For purposes of a property tax appeal apartment buildings of 5 or more units fall into Class 4C. In general, the Income Approach to valuation is used, so one of the critical requirements is whether the assessor 's request for income and expense information (referred to as a "Chapter 91 request") was properly and timely returned.

The decision to appeal is the same for any other property – what is the fair market value, compared to the perceived value (perceived value is the assessment divided by the chapter 123 ratio). Please use my ASSESSMENT CALCULATOR page to review your figures. If you are having difficulty valuing your property, please contact me and I will have your case reviewed by an experienced Commercial Appraiser to see if an appeal is warranted.

Make sure you file appeals in a timely manner. Here are the three potential filing deadlines:

• April 1 (generally applicable unless one of the exceptions below applies)
• May 1 (applies when a town has undergone revaluation)
• 45 days from the date of mailing of the tax assessment notice** (applies when the town is late mailing its yearly tax assessment notices. ** the language of this statute conflicts with the statute extending the deadline to May 1st, during a revaluation year.) In Mr. Standriff's opinion, the deadline for filing an appeal in any year when the town mails the tax assessment notice after March 15th would be 45 days from the date of mailing, even during a revaluation year, however the Tax Court has not ruled in such a situation.