SOUTH RIVER – The New Jersey Division of Taxation has issued a one-year extension authorizing Realty Appraisal Company to inspect the remaining properties in South River.
Real estate appraiser Neil Rubenstein said the Division of Taxation ordered South River and many other municipalities throughout the state to revise their property assessment values, conduct a revaluation and reset the tax base.
“The reason for the request for an extension was due to the weather. It impeded our process tremendously and we realized we were going to need more time to complete the inspection of the properties in South River,” Rubenstein said.
“In conjunction with the tax assessor, we came to the determination that it made sense to not rush through the process since it has been 30 years since the last revaluation and since it has gone that long we decided to ask the state for a year extension and they agreed,” he said.
All of the borough’s property revaluations will be completed by Realty Appraisal Company, according to Rubenstein.
“Our firm is the oldest firm in New Jersey. We have done over 450 revaluations solely in the state, including the last revaluation that was done in this town in 1985. The town has not had a revaluation since then. The assessments that were established back then, they sat basically for that period of time,” Rubenstein said.
South River had previously been ordered to complete and implement a revaluation for the 2019 tax year. Officials requested permission to implement a revaluation of all properties for the 2020 tax year because of issues related to tax maps and contract approvals, as well as field work not progressing as expected due to poor weather, according to an order extension issued by the Division of Taxation.
Rubenstein said all of the inspections should be completed by the end of the summer. He said the company has already inspected about 3,000 homes and about 250 commercial properties. He said there are 4,338 homes in South River.
Each inspection should take three to five minutes. The inspector will not take any photos inside a property unless requested to do so by the resident. The state requires the inspector to take a photo of the front and rear of the property from the outside, according to Rubenstein.
Rubenstein said each of the company’s inspectors carries two forms of identification, one of which was issued by the South River Police Department. The identification includes a photo of every inspector so that if an inspector comes to a resident’s property, he or she can be verified.
Once all of the assessments are complete, the company will mail every resident a notification letter with the proposed new property assessment value. If a resident disagrees with the new assessment, he/she can make an appointment to attend an informal taxpayer hearing with a representative of the company to discuss his property and review property records, according to Rubenstein.
Rubenstein said after all the informal taxpayer hearings have taken place, the new assessments will be certified; however, if a resident still disagrees with the new property assessment value, he can file an appeal with the Middlesex County Board of Taxation.
“In a revaluation, we are simply doing one thing … [reassessing] every property in town before that particular date to redistribute the tax revenue to balance the playing field,” Rubenstein said.
Contact Vashti Harris at [email protected].