New York Property Tax Grievance | 2026 Guide

A New York grievance succeeds on evidence, and Form RP-524 is built around the two main proofs.

For an excessive-assessment claim — comparable sales. Gather recent, arm's-length sales of similar nearby homes (similar size, age, style, and location). If three comparable homes sold for around $360,000 and your assessment implies $420,000, the comps support a reduction. A recent purchase price of your own home (if you bought it close to the valuation date) or a fee appraisal is even stronger. Document these in Part Four of Form RP-524, which has a dedicated section for comparable sales.

For an unequal-assessment claim — the RAR. Use the published residential assessment ratio (RAR) for your municipality. Multiply your home's market value by the RAR to get an equitable assessment; if your actual assessment is higher, you are assessed unequally relative to other homes. Form RP-524 Part Four lets you support this with the RAR or with the assessments of comparable properties.

Factual errors are the easiest win. If the assessor's records show the wrong square footage, lot size, number of bathrooms, or condition, correcting the record can reduce the value with little argument. Bring the correct measurements or photos.

Presentation. You may submit everything in writing with the form and skip the in-person hearing, or appear before the Board of Assessment Review under RPTL §525 to walk through your comps. Keep it factual: state your claimed value, list each comparable with its sale price and date, and tie it to the reduction you seek per RPTL §524.

Don't rely on: asking-price listings, automated online estimates alone, or your tax bill being "too high" — the board wants sales and ratio data.

Co-ops and condos in New York City are valued and challenged differently from 1-3 family homes, and the deadline is earlier.

They are Tax Class 2. Co-ops, condos, and rental buildings of 4+ units are Tax Class 2, assessed at a 45% level of assessment (see the Determining Your Assessed Value page). The NYC Tax Commission deadline for Class 2 is March 1, two weeks earlier than the Class 1 March 15 date.

Co-ops file as a whole building. A co-op is a single tax lot owned by the cooperative corporation. Individual shareholders do not file their own challenges — the co-op corporation, usually through its managing agent or attorney, files one application with the NYC Tax Commission covering the entire building, and any reduction flows down to shareholders through the maintenance budget. If you own a co-op, ask your board or managing agent whether the building grieves each year.

Condos differ — units are separate lots. Each condominium unit is its own tax lot. An individual condo owner in Tax Class 2 or 4 can file Form TC109, the valuation claim for condominium units, by March 1. Many condo buildings also file collectively through the board.

Valuation method. NYC values Class 2 co-op and condo buildings using an income approach based on comparable rental buildings, not sales of the units. That makes the strongest challenge an argument that the city's comparable-rental selection or capitalization assumptions overstate value — typically handled by the building's professionals.

Bottom line: co-op owners rely on the building's filing; condo owners can file TC109 themselves by March 1 or join the building's collective challenge.

On a NYC Notice of Property Value you may see both a market value and an effective market value — and they can differ because of New York City's assessment caps.

Two assessment ratios. Per the NYC Department of Finance's Determining Your Assessed Value:

• Tax Class 1 (1-3 family homes): the level of assessment is 6%. Assessed value = market value × 6%.
• Tax Classes 2, 3, and 4 (co-ops, condos, rentals 4+, utilities, commercial): the level of assessment is 45%.

How effective market value is computed. Effective market value = assessed value ÷ the level of assessment (÷ 6% for Class 1, ÷ 45% for Class 2/3/4). It is the market value you are effectively taxed on after the caps are applied.

Why it can be below the city's market value. NYC caps how fast assessed value can rise:

• Class 1: AV can increase no more than 6% per year and 20% over five years (RPTL §1805).
• Class 2a/2b/2c (small buildings, ≤10 units): AV increases no more than 8% per year and 30% over five years.

When the city's market value rises faster than the cap, your assessed value lags, so your effective market value is lower than the stated market value. See Determining Your Transitional Assessed Value.

What it means for your appeal. Because the caps already hold your assessed value down, an appeal that only attacks the headline market value may not lower your taxes if the cap is what's actually controlling your AV. The most productive NYC challenges target the assessed value, a factual error, or the underlying market value when the property is newer construction or recently sold below the city's estimate.

Both numbers express assessments as a percentage of market value, but they serve different purposes — and for a homeowner grievance, the RAR is the one you usually cite.

