Time Running Out for Tax Appeals, Experts Say

Residents who plan on appealing the assessment of their property only have a few more weeks to get their paperwork in order, according to experts who spoke at a meeting Monday night.

The meeting held at , the second of its kind, featured attorneys and a number of real estate and tax experts who gave advice and answered questions posed by some of the more than 100 residents who attended.

Taxpayers who wish to appeal their tax bill must have their appeal documentation filed by 4 p.m. April 1, according to Jeff Horn, an attorney who specializes in tax appeal matters.

“I’ve been there when there were throngs of people there on April 1,” said Horn, of the office of the Ocean County Board of Taxation.

But Horn said he wouldn’t take just any case. He works on a contingency basis, he said, and clients must be able to prove their property is assessed at least 15 percent over its true market value. Even then, for assessment purposes, officials go by the value of the property Oct. 1 of the previous year.

“Proof can be difficult,” Horn admitted.

Some Berkeley residents have been battling their real estate assessments since 2009, when Certified Valuations Inc. began the township’s first revaluation since 1991. Most residents got a tax decrease in the wake of the revaluation, said Eric L. Zanetti, the township tax assessor, but others saw their tax bills skyrocket – especially those who own waterfront property. The township has since hired a separate firm to review Certified’s work.

Bayville resident Sharon Wojtaszek doesn’t own waterfront property, but her tax bill still increased by $1,000 in 2010, the first year township tax rates were based on Certified’s valuations. She said she came to the meeting for answers.

“I thought about it, and I thought it was crazy,” she said of her tax assessment. “Then I started reading the articles in the newspaper, and I wanted to make sure I'm being treated fairly.”

Wojtaszek hasn’t decided if she’ll file a tax appeal, but if she does, the experts say she’ll need strong data on local real estate sales to back up her claim that her property is over-assessed. And the comparative real estate sales all residents must point to when trying to persuade the county tax board that they are assessed too much must not include foreclosures, short sales or estate sales, said Eric Birchler, a professional appraiser who spoke at the meeting.

“It’s really common sense, just finding something similar,” Birchler told attendees.

Additionally, he said, tax appeals must be based on sales of comparable properties sold as close as possible to Oct. 1, 2010 – and not on neighbors’ assessments, which may differ. Newspaper articles on the declines in real estate values in recent years don’t count either, said Birchler.

As the deadline to file an appeal approaches, residents asked question after question, which the panel assembled by the Berkeley Township Regular Republican Club – the group which organized the meeting – answered diligently. Occasionally, attendees got a dose of tough love.

When a taxpayer wants to take on the government, said Horn, the case has to be a solid one.

“Anyone who’s a prize fight fan knows that in order to defeat the champion, you have to knock out the champion.”