For the 2019 tax year, the Town of Westfield, Union County, New Jersey underwent a revaluation for tax assessment purposes. Under the revaluation process, every property in town gets a new assessment. This is intended to represent 100% of market value, as of the date of valuation. (For tax assessment purposes, the date of value is always October 1st of the pre-tax year, so all 2019 tax assessments are as of 10/1/2018.)
The reason for this is that Westfield had not performed a reassessment since 1982. As a result, the official Ratio of Assessed-to-True Value for 2018 was 24.05%! With an Equalization Ratio so low, this variance inevitably leads to inaccuracies. As a result, many properties will be greatly under-assessed, while others are over-assessed. So, even if all over-assessed properties successfully appealed their assessments, they will always be paying more than their fair share of the municipal tax burden, since there is no effective mechanism (short of revaluation) to address the under-assessed properties.
You should take a close look at your new assessment, to see if you are being assessed accurately – and fairly. Not sure? Contact us, and we will take you through the process to see if it may be worth your while to file an appeal.