Equalization rate. The state's equalization rate is the ratio of a municipality's total assessed value to its total market value. A rate of 100 means the town assesses at 100% of market value; a rate of 50 means it assesses at roughly half. Its main job is to fairly apportion taxes and aid across taxing jurisdictions — it is not designed to correct an individual unfair assessment.

Residential assessment ratio (RAR). The RAR is the same idea but limited to residential property: the ratio of aggregate residential assessments to aggregate residential full (market) value. It tells you the typical level at which homes like yours are assessed in that city or town.

Why the RAR wins your grievance. New York lets you grieve an unequal assessment — being assessed at a higher percentage of market value than other homes. To prove it, take your home's estimated market value and multiply by the RAR. If your actual assessed value exceeds that figure, you are over-assessed relative to your neighbors. Example: market value $400,000 and a RAR of 2.5% imply an equitable assessment of $10,000; if you are assessed at $13,000, you have an unequal-assessment claim.

Where to find both. The state publishes equalization rates and RARs by county and municipality. Form RP-524 Part Four explicitly allows you to support an unequal claim with the RAR.

Use the RAR for the individual math on your home; mention the equalization rate only if you are challenging the town-wide level of assessment.

Grievance Day is the single day each year when the Board of Assessment Review (BAR) meets to hear assessment complaints. In most New York communities it falls on the fourth Tuesday in May, which in 2026 is May 26. The state explicitly cautions that the date can vary by municipality, so confirm yours with the assessor or municipal clerk — see the Grievance procedures page.

Why the date moves. Some assessing units (and most villages that assess separately) hold Grievance Day on a different statutory date. Villages that prepare their own assessment roll have a separate grievance date from their town. The safest practice is to look up your specific town, city, or village rather than assume the fourth-Tuesday default.

Major exceptions — different systems entirely:

• New York City: there is no "Grievance Day." Challenges go to the NYC Tax Commission, with deadlines of March 15 (Tax Class 1) and March 1 (Tax Classes 2, 3, and 4).
• Nassau County: challenges go to the Assessment Review Commission (ARC) through the AROW online system, with the 2027/28 filing window running January 2 through March 2, 2026.
• Suffolk County towns: Grievance Day is the third Tuesday in May, not the fourth.

Don't miss it. The grievance deadline is firm. If you miss Grievance Day you generally cannot grieve to the BAR that year, and you lose the ability to pursue SCAR or an Article 7 court proceeding for that roll — those judicial routes require a prior BAR grievance. File Form RP-524 by the deadline even if you intend to escalate later.

Nassau County is a county-wide assessing unit and runs its own grievance system through the Assessment Review Commission (ARC) — it does not use town Boards of Assessment Review or the standard fourth-Tuesday-in-May Grievance Day.

File through AROW. ARC's online filing system is AROW (Assessment Review on the Web), at nassaucountyny.gov/4650/AROW. Filing online is free and lets you track your application status and receive determinations electronically. There is no filing fee to grieve to ARC.

The deadline. Nassau's grievance window opens when the tentative roll is published in early January and closes about two months later. For the 2027/28 assessment (published on the January 2, 2026 roll), the filing period ran January 2, 2026 through March 2, 2026 — March 2, 2026 was the last day to appeal. See How to Appeal Your Assessment and the ARC home page. Confirm each year's exact dates with ARC, as the county occasionally extends the deadline.

Why Nassau is different. Because Nassau assesses years ahead (the roll you grieve is for a future tax year), the timing is unusual relative to the rest of New York. ARC reviews the Department of Assessment's tentative value; it can offer a reduction or deny the claim.

If ARC denies you. As with the rest of the state, the judicial follow-on for an owner-occupied 1-3 family home is SCAR under RPTL §730 (a $30 petition filed within 30 days of the final roll), or an Article 7 proceeding for other property. You must have filed the ARC grievance first.

Contact ARC at (516) 571-3214 or ARC@nassaucountyny.gov for help.

If you own property in New York City, the Notice of Property Value (NOPV) is the document that kicks off your annual chance to appeal.

What it is. The NYC Department of Finance mails the NOPV on or about January 15 each year. It states the city's estimate of your property's market value, the assessed value, the tax class, and any exemptions applicable to the tax year that begins July 1. See Notice of Property Value.

It is not a bill. The NOPV does not contain a tax amount — it is the valuation notice. The actual property-tax bill comes later. The NOPV exists so you can check the numbers and challenge them before they become final.

What to check.

