For the most part, we talk on this blog about our company practices and how you can use our records to get accurate property value information. But, sometimes we see news related to the PropertyValue.us.org mission that just gets our dander up.
That was the case earlier this week, when we read that the victims of Hurricane Sandy in New York City and on Long Island have seen their property taxes go through the roof this year. That’s just not right.
Many of these people have spent 10s of thousands of dollars out of their own pocket trying to fix their homes. New regulations will cause them to spend thousands more bringing the homes up to new code. And, the odds of anyone wanting to buy homes that have been hit by Sandy are very low – because of the risk that this type of storm could happen again.
This is the type of situation where New York City should be trying to give these homeowners a break. Telling them their houses have gone up in value when they clearly have not is insulting. It’s an obvious ploy to try to raise taxes on people who have already been through enough.
The city has said that residents can appeal their new valuations. We hope that many of them do and that the city does the right thing by them. We can’t imagine what it must be like to have your home nearly destroyed in a flood, and then get told it’s magically worth more after the devastation.
Property values don’t work that way, and city and county officials should know it. We hope that enough people bring this issue to the table that New York is forced to do the right thing.
If not, we will have lost a lot of faith in Mayor Bloomberg and be forced to question the property valuations of all properties in New York.