Guide

How to protest your NYC property assessment (and when it's actually worth it)

Your property tax is set by one number on one January morning. The city gives you six weeks to argue with it — and last year it gave back nearly $4 billion in assessed value to owners who did.

Every January the city re-prices your building, and you get about six weeks to disagree. Here's how the Tax Commission protest really works — the odds, the paperwork, why almost everyone takes the offer — in plain English.

When this applies
You own NYC property and your Notice of Property Value shows an assessed value you think is too high — especially apartment buildings, condos/co-ops, and commercial property (tax classes 2 and 4). Class-1 homeowners: read step 2 before spending the stamp.

How it's normally done — and how we make it easy

Step by step

1. 1

   Read your Notice of Property Value like a bill, not a letter

   Mid-January, the Department of Finance publishes the tentative roll and mails your NOPV. Two numbers matter: market value (what the city thinks the property is worth) and assessed value (the slice of market value your tax is actually computed on — 6% for class-1 homes, 45% for everything else). Multiply assessed value by your class's tax rate and that's the year's bill. If assessed value moved, your bill moved.

2. 2

   Decide whether you have a case — it depends on your class

   Class-1 homes are protected by caps: assessed value can't rise more than 6% a year no matter what the market does. The caps that shield you on the way up also mean there's usually nothing to protest — the city is already taxing you below market. Class 2 and 4 have no such cushion, and the city values them off the income they SHOULD produce. If your building's actual rent roll and expenses imply a lower value than the city's number, that gap is your case.

3. 3

   Gather the income picture — it's the whole argument

   For income-producing property, the protest form requires an income and expense schedule (Form TC201). This isn't a formality: an application without it is void — the Tax Commission won't even review it. Pull the rent roll, vacancies, and operating expenses. The story you're telling is arithmetic: real income, capitalized honestly, equals a smaller number than the roll says.

4. 4

   File the right form, and respect the RECEIVED-by deadline

   Class 2, 3 and 4 file Form TC101 by March 1; class-1 homes file TC108 by March 15 (dates roll to Monday on weekends). These are received-by deadlines, not postmark deadlines — an envelope that arrives March 2 never existed. A $175 fee applies only if the assessed value is $2 million or more, and you don't pay it with the application; it lands on your tax bill.

5. 5

   The hearing: a valuation review, not an inspection

   A hearing officer reviews your application — on papers, by video, or in person. Nobody comes to walk your building; this is an argument about numbers, decided by an appraiser reading your income schedule against the city's assumptions. You can request review on papers and never attend anything.

6. 6

   The offer: one shot, take it or leave it

   If your evidence holds up, the Tax Commission extends an offer of reduction. There's no haggling — the negotiation already happened in your paperwork. Most offers cut under 10% of assessed value; strong cases see 10–20%. Accepting means agreeing not to sue over this year's assessment (and dropping pending court cases on prior years). That trade is the whole institution: the city buys certainty, you get money now instead of a court date in three years.

7. 7

   No offer? The courts stay open

   Declined or passed over, you can still go to court: Small Claims Assessment Review for owner-occupied class-1 homes (about $30, no lawyer needed), or an Article 7 proceeding for larger properties (real litigation, real legal fees). Filing the Tax Commission protest first is what preserves these rights — and filing every year keeps prior years alive: owners recovered nearly a billion dollars on PRIOR years' assessments last cycle alone.

Frequently asked

What are the actual odds of winning a protest?

The Tax Commission publishes its own scoreboard. Last cycle: 57,198 applications, 15% received reduction offers, and 82% of offers were accepted. Odds vary sharply by property type — condo buildings and offices run roughly 1-in-4 to 1-in-5, rental buildings about 1-in-9, and class-1 homes under 1-in-20 (the caps, again). Most winning cuts are 5–15% of assessed value.

Is it a negotiation?

Not in the back-and-forth sense. You submit evidence, a hearing officer either extends one offer or doesn't, and you accept or decline. Your leverage is entirely in the paperwork — which is why the income schedule matters more than anything said at a hearing.

Why does almost everyone accept the offer?

Because the alternative is court. An Article 7 case costs real legal fees and takes years; the offer is money this July. The Tax Commission exists precisely to settle before litigation — accepting waives your lawsuit for the year, which is exactly what the city is buying. Four out of five offers get taken.

Will the city send an inspector to my building?

No. A protest is a paper valuation review by the Tax Commission's own appraisal staff — separate from the Department of Finance, and nobody re-inspects your property because you filed. Protesting also cannot raise your assessment for the current year; the risk people fear isn't part of this process.

Do I need one of those tax-certiorari firms?

Ninety-eight percent of applications come from professional representatives, most working on contingency for 25–33% of the savings. But the Commission's own numbers show self-represented owners actually draw offers MORE often (about 20% versus 15%) — because owners who file for themselves tend to file only obvious cases. If your numbers make the case plainly, the form doesn't care who typed it.

How big is this, really?

About a quarter of the city's entire taxable assessed value is under protest in any given year. Last cycle the Commission cut $3.95 billion in assessed value — roughly $450 million a year in taxes — averaging about $64,000 a year per winning property. Large owners treat the protest as an annual filing, like insurance. Small owners mostly don't file at all; that gap is money.