Buffalo Homeowners: Watch Your Mail for Reassessment Letter

Throughout July, representatives from the city of Buffalo’s Assessment and Taxation Department hosted a series of meetings to explain the upcoming reassessment project designed to help spread out the burden of taxes paid by homeowners across the city.

The reassessment process also will help the city make up some of the large budget gap discussed by Mayor Bryron Brown and city officials earlier this year—in May, a budget was approved with a 4.19% tax increase ($72 per year per average on a house with a value of $160,700 in the city) to help address a multi-million-dollar shortfall. The city’s budget was also reduced by $2.3 million for a total of $615.6 million in operational expenditure for the next fiscal year.

It was mentioned in those assessment meetings, with one session held in every city district, that homeowners would be receiving a letter with their updated assessment information. Those letters are due to start arriving around Labor Day, just two weeks from now.

The good news is that homeowners are able, and encouraged, to review their new property assessment value with a critical eye and to ask for reconsideration.

Here’s what you can do if you don’t agree with your assessment:

After receiving the letter, homeowners are first asked to consider whether the new rate is fair, given the condition of the property, any improvements they’ve made, the property values in their neighborhood, and other factors. Thankfully, the city also has created a tool to help provide important information to make such determinations, including the 2025 Reassessment Project’s website. There’s another website that outlines which neighborhoods are deemed “comparable” to each property, so homeowners can gather more information and see whether their homes are being assessed at the same rate as others with similar features, locations, and other factors.

Speaking at a recent meeting, officials urged homeowners to sign up for any and all exemptions for which they might qualify that could help bring down their assessment rates.

If, after considering comparable properties, the reassessment still seems too steep, homeowners can attend an informal review session, sitting in on a one-on-one meeting with a contractor hired by the city. If you attend one of these meetings, you are encouraged to bring photos and other documentation to help back up your plea for a reduced assessment. It is not required to bring an independent assessment from an outside party, but that document will be accepted if you have it.

Homeowners should expect to hear by December 1 whether their assessment has been lowered or why it will remain the same.

If you still disagree with your assessment, the next step is to make an appointment with the Board of Assessment Review. These individual meetings will take place early in 2025 and are a more formal process that will require homeowners to fill out New York State Form RP-524. Help will be available for filling out this form by contacting the Department of Assessment and Taxation. Having an independent assessment of your home at this time could be helpful, but it is still not required.

Homeowners will receive a response by March 1 if they were successful in reducing their assessment or if the amount will remain the same.

If at this point you’re still unhappy with what the city has determined your house is worth, there’s one more step: Submit a claim to the Small Claims Assessment Review by paying a $35 filing fee and bringing an attorney to the session. If you’re successful in challenging this final assessment amount, you will be reimbursed for the filing fee. The officer’s decision is considered final, but homeowners can file a challenge every year if they so choose.

Homeowners, be prepared, but know that you can fight City Hall on this—to some extent—and you might even succeed! 

Anyone with questions about their assessment is encouraged to call 716-632-2400 or go to https://www.buffalony.gov/1613/2025-Reassessment-Project, where a full schedule of the reassessment project can be reviewed.