The Roll, the Uniform Percentage, and Grievance Day

Everything in a New York assessment flows from the assessment roll — and the roll carries three facts most owners never connect: a valuation date in the previous July, a market-value estimate printed next to every assessment, and a uniform percentage that varies by municipality. Reading those three correctly comes before any grievance.

Two dates, one fire (the Department’s own example)

The valuation date — July 1 of the prior year in most communities — is the date the property’s value is measured as of. The taxable status date — March 1 in most communities — is the date its condition and ownership are set as of; exemption applications are due by it. The Department’s calendar gives the worked example: a January fire on a home valued the previous July 1 means it is assessed as a vacant lot; the same fire on March 15 is assessed as a house. The gap between valuation date and tentative roll is deliberate — it lets assessors and taxpayers use all available sales.

What this tells you: comparable-sales evidence for a New York grievance should cluster around the prior July 1, not the present. An argument built on the current market is an argument about a date the law is not asking about.

The tentative roll and what is on it

The tentative assessment roll is public on May 1 in most communities (and on the municipal website within ten days). For every taxable property it shows the assessment, the assessor’s estimate of market value, and the uniform percentage. Only the assessment on the current tentative roll can be grieved — prior years’ rolls cannot.

Grievance Day: RP-524 to the Board of Assessment Review

The grievance — Form RP-524 — is filed with the assessor or the Board of Assessment Review (BAR) by Grievance Day: the fourth Tuesday in May in most communities. The exceptions are the rule, not the anomaly, and the Department’s page states each:

• New York City: March 15 (Class One) / March 1 (other classes).
• Nassau County: March 1.
• Suffolk County towns: third Tuesday in May.
• Westchester County towns: third Tuesday in June.
• Villages that assess: typically the third Tuesday in February.
• Municipalities sharing an assessor: dates between the fourth Tuesday in May and the second Tuesday in June.

A mailed form must be received by Grievance Day. There is no cost, and a lawyer is not required. And one option with teeth: on or before Grievance Day the owner and the assessor may stipulate to a reduced assessment — which then bars both further BAR review and judicial review for that year. A stipulation is a settlement, not a stepping stone.

Worked example (illustrative)

Illustrative reading with made-up figures — your own roll controls.

1. Inputs from the tentative roll: assessment $196,000; market-value estimate $490,000; uniform percentage 40%.
2. Step — the internal check: $196,000 ÷ 40% = $490,000 — the roll’s own arithmetic is consistent.
3. Step — the real question: is the $490,000 market estimate right as of last July 1? Sales from summer 2025 answer that; the assessment itself is just the estimate times the percentage.
4. Step — the grievance: RP-524 filed with comparable sales near the valuation date, received by Grievance Day — and if the assessor offers a stipulated reduction you can live with, weigh it against the judicial route it forecloses.

What this page does not cover

Small-claims hearings, certiorari, and the BAR’s decision procedures are outside this page. The Department’s grievance-procedures and property-tax-calendar pages cited below are the authorities for the dates and the exceptions.