| Author |
Message |
    
Townie
| | Posted on Friday, January 19, 2001 - 12:49 pm: |     |
Hi everybody
I'd like to know everybody's view on whether the county assessor has the legal authority to fix any mistakes Certified may have made in the revaluation process, or whether it is better to hire another company to start from scratch to avoid the possibility of lawsuits. I'm a town resident, and my sole reason for asking is that I'm trying to sort out these issues in my head as a citizen and I feel I don't know enough.
Do you think Certified breached its contract with the town?
Do you think the township committee failed to read or understand the contract, and therefore it is legally binding?
Do you think the town could still be vulnerable to lawsuits even after the county assessor makes adjustments to Certified's work to factor in 3 whole years of home sales?
Do you think the town could go through the whole process of accepting the revaluation this year and then lose a lawsuit based on charges that Certified did something illegal in its work and the township illegally proceeded from there?
Do you think the town could be sued if it doesn't complete the reval this year -- sued by homeowners claiming Certified's numbers gave the true picture of their declining property value which entitled them to tax relief, but the town illegally ignored it because of minority group pressure and continued to tax on an illegal basis, ignoring the fair market value of Maplewood's houses?
Finally: Do you think the township committee is getting adequate legal advice?
If you think you can help me with the answer to any of these questions, I'd be grateful. Thanks! |
Lseltzer
| | Posted on Friday, January 19, 2001 - 1:01 pm: | |
Assuming it's legal to do so, hiring someone else and starting from scratch will only make people happy if the new assessment drops their taxes. What if the new assessment comes up the same as the old one? |
Overtaxdalready
| | Posted on Friday, January 19, 2001 - 1:18 pm: | |
I think if the new assessment is supported by accurate facts, and isn't fraught with errors as so many of the current assessments seem to be, then at least that portion of the issue can be resolved. The next step would be to decide a fair way to implement the increases. |
Chris
| | Posted on Friday, January 19, 2001 - 1:29 pm: | |
Quote:Assuming it's legal to do so, hiring someone else and starting from scratch will only make people happy if the new assessment drops their taxes. What if the new assessment comes up the same as the old one?
What if the new assessment is HIGHER?! |
Townie
| | Posted on Friday, January 19, 2001 - 3:01 pm: | |
To overtaxedalready:
Can you elaborate on what you are thinking when you refer to deciding "a fair way to implement the increases"?
My understanding of NJ law is that, by law, the only basis for taxation is the fair market value of real estate. If the accurately established market value of my house today is $200,000, then that's what it is. What's to implement? There is no legal way for the town to reduce that, is there? Or "phase it in"?
It seems to me that what really happened in Maplewood is that once people stopped arguing about the elementary schools in 1997, right after the Midtown Direct began service to Manhattan, a lot of people began paying lots of money to live in Maplewood, because the short commute was worth it to them, and it drove up house prices. Once that new value is accurately assessed, the law says that's the base figure that must be used to calculate their next tax bill.
Is there another workable and legal idea? |
Thomas
| | Posted on Friday, January 19, 2001 - 6:13 pm: | |
It is my opinion that the tax assessor will need at least 6 months to a year to review Certified's work and make the proper adjustments.
I don't know if it is possibly to extend the process that long. If it is possible I think we will all be better served by getting the numbers as close to acurate as possible. |
Lseltzer
| | Posted on Friday, January 19, 2001 - 7:17 pm: | |
>>It is my opinion that the tax assessor will need at least 6 months to a year to review Certified's work and make the proper adjustments.
So just where do you get this "6 months" figure? I presume you're some sort of expert in the field?
Perhaps you're unaware that there are computers these days that can be used to speed up the sorts of analysis we're discussing. |
Lah
| | Posted on Friday, January 19, 2001 - 9:29 pm: | |
Given the number of factual errors made by Certified, I have my doubts about the whole process. They did a messy job and no one checked their work. I don't think we can even take their "facts" at face value and just re-crunch the numbers. I don't know how long it will take, but it took about 6 months to do the first reval and I would guess that it would take about the same to do the second. |
Thomas
| | Posted on Friday, January 19, 2001 - 11:41 pm: | |
Seltzer
since when do I have answer to you
And what is a computer going to do in evaluating a property, logic like that put us where we are now.
Don't talk about what you don't know |
|