What is an Assessment? A property’s assessment is a percentage of its market value. All properties in the Town of Gates are currently assessed at 100% of market value. Market value is how much a property would sell for under normal conditions. The Assessment Department estimates the market value of properties based on the sale prices of similar properties. After a property’s total assessment is determined, its taxable assessed value is computed. The taxable assessed value is the total assessment less any applicable property tax exemptions (i.e. STAR, Aged, Veterans, Disability, and Clergy).
How Do I Know If My Assessment is Right? It is up to individual property owners to monitor their own assessments (and exemptions). The Assessment Roll (listing of all assessed values) is available for public review in the Assessment Department at Town Hall and here online. Your property’s current assessed value is also posted on your property tax bills. If you feel the assessment on your property is a fair representation of your property’s value you do not need to take any action. If you disagree with your assessment, you may contact the Assessment Department to discuss the options available for challenging your assessment. For more detailed information, see our Assessment Review page.
Real Property Tax Cycle – Significant Dates Each year the Town of Gates Assessor’s Office prepares an assessment roll to be used to levy taxes for the school tax in September and the town/county tax in January. In order to produce this assessment roll, the Assessor’s Office follows the New York State Assessment Calendar. This calendar is as follows for each year:
July through March – Inspection of all new construction, remodeling, demolitions, and land subdivisions which occur after March 1st of the preceding year. This requires on-site inspections and sketching of new homes and home additions, new commercial buildings and commercial additions, fire damaged properties, and demolished buildings. It also requires the mapping of all newly created tax map land parcels in the Town of Gates.
March 1st – Taxable Status Date – This is the day that all properties are assessed “as of”. In other words, the assessment of a property is based on whatever improvement is on a property as of March 1st. All exemption applications must be received by this date. Taxable status date is set by NYS Real Property Tax Law.
March through May 1st – Valuation of all new, remodeled, fire damaged, demolished, or subdivided properties that were in existence as of March 1st. This requires the Assessment Staff to value properties using the standard assessment methods of valuation, namely, the Cost Approach, and the Sales Comparison approach. For income producing properties the Capitalization of Income Approach is used. On or about May 1st, notice of assessment change will be sent to all properties which had increases or decreases in assessed value or which had a change of taxable status (exempt to taxable).
May 1st – Tentative Assessment Roll Filed – This will contain assessments for all properties in Gates including those valued above.
May 1st through the 4th Tuesday in May – Assessment Grievance forms are available. These forms must be filled out completely and returned to the Assessor’s Office on or before the fourth Tuesday in May. This is the formal grievance process and only the assessment on the Tentative Assessment Roll can be grieved. Copies of the Tentative Assessment Roll and Town of Gates sales book are available for review in the Assessor’s Office.
4th Tuesday in May – Grievance Day – This is the formal grievance day. Appointments to appear in front of the Board of Assessment Review will be made when the grievance application is completed and turned in to the Assessment Office. The Board of Assessment Review (BAR) is comprised of five (5) unpaid Town of Gates residents who have knowledge of real estate values in the Town. The BAR will hear complaints on the tentative assessment as filed on May 1st. The BAR does not have authority on tax complaints, only valuation issues. The BAR will make a decision based on evidence submitted to prove the value of the grieved property and will notify the owners of their decision by July 1st.
July 1st – Final Assessment Roll Filed – The Assessor’s Office will file a Final Assessment Roll for the next tax year on July 1st. This Final Assessment Roll will include all changes made by the BAR during Grievance Day. Judicial review of final assessments is available only to those properties which had their assessments reviewed by the BAR.
