They say that the only sure things in life are death and taxes. Managing partner Nicholas Hall of Wemett & Hall, LLC disagrees. While he says that there is nothing he can do about the former, there is often something that his firm can do to help homeowners with the latter.
Wemett & Hall, LLC, located in Albany NY, specializes in representing homeowners through the confusing, sometimes adversarial process of attempting to reduce their property taxes when they believe the town has overestimated the value of their home on the town’s tax rolls.
“There are several local firms that represent commercial property owners, but we’ve chosen to focus exclusively on single family residential real estate” says Hall. “It’s really rewarding to work with homeowners to ensure that the property taxes for their home reflect the true value of the property.”
According to Hall, it’s this specialization that has allowed the firm to be the region’s top performer for win percentage and average reduction for the past several years running. “We represented several partners from local law firms in their own property tax reduction hearings last year. Having a lawyer ask you to represent them in court- that’s the highest compliment we can get.” says Hall.
Although local assessor’s work hard to ensure that all property is fairly assessed, in a small number of cases the value of the property on the town’s tax rolls can be higher than the actual market value of the home.
“There are a variety of reasons as to why a home becomes over-assessed. We generally see the largest problems in towns where town-wide revaluations occur infrequently. There are towns in the capital region that have not done a revaluation in over two decades,” says Hall.
Hall says that the keys to the firm’s success are experience, careful research, and attention to detail. “It’s actually extremely difficult to prove that a home is over-assessed. It requires a great deal of research, preparation, and the key facts of the case must be presented effectively in person during multiple hearings.” says Hall.
If a homeowner hasn’t done the necessary work, they may be overwhelmed trying to challenge an assessor with a decade or more of experience, specialized software, and a staff of trained professionals.
Property tax reduction services aren’t only for the wealthy. “People often assume that we only work with extremely valuable homes but that’s not entirely the case. We represent a number of homes every year that are just average homes in average neighborhoods.”
According to Hall, the firm often takes on special cases. “If a homeowner is a veteran, especially an active duty service member, it’s very likely that we’ll take the case.”
A reduction in property taxes is not possible for everyone. According to Hall, just because your tax bill is very high, it doesn’t mean that the town hasn’t assessed the property correctly. “What the homeowner needs to do is to look up the Full Market Value on the property tax bill, and compare it to what he or she believes the home is actually worth. If the homeowner believes that the town is significantly over-valuing their home, that’s when they should give us a call”.
For more information on property tax reduction homeowners can visit www.wemett-hall.com or call (518)-213-9262
