Nassau assessment error brings sudden tax hikes. 'So I'm stuck?' a homeowner asks

Nassau County failed to apply $139 million in assessed valuation on 624 homes for the new tax year that begins in the fall, forcing owners to scramble this month to challenge assessments that in some cases were millions of dollars higher than they had expected.

The problem arose when assessors neglected to transfer onto the 2023-24 tax roll millions of dollars in increased valuation due for major home renovations and expansions, assessment officials said. The value of the renovations had been accounted for in assessments for 2022-23. 

Since Acting Assessor Matthew Cronin discovered the mistake last month, 624 homeowners have received assessment increases — some in the hundreds of thousands of dollars — while a few have received increases of between $1 million and $2.4 million, county data show.

The notices to homeowners were sent on March 28, days before the April 3 deadline for publishing the tax rolls.

Property owners were told to appeal the new values with the county's Assessment Review Commission by April 11, although the county says homeowners still can still request hearings, which will take place throughout April.

The 2023-24 values originally were calculated in the waning days of the administration of Democratic County Executive Laura Curran, who County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, beat in November 2021.

Blakeman blames Curran for the error. But it took his administration 15 months to discover it.

Mistakes rile homeowners

In the most extreme example of the surprise assessment hikes, county officials in March raised the original 2023-24 assessment for a Brookville mansion by $2.4 million.

The revised value of $6 million is similar to the property's assessment for 2022-23, county assessment data show.

Bactolac Pharmaceutical president and chief executive Pailla Reddy, owner of the home, did not respond to a request for comment.

In Woodmere, the home of Neil Mordowitz, a computer programmer, was assessed for 2022-23 at $1.6 million. The figure took into account major renovations he and his family had completed on the five-bedroom home.

He said he thought it was "luck" when he received an assessment of $1.2 million in January 2022.

In late March, Mordowitz learned his luck was temporary: The county notified him it planned to assess his home at $1.6 million again.

“This hit me relatively hard,” said Mordowitz, 44, who lives with his wife and four children. “Out of nowhere, I got this.”

Had he gotten the higher assessment in January 2022, he said, he would've had three months to prepare a challenge with the county Assessment Review Commission.

"What am I supposed to do now? You’re going to tell me you’re fixing it as you close the roll, so I’m stuck?” Mordowitz asked. "What am I supposed to do?

Mordowitz plans to appeal the value at a hearing on April 27.

Mark Sunderman, a professor at the University of Memphis in Tennessee who specializes in real estate and property taxes, said Nassau County officials were caught in a bind once they learned of the error.

Nassau could not have postponed the fixes until next year, Sunderman said. If it had, the increased tax burden of the 624 homeowners would have shifted unfairly onto other county homeowners who had not done renovations.

"You’ve got a question of fairness to taxpayers, because not everyone was benefiting from this error,” Sunderman said.

Error, but no 'leg to stand on'

Robert and Lucia Coffey, of Locust Valley, received a notice dated March 28 that the assessment on their ranch-style home would rise from $789,000 to $881,000, county assessment records show

Robert Coffey, who owns a draperies and blinds business, said county assessors should have been "more on the ball," although he and his wife decided not to file an appeal.

"Did they give us six months to appeal it, no?" he said. "We just got this letter two, three weeks ago. This is a busy place to live, what am I going to do? And if it’s a clerical error, I certainly don't feel I have a leg to stand on."

Lucia Coffey said Nassau's error, and fix for it, were "unfair."

She said, “You're planning on certain amounts to be paid, you get the political messages that there are not increases in the budgets, so you think you're in the same spot."

"There was no time to really research it," she complained. 

No explanation for error

County officials did not say how the error affecting the 624 homes occurred, or why it took 15 months to discover it.

In a statement to Newsday, Blakeman said the error stemmed from values the county Department of Assessment had set during the final weeks of the administration of the Curran administration.

“The Department of Assessment reviews on an ongoing basis material deviations from the prior administration's tax roll that may require correction,” said Blakeman, who took office in January 2022.

As a candidate for county executive, Blakeman frequently criticized Curran's operation of the Assessment Department.

Republican county legislators complained Curran's countywide program to reassess all 385,000 residential county properties "error-riddled."

Lawmakers pointed to bureaucratic missteps under Curran, including failure to apply exemptions to numerous condominium properties, and publication of an incorrect tentative assessment roll.

Assessment experts said Curran's 2020 reassessment helped improve the overall accuracy of the tax rolls and removed widespread inequities in the tax system.

Significant assessment errors have become public during the Blakeman administration as well.

Last fall, the county sent a tax bill to a Roman Catholic parish in New Hyde Park that was supposed to be tax-exempt.

As a result, Nassau will have to take $16 million off the tax rolls next year that should not have been removed in the first place. Experts said the error could shift the tax burden onto other county residents.

Last week, Democratic Nassau County legislators criticized the Blakeman administration for discovering the errors affecting the 624 properties so late in the process.

“The bottom line is residents can't tolerate these things," legislative minority leader Kevan Abrahams (D-Freeport) said. "They're managing their household expenses. And they expect that there's going to be some type of overview or audit to ensure that this stuff doesn't happen."

Abrahams continued: “We just have to ensure the Department of Assessment is double-checking and triple-checking their work. Residents shouldn't have to pay the costs, or shouldn't have to pay for the errors."

How system was supposed to work

Ordinarily, Nassau residents get their notice of tentative assessment on the first business day of the year.

Then, they have several months to protest their assessments by filing appeals with ARC.

Homeowners learn by April of the following year whether their challenges were successful. If their appeals are denied, they have the option of going to Small Claims Court.

If the homeowners win their court cases after the tax roll is set in September, Nassau must pay all tax refunds owed to school districts, towns and the county, according to state law. Such refunds can cost the county millions of dollars.

The appeals process is truncated significantly for the 624 homeowners who received the surprise notices of new assessments last month.

They had to have requested commission hearings by April 11, although officials said last week hearing appointments would extend throughout the month. ARC must rule on those protests by Aug. 1. Homeowners who want to dispute the decisions still can file Small Claims cases after that.

Blakeman administration officials said information about how many homeowners requested hearings by April 11 was unavailable.

ARC Commissioner Stephen Bucaria said in a statement: "I am confident the Assessment Review Commission will be able to properly handle all cases that come before us, in a timely manner."

By Scott Eidler

scott.eidler@newsday.com@ScottEidler

Scott Eidler is a deputy editor for the towns department at Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.