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Hi -- I am in Nassau County own a house with a walk out ground level basement. It's currently counted as finished by the village I'm in and counts as 2500 sq foot living area. Due to this my taxes are through the roof. I'm hardly ever there and basement is ugly as heck anyway.
If I tore down the paneling all the way to the brick, removed the ceiling (so the rafters are bare), and pulled up the ugly 1950s floor tile (especially since there's extensive rotting along the baseboards, and clear flood lines (seller had not fessed up to), would I be able to get my house assessment to have "unfinished" basement and hence get a reduction in my outrageously high property taxes?
But there might be an easier way. I think if the space doesn't have a ceiling its not considered "finished". Call your local code office and ask. You may only have to remove the ceiling.
Nope, it doesn't work that way. Typically, when you finish your basement, you add HVAC (or at least heating), making it 'conditioned' space (of course sheetrocking the walls, ceiling and possibly finishing the floor also make it conditioned space). The 'conditioned' space is added to the overall sq. footage of house, which in turn is used to determine your assessment.
Theoretically, you could rip out any of the hvac (forced air returns or baseboard radiators), claim it is semi or unfinished space and have an appraisal done on your home. You would then submit that appraisal to your town (county?) assessor. I say theoretically because it probably is not worth the bother, expense or time to get what measly nickels you may get back destroying your home. It won't make much of a dent based on the huge residential property tax bills on LI.
If you really want lower property taxes, move. Otherwise, grin and bear it like the rest of the drones.
bubbathedog, currently the house is assessed as 7000 sq foot, 2500 is appropriated for the basement that we never ever use. It's old and rotted. We recently bought the home and don't plan on remodeling the basement anytime soon. Do you not think it would be worth it to do this to take away 2500sq footage assessment from taxes?
bubbathedog, currently the house is assessed as 7000 sq foot, 2500 is appropriated for the basement that we never ever use. It's old and rotted. We recently bought the home and don't plan on remodeling the basement anytime soon. Do you not think it would be worth it to do this to take away 2500sq footage assessment from taxes?
I would pose the question to the county tax assessor to see what you have to recoup in taxes. That said, I would assume after "undoing" you would be subject to inspection to see exactly how unfinished your basement now is and that could open another bucket of worms if an inspector enters your home. You may also need to obtain a demo permit and if there is any electrical stuff, the underwriter will also need to inspect (for a fee of course).
You said "walk-out ground level" - IMHO they are always going to include this in your square footage since it's not entirely underground. I would check with your village and the county before going nuts ripping stuff out that may not make a darn bit of a difference. The county may consider that your "ground floor".
You said "walk-out ground level" - IMHO they are always going to include this in your square footage since it's not entirely underground. I would check with your village and the county before going nuts ripping stuff out that may not make a darn bit of a difference. The county may consider that your "ground floor".
I agree. Also if I'm reading this post correctly, you basically bought a 4500 sq ft house in Brookville with a 2500 sq ft basement- is any potential reduction is taxes really going to affect your bottom line enough to deal with the hassle of this? I think you're going to have a hard time arguing that by converting your (currently unusable) basement to unfinished space you are drastically lowering the value of your home for tax purposes. I certainly don't think you can argue that your house will be worth LESS than what you very recently paid for it!! Doesn't really matter what the useable footage of your house is- by paying what you did for your house, you have likely set the market value for it and you should expect your taxes to be in line with the price you paid, regardless of sq footage. Square footage might matter for insurance purposes, but it doesn't have a lot of relevance when it comes to taxes. Talk to your tax assesor to see what they say- but I wouldn't count on getting your taxes reduced based on this.
It would probably drop your taxes from 45,000 to 41,000 a year.
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