Property tax appeal: Do you need an attorney?
I have a confession: the only reason why I used easytaxfix.com to file my 2010 property tax appeal was because I never got a fee agreement from my attorney for this year’s appeal. I emailed them in early January saying I wanted them to appeal on my behalf and traded emails several times; each time my contact said she would send the fee agreement. But she never did.
The whole reason why I wanted to use an attorney was because I don’t have time to deal with the appeal myself. Sure, the thought did cross my mind that I could save a lot of money (1/3 of the tax savings) by doing it myself, but I am up to my eyeballs in work and new clients. No, better to leave it to the experts. But what do you do when the experts drop the ball?
From time to time, easytaxfix.com sends out promotional coupons. I was lucky enough to get my hands on a few of them, and when I offered them to other moms in my community, was surprised to find that they had similar experiences to mine. One had an attorney tell her he had filed her appeal, but he never did.
Let’s look at some #s. There are 40,000 residents in Hoboken ages 18 & over. Let’s say there are 20,000 residences in Hoboken alone. The tax appeal deadline in all of NJ is April 1. That means that your average tax appeal attorney is going to be handling 100% of their appeal volume in February and March. I know some practitioners handle thousands of cases, to the point where they have rapid-fire sessions with the municipal assessor:
Assessor (states property address): I offer to settle at [insert #].
Attorney: Accepted.
Rinse, repeat.
Last year, my attorney forgot my name. Seriously, he rejected my settlement offer because he didn’t recognize my case name. Since he ultimately went back to the assessor months later, right before the court deadline, and got my settlement reinstated, I was kind of okay with that, but I had to call his office about 20 times to follow up.
There are times when you do need an attorney, like when you are appealing for a commercial property. But for your run-of-the-mill residential owner, this is not rocket science, and that is where I recommend Easytaxfix.com. It definitely takes more research than just signing a fee agreement, mainly because the available comparables are not slam dunks. But the whole process took me less than an hour and I know my application has been received because I sent it via priority mail. Even if I have to go meet with the assessor (unlikely, chances are he’ll send me a settlement offer by mail) I am still coming out way ahead of the 10 hours I spent last year chasing after my attorney. I am also coming out ahead financially ($84 for easytaxfix.com versus $500 for an attorney, plus an additional $250 if they have to go to court). For me, knowing my application is being processed is priceless.
2/26 Update: A reader contacted me asking how to easily determine how much the city has assessed for her property value. The fastest way to do that is to use the easytaxfix.com calculator. If you enter your address on their website (the system may have trouble finding it, email them your address and they will send you a link to get in) then the next screen shows you your city property assessment along with your potential tax savings. You do NOT have to use the service, but that initial window is very useful.
