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A breath of fresh tax relief for co-ops and condos?

By Margot Slade  | March 14, 2011 - 10:36AM
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For New York City condo and co-op owners, relief from double- and even triple-digit increases in property-value assessments may be a matter of class: A pair of state senators said last week that they are crafting legislation to move condos and co-ops from Class 2 properties, where they're lumped with rentals, to Class 1, where they’ll be treated like single-family homes, which have a 6 percent annual cap on assessment increases.

The comments from State Senator Toby Ann Stavisky (D-16th Senate District) and Assemblyman Edward C. Braunstein (D-Bayside) were reported Friday in Habitat.

Class 2 properties comprise primarily rental buildings, condo apartment buildings not over three stories high and cooperative apartment buildings. Class 1 includes most residential property of up to three units and most condominiums under three stories. The assessed property value is 45 percent of the city’s official estimate of a property’s so-called market value, which according to Habitat is “unrelated to what a property might or might not sell for in the open market.”

“Co-ops and condos are more closely related to small family homes than they are to rental properties,” Stavisky explained to Habitat.

Braunstein, who plans to introduce the Assembly version of the bill, added: “The point is to treat co-op owners like single-family homeowners because they’re not like landlords who rent out apartments. Co-op owners’ property tax is assessed like they could get rental income.” 

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