For those that filed a grievance - question

If you file a grievance... do you simply send the application and recent sales comps to the town and they make a decision?

Do they ever decide to come out and want to do an inspection of your house? Mainly an INSIDE inspection?

I don't care if they look around my yard and such. But I am doing a lot of work inside the house. I don't want them to be skewed by that because I am comparing my house to a house across the street thats exactly like mine (but its sorta dumpy).

Re: For those that filed a grievance - question

I called the town and they said you just fill it out. Send them the comps... and then they decide to either outright deny your challenge.

Or they will send you an "offer" of lowering your assessment. You can either accept the offer... or you can challenge their offer and litigate further.

They usually need no interaction from the applicant once the form is submitted.

Re: For those that filed a grievance - question

Oh... the one crappy thing I found out about this process.

If they do lower your taxes... it doesn't take effect till Oct 2007 and onward.

And they also said it could take many months or maybe a year before you even get a response back with an answer.

Re: For those that filed a grievance - question

I went through a lawyer

Re: For those that filed a grievance - question

My sister grieved on her own - and she got a quick response and a nice reduction. So I say go for it!! Good luck!!

Re: For those that filed a grievance - question

My mom greived them on her own a few years back and they weren't reduced. I don't think they even drive by the house.

I think that the problem was that it was really hard for her to find comps. She has a very small house (2br, 1bath) that wasn't expanded at all at that point, and there wasn't one other house like that to use for a comp. They were all houses that started out like hers but were built up or out.