• Property description: square footage, number of units, building class, lot size. Factual errors here are among the strongest grounds for a reduction.
• Market value: compare the city's estimate against recent sales of similar nearby properties.
• Tax class: Class 1 (1-3 family homes) vs. Class 2 (co-ops, condos, rentals of 4+ units) determines your deadline and assessment rules.

Your move. If the value is too high or the description is wrong, file a challenge with the NYC Tax Commission — Form TC108 for Class 1, TC109 for Class 2/4 condo units — by March 15 (Class 1) or March 1 (Classes 2, 3, 4). Deadlines cannot be extended.

Because the NOPV arrives in mid-January and the appeal closes by mid-March, NYC owners get a short, fixed window — read the NOPV the day it arrives and act if the numbers look off.

New York City does not use Form RP-524 or a Board of Assessment Review. Instead, the independent NYC Tax Commission reviews assessments after the Department of Finance issues your Notice of Property Value (NOPV) on or about January 15.

The two deadlines:

• Tax Class 1 (most 1-, 2-, and 3-family homes): the application deadline is March 15.
• Tax Classes 2, 3, and 4 (co-ops, condos, rentals of 4+ units, utilities, and commercial): the deadline is March 1.

The Tax Commission stresses that it must receive your application by the applicable deadline and that deadlines cannot be extended — see the application forms page.

Which form. The application you file depends on your property and tax class:

• TC108 — valuation claims for all Tax Class 1 properties (the form most 1-3 family NYC homeowners use); see the TC108 application and instructions.
• TC109 — valuation claims for condominium units in Tax Class 2 or 4.
• TC101 / TC150 / TC159 and related forms cover income-producing and larger properties.

What you are challenging. Your NOPV shows the Department of Finance's market value, assessed value, and any exemptions. If those figures are too high or contain an error, the Tax Commission application is your administrative remedy. If the Commission denies relief, you may then pursue SCAR (owner-occupied homes) or an Article 7 proceeding — but only if you filed the Tax Commission application on time.

Because the NYC window opens in mid-January and closes by mid-March, NYC homeowners must act much earlier than the rest of the state.

In most of New York State, grieving your assessment means filing Form RP-524, "Complaint on Real Property Assessment." New York City and Nassau County use their own systems instead (see the NYC Tax Commission and Nassau ARC questions).

Where and when. File the completed form with the assessor or the Board of Assessment Review (BAR) in your city or town. The deadline is Grievance Day — in most communities the fourth Tuesday in May, but you must confirm the exact date with your assessor or municipal clerk, because some communities differ. If you mail it, the form must be received by Grievance Day. See the state's Grievance procedures and the official Form RP-524 with its instructions (RP-524-Ins).

What the form requires. Under N.Y. RPTL §524, you must state the ground for your complaint — that the assessment is excessive, unequal, or unlawful, or that the property is misclassified — and specify the value you believe is correct and the reduction you seek. Part Four of the form lets you document an unequal or excessive claim using comparable sales or the residential assessment ratio.

The hearing. You may appear before the BAR in person, with or without a representative or attorney, and present statements and documents, or you may rely on the written submission. Under N.Y. RPTL §525, the board hears proofs and must mail you a written notice of its determination.

If the BAR denies you, your next step is judicial review — Small Claims Assessment Review (SCAR) for owner-occupied homes, or an Article 7 proceeding. File the grievance first: you generally cannot go to SCAR or court without having first grieved to the BAR.

Small Claims Assessment Review (SCAR) is the low-cost judicial alternative to a formal tax certiorari lawsuit. It is authorized by N.Y. RPTL §730 and administered by the New York State Unified Court System.

Who qualifies. SCAR is available only to owners who live in their one-, two-, or three-family dwelling used exclusively for residential purposes (or who own vacant land too small for such a dwelling). Landlords of larger buildings and commercial owners must use an Article 7 proceeding instead.

You must grieve first. SCAR reviews the assessment as set by the Board of Assessment Review (or the Nassau Assessment Review Commission, or the NYC Tax Commission). You cannot file a SCAR petition unless you filed a timely Form RP-524 grievance and received an adverse or partial determination.

The fee and deadline. The filing fee is $30 under RPTL §730. The petition must be filed within 30 days after the final assessment roll is filed (or notice of that filing is published), whichever is later. This is a different, later deadline than Grievance Day — do not confuse the two.

