Terms You Should Know

Abatement: Reduction in tax dollars. (See Senior Tax Abatement)

Adjusted Comp Value:  The sale price of a similar property plus/minus the net adjustment.

Adjusted Market Value:  For Class I properties, the market value, as adjusted when applicable by the limitation on assessment increases capped at 6% for one year and 20% over five years (excluding additions and renovations).

Assessed Value:  The Assessed Value is a uniform percentage of the market value of the property as of January 2 of any given year. (Market Value x Level of Assessment = Assessed Value)

Assessment Roll: The official listing of the assessed value of all real property within the Board of Assessors jurisdiction.

Assessment: The process of determining the value of real property for the purpose of fair distribution of taxes.

Assessors: The elected Chairman and appointed members of the Board of Assessors. They are legally responsible for valuing all real property within the Board's jurisdiction.

Board of Assessors:  A board consisting of a Chairman elected by all the county's voters and four members appointed by the County Executive and approved by the County Legislature. The County Charter requires that two of the members be from the Town of Hempstead, the most populous town and one each from the towns of North Hempstead and Oyster Bay. The Board elects one of its members as Vice Chairman.

CDU: (Condition – Desirability – Utility) Codes denoting the composite rating of the overall condition, desirability and usefulness of a property. The codes used are: Excellent, Very Good, Good, Average, Fair and Poor.

Class I: The class of real property as defined in Article 18 of the Real Property Tax Law that includes one, two and three-family houses and residential condominiums of three stories or less and most residential vacant land.

Class II: The class of real property as defined in Article 18 of the Real Property Tax Law that includes apartment buildings, residential cooperatives and residential condominiums of four stories or more.

Class III: The class of real property as defined in Article 18 of the Real Property Tax Law that includes all public utility equipment defined as real property in state law.

Class IV: The class of real property as defined in Article 18 of the Real Property Tax Law that includes all properties not defined in the first three classes. This class contains primarily commercial and business properties and vacant land.

Comparable Sales:  Properties recently sold used to establish a market value for a subject property.

Department of Assessment: The department headed by the Chairman of the Board of Assessors responsible for determining the value of real property in Nassau County for purpose of equitable distribution of taxes.

Direct Assessments: Direct charges against property included in the total tax bill, but not based on assessed value. For example: charges for sidewalk and curb repair and maintenance, delinquent water bills, demolition of dangerous structures, weed and brush removal, etc..

Equalization Rate: A rate established by the NYS Office of Real Property Tax Services to show the relationship between average assessment value of all property and full market value of all property in each taxing jurisdiction.

Exemption: The part of a property’s assessed value that is subtracted before the taxes are calculated.

Grade: Indicates the quality of construction – materials and workmanship.

Grievance Period: The period (January 2nd through March 1st) during which taxpayers may protest the assessed value placed on their real property.

Improvements: All buildings, structures, pools, patios and anything else affixed to land.

Level of Assessment (LOA): The percentage of Market Value at which properties are assessed within a class. The LOA may vary by tax year.

Liber & Page: System of indexing deeds and mortgages. Liber (book) & Page numbers for a specific property are available in the Office of the County Clerk.

Market Value: The amount of money a buyer would be willing to pay a seller for property offered for sale on an open market, over a reasonable amount of time, where both the buyer and seller are well informed and neither is under undue pressure to act.

MRA (Multiple Regression Analysis): A value produced by statistical analysis of the relationship of data characteristics of each sale property by neighborhood.

Net Adjustment: Sum of the plus and minus adjustments made to the comparable sale property price in relation to the subject property.

Net School Tax: The school tax (not including library and recreation) after the exemption savings have been subtracted.

Office of Real Property Tax Services: (formerly known as Board of Equalization and Assessment) A New York State agency. Its primary function is calculating state equalization rates for each taxing district in the state. The residential assessment ratio (RAR) and class ratios are also calculated by "the Board” as well as other technical information. Upon request, the Board also provides assistance to local assessors.

Real Property: Land and all buildings, structures, pools, patios and anything else affixed to the land (improvements).

Residential Assessment Ratio: A rate established by the NYS Office of Real Property Services to show the relationship between the average assessment value of Class I property and the average sale price of those Class I properties that sold in the past year.

Senior Tax Abatement: Originally enacted in 2002, the Senior Abatement is partial tax abatement on the county portion of taxes on residential property located in Nassau County and owned by a Senior Citizen currently receiving the Enhanced Star Exemption. (Through 2015.)

Small Claims Assessment Review: A special small claims hearing established to review challenges to the assessment of owner-occupied one, two and three- family houses and residential condominiums of three stories or less.

Special District:  Subdivisions within the county that provide special services in specific areas. Examples include fire protection, water, light, park, refuse removal and disposal, and sewer districts.

SWIS:  State Wide Information System Code used by the State of New York. Uniform NYS coding of each county, town, village and school district.

Tax Base: The total taxable assessed value of real property within the county, towns, school districts and special districts. By law, the Board of Assessors must certify this amount to each taxing jurisdiction.

Tax Levy: The total amount of money to be raised by the property tax by any taxing jurisdiction in a given year. The amount is determined by the budget of the local government or other taxing jurisdiction.

Tax Lien: A lien or claim against property for unpaid taxes.

Tax Rate: A rate per one hundred dollars of assessed value expressed in dollars and cents. Each local governing body - county, town, school and special district - determines its own budget. The amount to be raised by taxes, divided by the assessed value from the jurisdiction would equal the tax rate per $100 of assessed valuation

Tax Roll: A list of every property within a jurisdiction that is subject to taxation.

Taxable Status Date: The date on which the assessed value and taxable status are fixed for all properties in a taxing jurisdiction. In Nassau County the Taxable Status Date is January 2.

Time Adjusted Sale Price:  The subject’s sale price adjusted for time to the date of valuation.

Transitional Assessed Value:  The Assessed Value reflecting annual increase limits on Class II and IV property.  The assessed value on these properties cannot increase more than 20% in any given tax year.  This does not include physical increases.

Weighted Average:  An average of the Adjusted Sale Prices weighted by the extent of the adjustments made to the sale price of the comparable.