How to Grieve Your Property Tax in New York: Step-by-Step Guide

New York calls an appeal a grievance. Outside New York City and Nassau County, file Form RP-524 with the assessor or Board of Assessment Review by Grievance Day: the fourth Tuesday of May under RPTL § 512(1), unless a charter, county tax act or special law sets another date.

That “unless” covers a lot of the state. New York City and Nassau County don’t use Grievance Day at all, and Suffolk and Westchester towns, charter cities and assessing villages run on their own dates. Before anything else, work out which row of the table below is yours. A complaint that misses the local deadline, the state Office of Real Property Tax Services (ORPTS) warns, means you “lose the opportunity for administrative and judicial review of your assessment this year.” The Senate’s official statute database shows no amendment to Real Property Tax Law §§ 512, 702 or 730 since its 2014 baseline text, so no 2024–2026 change applies to these deadlines.

Who hears the grievance, and by when

ORPTS gives the third Tuesday of February as the typical date for villages and tells owners to confirm with the village clerk. If your village assesses, you have two assessments, and ORPTS says grieving both takes a separate RP-524 filed with the town and with the village.

Filing Form RP-524 with a town or city

Under RPTL § 524(1), you may file with the assessor “at any time prior to the hearing” or with the BAR at the hearing, but not at an adjourned session. A complaint filed on or before the legal hearing date “shall be deemed timely.” ORPTS adds that a mailed form “must be received by the assessor or BAR no later than Grievance Day,” so a postmark alone doesn’t save you. Some towns also set a cut-off hour on Grievance Day, so confirm it with your assessor. The form is ORPTS’s RP-524 (revision 3/09), Complaint on Real Property Assessment. ORPTS states there is “no cost to grieve an assessment.”

• Pick your ground. Section 524(2) allows four: the assessment is excessive, unequal or unlawful, or the property is misclassified.
• Name a number. The complaint must state the reduction sought and “an estimate of the value of the real property” (§ 524(3)). Choose carefully. ORPTS warns you “may be precluded from obtaining a greater reduction than the amount you request,” and a later SCAR petition can’t request a lower assessment than the complaint did (§ 730(1)(d)).
• Settle if you can. Part Six of RP-524 is a stipulation. If you and the assessor sign it and that value lands on the final roll, “no review of the assessment shall be allowed pursuant to article seven” (§ 524(3)).
• Answer the board. An owner who “shall willfully neglect or refuse to attend and be so examined” when the BAR requires it “shall not be entitled to any reduction” (§ 525(2)(a)).

The tentative roll that you’re grieving is due on or before May 1 in cities and towns on the general calendar (§ 506(1)). The notice announcing it has to name the Grievance Day (§ 526(1)).

What an RP-524 needs to prove

ORPTS’s instructions put it bluntly: “There is a presumption under the law that the assessment made by the assessor is correct. The burden of proof is with you.” They list the evidence that helps: a recent purchase price, a recent asking price, a professional appraisal, construction cost for a new house, rent figures, and prices of comparable homes that sold recently. On an unequal-assessment claim for a one-, two- or three-family house, the BAR “shall consider the residential assessment ratio” ORPTS publishes for your municipality (§ 525(3)(a)). The BAR can only hold the value or lower it: the final figure “may be the same as or less than the original assessment” (§ 525(3)(b)).

The board’s written determination must give its reasons and “the last date to file petitions for judicial review” (§ 525(4)). Keep that notice. It’s the most reliable date you’ll get for the next step.

New York City: the Tax Commission clock

The Department of Finance mails the Notice of Property Value on or about January 15. The Tax Commission reviews the assessed value, tax class and exemptions, and its page is blunt: “The Tax Commission must RECEIVE your application by the applicable deadline. DEADLINES CANNOT BE EXTENDED.” The deadline is March 15 for Tax Class 1, the class that holds one- to three-family homes, and March 1 for Classes 2, 3 and 4. For the 2026/27 roll the Commission accepted Class 1 filings received by 5 PM on March 16, 2026, and Classes 2–4 by 5 PM on March 2, 2026. File Form TC108 for a Class 1 value claim, in person or by mail. Its home page adds, in capitals, that for this year “YOU CANNOT FILE BY EMAIL.”

