Gossips has received word that GAR, the company doing the revaluation of Hudson properties, will be mailing out property descriptions next week, on September 12. Expect to receive them on September 13 or 14. Property owners are advised to examine the property descriptions carefully to make certain that all the information is correct--square footage, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, etc. GAR should be notified promptly if there are any errors. Starting this dialogue now, we are told, can eliminate problems later.
Wasn't GAR supposed to come and do property inspections before they sent out the descriptions? Either my wife or I are always at home (since we both work out of our house) -- and we never got a visit. Anyone out there run across GAR doing inspections over the Spring and Summer?
ReplyDeleteJohn--They weren't going to inspect the interior of your house unless you invited them to. What happened in my neighborhood was that everyone got a card saying that valuators (is that a word?) would be in our neighborhood on given days. If you wanted them to come inside, you needed to call. They were not going to be knocking on doors asking permission to enter.
ReplyDeleteI realize that, Carole, but I thought they'd be coming on to the property to get pictures, gather data about building inventory, etc. -- the sort of things on the assessment worksheets the State issues to localities. Never saw anyone loitering or walking my block.
ReplyDeleteYes they did come to our house on Rossman Ave. He measured.
ReplyDeleteThey were all over Allen Street with those big wheeling tape measures
ReplyDeleteThey were supposed to leave something on the doorknob. I gave one of their folks a full tour of my basement -- after that, she couldn't leave fast enough! But you should get in touch if you feel you need to show them something. I don't have their number handy, but I'm sure they can be contacted through the assessor's office. --pm
ReplyDeleteJohn:
ReplyDeleteYour property most assuredly should have been seen. I will check to see if it has or has not.
Don
GAR did the re-assessment in Stuyvesant and I'm suspicious about a very crooked assessment that got through... I know one shady deal got past them. Could have been an error. Would GAR collaborate in fraud?
ReplyDeleteJohn, GAR was on Worth Avenue. They left their calling card on my doorknob, and another time I saw a young lady with a name tag and a clipboard. This in addition to their initial letter with the basic description of the property, which we were supposed to review and mail back to them. Did you get a letter? Did Clementine scare them from your house?
ReplyDeleteJohn:
ReplyDeleteGAR tells me you house was seen and they will get in touch with you today, Friday.
Don
Remember, folks, the burden of proof here is with the property owner. GAR (just like Garth) is under no obligation to get the assessed value "right" because there is no right or wrong. This is why we would have been much better to the money now being spent on GAR into a fund to help property owners make their cases -- IMHO.
ReplyDeleteGAR was hired in Taghkanic, and some Town Board members wound up with a lot of questions about their billing:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.registerstar.com/articles/2010/12/11/news/doc4d02ebbff31e4122933894.txt
GAR was paid $20,000 to assist with the revaluation, and was paid the same sum last year. But the firm only did about $4,000 worth of work, prompting the town to demand the balance back. [...] Councilman Larry Kadish said any remaining money should be returned to the cash-strapped town’s coffers.
“It’s our money and it should be sitting in our account,” Kadish said. “I don’t accept this as a reasonable way to do business.”
Kadish also said he was troubled by the fact that the town’s taxpayers appeared to have paid considerably more for assessing services than residents of neighboring towns.
--S.
Our house was NOT visted by anyone from GAR for the assessment either.
ReplyDelete