How it works. You file the SCAR petition (court form, e.g. the SCAR petition with the Supreme Court clerk in your county) and a specially trained hearing officer — not a judge — hears the case informally. The process is designed for self-represented homeowners; formal rules of evidence are relaxed. See the SCAR petition and instructions.

Cost-benefit. With only a $30 fee and an informal hearing, SCAR is usually worth pursuing if the BAR ignored solid comparable-sales or residential-assessment-ratio evidence.

Many New York homeowners worry that challenging their assessment will jeopardize their STAR (School Tax Relief) benefit. It will not — STAR and your assessment are separate things.

STAR is a school-tax relief program, not part of your assessment. Under N.Y. RPTL §425, Basic and Enhanced STAR reduce the school-tax portion of your bill for an owner-occupied primary residence. New applicants now generally receive STAR as a credit (a check or direct deposit) from the STAR program, while longtime recipients may still have the older STAR exemption on their bill. Either way, eligibility depends on owning and living in the home and meeting income limits — not on the dollar amount of your assessment.

Grieving lowers your assessed value; it does not touch STAR eligibility. A successful grievance reduces the assessed value on which all your property taxes are computed. Your STAR benefit continues as long as you remain eligible. The two work in addition to each other: STAR trims the school-tax slice, and a lower assessment trims the whole bill.

A nuance on the exemption form. STAR exemption amounts are calculated by the Tax Department using the assessing unit's level of assessment and equalization rate (STAR calculation). When your individual assessment drops, your tax savings come from the lower taxable value; the STAR exemption is computed separately and is not forfeited by appealing.

Bottom line: filing Form RP-524 (or a NYC Tax Commission / Nassau ARC application) does not remove your STAR benefit or trigger a STAR review. Keep filing for STAR as usual, and grieve your assessment on its own merits.

Unlike Nassau County (which assesses county-wide through ARC), Suffolk County is assessed at the town level — each of its ten towns (Babylon, Brookhaven, East Hampton, Huntington, Islip, Riverhead, Shelter Island, Smithtown, Southampton, Southold) maintains its own assessment roll and Board of Assessment Review (BAR).

The deadline. In the Suffolk towns, Grievance Day is the third Tuesday in May — one week earlier than the statewide fourth-Tuesday default. Confirm the exact date and any town-specific instructions with your town assessor before filing.

How to file. Use the standard Form RP-524, Complaint on Real Property Assessment, filed with your town assessor or the BAR on or before Grievance Day. Follow the same statewide grievance procedures: state the ground (excessive, unequal, unlawful, or misclassified per RPTL §524), your claimed value, and the reduction sought.

Evidence. Because Suffolk towns assess at a fractional level, an unequal assessment claim using the residential assessment ratio (RAR) is often the strongest argument, alongside comparable sales of similar nearby homes.

If the town BAR denies you. As an owner-occupant of a 1-3 family home you can file a SCAR petition under RPTL §730 — a $30 fee, filed within 30 days of the town's final assessment roll. You must have grieved to the BAR first.

Note each town runs its own calendar and roll dates, so verify your specific town's Grievance Day, final-roll date, and any village grievance dates separately if your home sits within an incorporated village that assesses on its own.

If you own a 1-, 2-, or 3-family home in New York City, Form TC108 is your application to challenge your assessment with the NYC Tax Commission. It is the Class 1 counterpart to Form RP-524 used in the rest of the state.

What TC108 covers. TC108 is the valuation-claim application for all Tax Class 1 properties. You use it to claim that the Department of Finance's market value or assessed value on your Notice of Property Value (NOPV) is too high, or that an error exists. (Condo units in Class 2 or 4 use TC109 instead.) Download the current form and instructions: TC108 (2026).

The deadline. For Tax Class 1, the Tax Commission must receive TC108 by March 15. Deadlines cannot be extended, so do not wait — the NOPV arrives around January 15, giving you roughly two months. See Challenging Notice of Property Value.

What to put on it. State your claimed market value and the basis — typically comparable sales of similar nearby 1-3 family homes, or a factual error in the property description (wrong square footage, lot size, building class). Because NYC Class 1 assessed value is capped (see the NYC effective-market-value question), the most effective claims usually attack the underlying market value or a data error.

After filing. The Tax Commission may offer a hearing or review the application on the papers and issue an offer or determination. If you accept an offer, the value is corrected; if you are denied, you may escalate to SCAR (since a Class 1 home is owner-occupied 1-3 family) for a $30 fee, or to an Article 7 proceeding. Filing TC108 on time preserves those rights.

