Manasquan Vowing to Fight Tax Appeals

In Manasquan, 172 property owners have filed tax appeals before the April 1 annual deadline, and borough officials said they will contest each one.

"172 want a reval (property revaluation) on their house, which is a very high number," said Manasquan Mayor George Dempsey Jr.

Of those 172 properties, 141 property owners are using the same attorney for their appeal, said Borough Administrator Joe DeIorio. Timothy Middleton, Esq., is filing the 141 appeals. Middleton advises on his website that in addition to property values dropping since 2007 highs, the impact of Hurricane Sandy allows for exceptions for filing tax appeals.

"The general rule is that the tax assessor must value all property as of October 1 of the pre-tax year.  Thus for the 2013 tax year property is valued as of October 1, 2012 which was four weeks before the hurricane struck," Middleton writes on his website. "However, there is an exception to the general rule when property is damaged between October 1st and December 31st of the pre-tax year."

Middleton advises that property owners who saw Hurricane Sandy damage to file an appeal with the tax assessor.

"The assessor may decide to reduce the assement for the residence (the 'improvement') based upon your request. If the premises has been condemned or deemed unfit for dwelling purposes more than likely the assessor will reduce the assessment. If the assessor decides not to reduce the assessment you have the right to appeal that decision," he said.

Manasquan Council said the appeals process is often difficult for property owners to prove, in comparison to the ease of filing an appeal.

"It's a relatively low cost to file an appeal," said Councilman Owen McCarthy.

Borough Attorney Mark Kitrick said the process of getting your appeal approved by the county board of taxation is not as simple as filling out the appeal form.

"It's one thing to file and another thing to document it and support its filing," he said. "Our assessor does an excellent job."

The borough plans to fight each of the appeals, on grounds that the municipal tax assessor's figures are accurate. With so high a number of tax appeals, the borough's tax revenue is at stake, shrinking the amount of assessed value a taxpayer would pay taxes on. 

For example, the average home value was $500,000 in 2012 for Manasquan. For the coming budget, Hurricane Sandy has changed the average home value to $473,400 for Manasquan.

Borough officials said the municipal tax assessor has been fairly reviewing those properties affected by Hurricane Sandy, to create accurate property values after the storm's devastation.

"The system that we use to survey the damage and adjust the properties down is the same system used countywide," said Councilman Michael Mangan, " …so that there’d be no appeals."

The county tax board members said they will be looking very unfavorably at these appeals, officials said.

DeIorio said the attorney who has 141 cases is hoping to create an Oct. 1 property value, less than the previous assessement, and then take that lower figure to subtract and come up with a post-Sandy value.

"The angle that attorney is using: appeals based on Oct. 1 value of home. Obviously that being Pre-Sandy, request assessment downwards. He’s trying to bring it down even further," DeIorio said.

The appeals will come with Monmouth County tax board rulings.

"Our tax assessor will be fighting these," DeIorio said in the tax board hearings.

McCarthy said the cost to appeal "it's an inexpensive filing fee. I think he’s hoping to take the easy route... He’s going to have to proof his case on each and every one of them."

The appeals often require the property owner to come in for the tax board meeting, DeIorio said.