

      In particular, in order for the first half of the school tax bill in October to reflect a reduction in the 2020/2021 assessment, the County must have its tax warrant completed on or about September 1st. However, the 2020/2021 tax certiorari petitions have not been filed with the Court, and now have a deadline extension to August 6th. Therefore, the Court will have less than three weeks to schedule hearings, assign judges, and write decisions on an anticipated 100,000 cases. While the Courts have a "rolling filing" procedure and hear cases as they are filed, many tax certiorari firms may wait until the end of the extension period to file. This would certainly result in many matters left unresolved by the September 1st deadline. (See Newsday article attached, which has the wrong fling deadline date). Should the September 1st deadline not be met, the property owner would receive a tax refund, rather than a tax savings.

      With that being said, property owners will be left paying more out of pocket on their tax bills, and need to wait the issuance of a refund, which could take months, if not years, to be issued. Nevertheless, tax refunds certainly have certain advantages over tax savings. The property owner knows the exact amount of tax relief he/she will receive and does not need to wait on his/her mortgage company to issue a return of overpaid escrows.  Moreover, the 2020/2021 re-evaluation has rendered transitional assessments versus actual assessments, as well as the 5 year phase in, very complicated. Calculating and verifying savings has been confusing at best.

       Nevertheless, if the County is able to resolve all 2020/2021 tax certiorari challenges by the September 1st warrant date, then it should be business as usual for the tax certiorari field. We will simply have to wait and see.