Homeowners, Property Tax & Repairs · Surprise rank #258
Think Your Property Assessment Is Too High? You Can File a Grievance Yourself for Free
New York property taxpayers can challenge a current assessment without hiring a lawyer, and the administrative grievance itself has no filing fee. A successful reduction can lower the taxable assessment used to calculate future property taxes.
Who
A person who pays the property taxes, including an owner and certain purchasers or tenants responsible for the taxes.
Where: New York State, with separate procedures for NYC and Nassau County and locality-specific deadlines elsewhere.
What to do
Start here: Review your tentative assessment and comparable-property evidence, then follow your locality's grievance instructions. Outside NYC and Nassau County, Form RP-524 is generally used.
Eligibility: You must challenge the current tentative assessment and file by the locality's deadline with evidence supporting the requested reduction.
What you get
The grievance process asks the local assessor or Board of Assessment Review to reduce a current tentative assessment that is excessive, unequal, unlawful or misclassified.
Benefit: A lower assessed value if the grievance succeeds, which can reduce property taxes depending on local tax rates and exemptions.
Possible value: Savings vary with the assessment reduction and local tax rates. Filing the administrative grievance costs $0; later court review can involve fees.
Good to know
Important: Deadlines are strict and differ by location. Most communities use Grievance Day in May, Suffolk generally uses the third Tuesday in May, Nassau County uses March 1, and NYC uses March 15 for Class 1 and March 1 for other classes.
Availability: Annual property-assessment review process; current each assessment year.
Why people miss it: Property owners are heavily marketed paid grievance services even though New York explicitly allows people to file the administrative challenge themselves at no cost.
Sources reviewed: Aug 10, 2026