The Commission’s pages add three rules. A revised Notice of Property Value dated after February 1 that raises your value or cuts an exemption gives you 20 calendar days from its date. And for 2026/27 the Commission charges a $175 fee where the assessed value on the notice is $2 million or more. Correcting square footage or unit counts is a separate request to Finance, and it “is not a substitute for timely filing” with the Commission. An owner-occupant of a one- to three-family home who loses at the Tax Commission can file for SCAR, and in New York City the petition is due “before the twenty-fifth day of October” (§ 730(3)).

Nassau County: ARC, not Grievance Day

For the county assessment roll, Nassau’s Assessment Review Commission takes appeals during a winter window. The window it currently posts runs from January 4 to March 1, 2027. You can file online through AROW (Assessment Review on the Web) until 11:59 PM on March 1, in person, or by mail postmarked by that time. Form AR1 covers exclusively residential one- to three-family houses and Class 1 condominium units. ARC states that “There is no fee to file” and that it “will never increase the assessment.” Rolls prepared by a Nassau city or village are a different case: ORPTS’s RP-524 instructions say complaints on those rolls go on Form RP-524.

SCAR: the $30 small-claims route

You qualify for Small Claims Assessment Review under RPTL § 730(1) only if all four conditions hold:

• You first filed a complaint with the BAR, or under the local charter or law that provides the review, as the Tax Commission and ARC do.
• The property is a one-, two- or three-family owner-occupied home “used exclusively for residential purposes,” or a vacant lot too small to hold one. Condominiums valued under § 581 are carved out, and the court system’s SCAR page lists narrow exceptions, such as Nassau’s Class One condos.
• The equalized value is $450,000 or less. If it’s higher, the reduction you ask for can’t exceed 25 percent of the assessed value.
• You don’t ask for a lower assessment than your complaint did.

The fee is $30 per petition, and each petition covers one parcel (§ 730(3), (5)). Within 10 days of filing, mail copies to the assessing unit’s clerk (in New York City, the president of the Tax Commission), serving that copy by personal delivery or certified mail, return receipt requested; to the assessor; to the school district clerk; and to the county treasurer, plus the village clerk where § 730(8)(e) applies (§ 730(8)). The hearing officer decides in writing within 30 days after the hearing and can’t cut the value below your request. If the reduction is at least half of what you asked for, the assessing unit repays your filing fee (§ 733(1)). Choosing SCAR “shall be irrevocable” and waives a regular Article 7 proceeding, though CPLR Article 78 review remains (§ 736). The one exception: if the hearing officer rules that you didn’t qualify for SCAR, the petition is denied without prejudice and you may start an Article 7 proceeding within 30 days after being served with a certified copy of that decision (§ 733(3)).

Related pages

• New York property tax system explained: classes, equalization rates, exemptions
• How to apply for the STAR exemption in New York
• Property tax calculator
• Nearby states: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts

Frequently asked questions

I missed Grievance Day. Can I go straight to SCAR?

No. SCAR requires that you “first filed a complaint” with the local review body (§ 730(1)(a)), and ORPTS says a missed filing closes both administrative and judicial review for that year’s assessment.

Could the board use my grievance to raise my assessment?

Not the BAR: its final value “may be the same as or less than the original assessment” (§ 525(3)(b)). Nassau’s ARC says it “will never increase the assessment.”

Does filing SCAR stop my tax bill?

No. Starting a proceeding “shall not stay” the assessors or the officials who receive the assessment roll and act on it (§ 730(7)). If you win too late for the assessment to be corrected before the tax collection warrant expires, the excess you paid is refunded within 90 days of the decision, with interest of 1 percent a month added after that, and you do not need to apply for it. In Nassau and Suffolk counties the refund is paid the way their own county law provides, but the 90-day limit and the interest still apply (§ 734(1)).

My grievance from last year is still pending. Do I file again?

Yes. ORPTS: “Only the assessment on the current tentative assessment roll can be grieved.” Each year’s roll needs its own complaint, and ARC tells Nassau owners to appeal the new assessment “even if you are awaiting determination of an appeal you filed last year.”

My exemption disappeared. Is that a grievance?

It can be. For SCAR, an assessment counts as excessive when the property “failed to receive all or a portion of a partial exemption” it was entitled to (§ 729(2)(b)). A STAR credit is different: the state Tax Department pays it by check or direct deposit, so a missing credit is taken up with the Tax Department, not through a grievance. In New York City, the Tax Commission’s personal-exemption forms (TC106A, TC106CV, TC106S) are due May 31; if Finance’s decision on a personal exemption is dated after May 1, you have 30 calendar days from the date on that notice instead. Both are separate from the value deadlines above.