Do I grieve my Westchester assessment with the village or the town?
Do I grieve my Westchester assessment with the village or the town?
In New York, if your home sits inside an incorporated village that prepares its own assessment roll, you must grieve the village assessment separately from the town assessment — each has its own Grievance Day and Board of Assessment Review.
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.