Appellate Court Victory Opens Door for Nassau Homeowners to Challenge Property Tax Assessments
A New York appellate court has ruled that homeowners can present their own evidence in small claims assessment review proceedings, overturning a lower court decision that prevented more than 20 Village of Great Neck Estates residents from contesting their property tax assessments.
A New York appellate court has ruled that homeowners can present their own evidence in small claims assessment review proceedings, overturning a lower court decision that prevented more than 20 Village of Great Neck Estates residents from contesting their property tax assessments.
The court found that a SCAR hearing officer acted improperly when they denied admission of a homeowner’s evidence in their February 11 decision, according to court documents. The ruling reopens thousands of cases across the state that were previously blocked from presenting statistical evidence.
Connie Yeung and 20 other Great Neck Estates residents were represented by Maidenbaum & Sternberg, LLP in the litigation against the village. The ruling came as the Village of Great Neck Estates announced plans for a village-wide property reassessment. Village officials declined to comment on the decision.
“The decision is a win for Nassau County families,” said Shalom Maidenbaum, founder of the law firm and Maidenbaum Property Tax Reduction Group. “It preserves the right to make their case in SCAR in a fast and fair process.”
The judgment resolves three years of conflicting rulings on homeowners’ standing in SCAR proceedings and the admissibility of residential assessment reviews, or RARs, provided by property owners. RARs measure how assessed property values compare to actual market values and determine whether homeowners face taxation at consistent percentages of value.
The legal dispute began in 2021 when a Nassau County Supreme Court judge ruled that homeowner-provided RARs were inadmissible in a lawsuit against the Assessor of the Village of Garden City. SCAR hearing officers subsequently used that case to justify denying homeowner-provided RARs in the villages of Malverne, Great Neck, Great Neck Estates, Floral Park, Rockville Centre, and Freeport.
The villages argued that Section 1218 of the New York State Real Property Tax Law bars admission of any evidence challenging the RAR in SCAR proceedings.
“It was literally a total mess,” Maidenbaum said. “Certain villages wanted to basically stand years of practice on its head by limiting homeowners’ ability to even be at these hearings.”
The appellate court’s decision centered on language from Section 732 of the New York State Real Property Tax Law, which states that “The hearing officer shall consider the best evidence presented in each particular case.” The statute specifies that such evidence may include equalization rates, residential assessment ratios, uniform percentages of value from tax bills, and assessments of comparable residential properties within the same assessing unit.
Maidenbaum’s legal team successfully argued that SCAR hearing officers must review evidence provided by homeowners based on this “best evidence” standard.
“The whole [property tax grievance] industry is based on a very pro-taxpayer New York State statute that allows informal review and access for homeowners to challenge assessments,” Maidenbaum said.
Maidenbaum Property Tax Reduction Group files over 70,000 grievance applications annually across multiple municipalities, according to the firm. The company collects a percentage of any tax savings secured and often relies on home sales data and standardized valuation models to pursue reductions at scale.
Critics of the industry argue that these firms encourage blanket challenges to assessments, leading to assessment volatility. However, Maidenbaum maintained that his firm provides homeowners with accessible means to contest inequitable property valuations.
“Everyone can file, but not everyone has a case,” he said.
Villages now face three years of refund liability as thousands of cases must be reviewed again. Many of these cases will be represented by Maidenbaum Property Tax Reduction Group, according to court filings.
The ruling affects Nassau County homeowners who previously faced barriers when attempting to present statistical evidence supporting their property tax assessment challenges in SCAR proceedings.
