Under the consent order, the reassessment had to be completed by September 30, 2001 and be in effect for the 2002 tax year.  As the first step, the tax maps were revised.  Then the Township Committee contracted with the Tax Assessor to handle the actual reassessment portion of the work.  The township Tax Assessor sent a  letter  to all property owners. The field assessments began in May and were completed in September, 2001. 

The Tax Assessor sent a notice to every property owner before the end of November, 2001.  That notice showed your new assessment and detailed the subsequent schedule. 

1. Taxpayers were first afforded the opportunity to discuss the assessment at an  informal hearing  with a representative of the Tax Assessor.  These discussions were held through December 19.

   The Assessor's representative discussed the field report and shared the factors that were considered in the assessment of the property.  The Assessor prepared a photo gallery of nearby recent sales that were part of the determination of the assessment of your property. 

   The property owner reviewed any mitigating circumstances which were submitted before the start of the assessment (see para. 3 of the  letter ), and the Assessor explained how those mitigating circumstances were considered.  The property owner was also allowed to introduce additional mitigating circumstances that affect either his property, or an entire neighborhood. 

   The Assessor's representative prepared notes of this conference, and these notes were reviewed by the Assessor.  The Assessor has the discretion and authority to adjust the assessment based on his review of these notes.  In early January, the Assessor mailed an additional notice to any property owner who asked for an informal hearing.  That notice may or may not show an adjustment to the assessment.
    

2. The Assessor then prepared a complete report of the assessments for every property in the town.  This report was submitted to the county and state, and will is available for inspection at Town Hall after January 16, 2002.
    
3.  After the informal hearing and the second notice , if you are still not satisfied, you may make a formal appeal.

   PROCEDURAL STEPS
    

   • Appeals of assessments are heard by the Morris County Board of Taxation.  The Board of Taxation consists of 3 members appointed by the Governor to hear disputes involving assessments.  The Board hears about 1200 appeals each year in Morris County.
   • Appeals must be received on or before April 1, 2002 by the Board of Taxation.  The appeal is filed on a standard form provided by the Board of Taxation.  Obtain the complete filing instructions, fee schedule and Petition of Appeal from the Board of Taxation, located at the County Administration Building in Morristown, on the first floor.  The filing fee ranges from $5.00 to $150.00, depending on the value of the assessment.  Copies of the appeal must be served upon the Tax Assessor and the Municipal Clerk at the time it is filed. 
   • A hearing will be scheduled before the County Board of Taxation.  Your hearing generally will be scheduled during the day.  The hearing will be held in April - June, 2002 and the Board must render a decision before June 30, 2002. 
   • During the appeal process, you MUST make the quarterly tax payments on February 1 and May 1 (as billed in July, 2001), or your appeal will not be heard.
   • Resident homeowners may represent themselves or hire an attorney for the appeal hearing.  (Ask the Tax Board staff for guidance.)  You may have your own appraisal made and you may bring your own expert witness.  The township is the opposing party and will be represented by the Township Attorney.  The Assessor or an appraiser may appear at your hearing as an expert witness.

   PREPARING FOR THE APPEAL
    

   • The assessment reflects the assessor's opinion of the true or market value.  The market value is what a knowledgeable buyer would be willing to pay on the open market.
   • By law, your assessment is assumed to be correct.  During the appeal, the property owner must prove that the assessment is unreasonable compared to a market value standard.  You must overcome this presumption of correctness to result in an assessment change.  The burden is on the property owner to prove that the assessment is unreasonable, excessive, or discriminatory.  It is necessary for you to prove at the onset that your assessment is in error.  It is also necessary for you to suggest a more appropriate value.
   • The assessment is the value of the property as of October 1, 2001.  All evidence presented on appeal (photos, comparable sales, etc.) must be as-of October 1.
   • The most credible evidence is based on recent sales of other properties of a similar type in your neighborhood. ("Comparables")  Comparable means that most of the characteristics of your property and the neighboring sale are similar.  You should be knowledgeable of the conditions of the sales you cite including financing, and be able to give a full description of the properties.  Some of the characteristics that would make a property comparable are recent sales price (preceding the October 1 assessment cutoff), similar square footage of living area measured from the exterior, similar lot size or acreage, proximity to your property, the same zoning use (e.g. duplex in a duplex zone) and similar age and style of structure.
   • If you are going to discuss comparable sales, a listing of 3 to 5 sales must be attached to your appeal at the time of filing.  Your assessor must receive copies of your comparables at least 7 days in advance of your hearing in order for them to be discussed. 
     Records of recent sales of properties in Long Hill are available for your review at the following locations:

     • The Morris County Board of Taxation on the first floor of the County Administration Building in Morristown.  Open daily 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM.  They have notebooks full of paper records of real estate sales, sorted by town and date of sale.  These notebooks are available at the Board of Taxation by law, but the staff there suggests that the next option might be easier to use.
     • The Morris County Clerk's Records Vault on the first floor of the County Administration Building in Morristown.  Open daily 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM.  They have all the real estate deeds and assessments on a computer system, and you can access the records as far back as 1968 from their public terminals.  The advantage is that you can use the computer to select records by owner's name, by address, by street, by block, etc.  The system is simple to use, and help is friendly and readily available.
        
       The next two sources are extremely unofficial, but they are a starting point.  They do NOT overlap with each other very much (because they are both incomplete), so you might start your search by looking at both sources.
     • The Long Hill Public Library has a continuing clipping file of real estate transactions in the township prior to October 1, as published in the local newspapers.  It is not guaranteed to be complete, since the newspapers do not publish these lists every week.
     • Look for yourself from the convenience of the Internet. 
       Street Address:  
       and ZIP code:      Look up Zip Codes
       Year of Sale:   past year past 5 years
          (A new window will open.)

   ALTERNATIVES
    

   • You are allowed to settle with the Tax Assessor before the Board of Taxation hearing.  However, The Board of Taxation will review the settlement and may reject it, in which case, a hearing will be held.
   • You are also allowed a further appeal to the  Tax Court of New Jersey, but your attorney must make that appeal within 45 days of the Tax Board's decision.
    
4. Your actual tax bill for 2002 will depend on:
   • Your new assessment as issued in November or as modified by the result of any informal hearing and/or appeal to the Board of Taxation.
   • The total assessed valuation of the entire town (which is first published in January after the informal hearings are complete, and then will be modified in July after appeals to the Tax Board are settled), which determines the total value on which new tax rates will be computed.
   • The final approved 2002 budgets for  all four  taxing jurisdictions.
   • In other words, you can't know how much your actual 2002 tax bill will go up or down, until all these variables are resolved - in June, 2002.

According to a handout available on the desk at the Morris County Board of Taxation, the Equalization Ratio that was in effect on July 1, 2001 in Long Hill Township was 54.20%.

If you would like to learn more about the assessment process, read the information on the NJ State Taxation Department website.

You can locate the 2002 assessment or the most recent sale for any specific property.