New York's appeal calendar is anchored to two rolls, and knowing which is which keeps you from missing a deadline.

Tentative assessment roll. In most towns the assessor files the tentative roll on or about May 1. This is the draft of every property's assessment for the year. It is the version you challenge: you file Form RP-524 and appear before the Board of Assessment Review on Grievance Day (typically the fourth Tuesday in May) to contest the tentative value. See the Grievance procedures. (NYC and Nassau use earlier, separate calendars.)

Final assessment roll. After Grievance Day, the BAR rules on all complaints, and the assessor files the final roll on or about July 1. The final roll incorporates the board's reductions (or confirmations) and becomes the basis for your tax bill.

Why the final roll matters for escalation. Your judicial-review clock runs from the final roll, not the tentative one. Under RPTL §730, a SCAR petition must be filed within 30 days after the final assessment roll is filed (or notice of its filing is published), whichever is later. The same 30-day window governs an Article 7 proceeding. So: 1. Grieve the tentative roll by Grievance Day (Form RP-524). 2. Receive the BAR determination and watch for the final roll. 3. If still aggrieved, file SCAR or Article 7 within 30 days of the final roll.

Dates vary by assessing unit. The May 1 / July 1 dates are the common town schedule; cities, villages, and special assessing units (NYC, Nassau) differ. Confirm your municipality's tentative- and final-roll dates with the assessor so you don't miss the SCAR window.

New York's grievance grounds are spelled out in N.Y. RPTL §524: an assessment may be challenged as excessive, unequal, or unlawful, or because the property is misclassified. For homeowners, the two that matter most are excessive and unequal.

Excessive assessment. Your assessed value (after applying the town's level of assessment) reflects a market value higher than your property is actually worth. You prove it with comparable sales — recent arm's-length sales of similar nearby homes — or a recent purchase price or appraisal of your own home. If similar houses sold for $350,000 but your assessment implies $420,000, that is an excessive-assessment claim.

Unequal assessment. Your property is assessed at a higher percentage of market value than other properties in the same assessing unit. You prove it using the residential assessment ratio (RAR) or equalization rate: multiply your home's market value by the RAR to get an equitable assessment, and show your actual assessment exceeds it. Example: $400,000 market value × a 2.5% RAR = $10,000 equitable assessment; if you are assessed at $12,500, you have an unequal claim even if $400,000 is a fair value.

You can claim both. Form RP-524 lets you assert excessive and unequal grounds on the same complaint, and many successful grievances do. The BAR will grant relief on whichever ground yields the larger justified reduction.

Unlawful and misclassified are narrower: unlawful covers assessments on exempt property or outside the taxing jurisdiction; misclassified covers a wrong property-tax class (e.g., Class 1 vs Class 2). See RPTL §525 for how the board weighs each ground.

For most over-assessed homeowners, lead with excessive (comp sales) and add unequal (RAR math) as a backstop.

New York's overlapping jurisdictions trip up many homeowners — especially in counties like Westchester, where homes commonly sit inside an incorporated village and a town, each potentially assessing separately.

Two rolls can mean two grievances. Most New York villages have stopped assessing and now use the town roll, but some villages still prepare their own assessment roll. If yours does, the village and the town are separate assessing units — each has its own assessor, its own Board of Assessment Review, and its own Grievance Day, which are usually on different dates. Grieving the town assessment does not grieve the village assessment, and vice versa. See the statewide Grievance procedures.

How to tell which applies to you. Check whether your village appears as a separate assessing unit on the state's equalization rate and RAR tables or ask your village clerk. Many villages set Grievance Day on a statutory date earlier than the town's fourth-Tuesday-in-May default — confirm both dates before filing.

Same form, separate filings. Whether village or town, you file Form RP-524 with that assessing unit's BAR, on that unit's Grievance Day, asserting an excessive or unequal assessment under RPTL §524. If both the village and the town assess you, you may need to file two Form RP-524s on two different dates to fully protest your bill.

After the BAR. Each adverse determination can be taken to SCAR (for an owner-occupied 1-3 family home) within 30 days of that assessing unit's final roll. The deadlines run separately for the village and the town.

When in doubt, call both the village and town assessors and confirm which roll your taxes are based on and the Grievance Day for each.