Tax Certiorari & Condemnation

September 03, 2013

[statement]“While the 2005 litigation successfully reduced the tax burden for golf courses in the county, we went back to court in 2010 because we thought we could save our clients even more – and we were right.” – Arthur K. Feldman, Partner[/statement]

Litigation successfully reduced a Nassau County golf course’s property tax bill by 47% and resulted in the validation of a mathematical formula that more fairly assesses similar properties throughout a county that has more than 400 different taxing districts.

This was the second time Farrell Fritz tax certiorari attorneys sought to have their client’s property reassessed. In the first case, concluded in 2005, the court accepted an assessment method that valued the property based on its projected daily course use fee and a market rent approach. The result: the assessment dropped 44%, for an estimated savings of $1 million.

“We achieved our desired goal with that litigation, but we thought we could save our clients more,” commented Arthur K. Feldman, partner in the Tax Certiorari Group. The firm’s team of property tax attorneys was right. The second case, which concluded in 2011, saved the client another $500,000.

Moreover, the litigation resulted in the court’s adoption of what is called the “assessor’s formula,” which applies a tax factor to the capitalization rate to compensate for what can be substantial differences in the more than 1,600 tax rates that exist in the county.

“This approach is fair, more properly aligned with the reality of Nassau County’s tax structure and resulted in an even greater reduction in the real property tax assessment for our clients,” Art concluded.