Proactive Assessments Reap Significant Savings

Connecticut municipalities are required to revalue all real estate at least once every five years for local ad valorem tax purposes.  Typically, it makes more sense to challenge a property assessment at the beginning rather than toward the end of the cycle to obtain the maximum benefit.  However, when the owner of a major office building in one of Connecticut's largest cities contacted Pullman & Comley’s property valuation attorneys to discuss an assessment appeal, we decided to protest the assessment even though it was four years old and a city-wide revaluation would be implemented on the next assessment date. 

The decision proved to be the correct approach.  As a result of negotiating a valuation reduction with the municipality at a court-ordered pretrial settlement conference, our client received a tax refund of almost $800,000 for the solitary year involved in the appeal.