Real Estate Tax Abatements

[Fishy Cover]

Like many of you I am doing my homework and preparing to file an abatement of the taxes on my Meredith waterfront property, and I thought that forum participants would all benefit from an exchange of information on the subject. I believe that abatement requests must be submitted by March 1, 2007 if the town mails tax bills before Dec 31, 2006.

My understanding is that there are only two approaches that will be successful:

A) Actual comparable real estate sales differ substantially from the assessed value, or
B) There is an error in the assessment data for your property, such as incorrect building or lot size.

What I'm wondering is:

A) Are there any other approaches that have worked in the past?
B) What if there are no comparable sales? Just how close does a property have to be to be considered a comparable sale? Can I use a property in the next town? Do I need an appraisal and will an appraisal be considered adequate?

I hope that other forum readers will share their experience and benefit from this shared experience.