What is left after the Tax Commission has decided?

The precondition, before anything else

Both routes require that a valid Application for Correction was filed with the Tax Commission in time. The Tax Commission states it plainly in its annual report: proper filing of a Tax Commission application is a prerequisite to judicial review of an assessment. The statute says the same thing from the other direction, requiring the petition to show that a complaint was made in due time to the proper officers. A hearing and a decision are not required. A proceeding may be commenced on a valid application even where no hearing was held and no determination was received.

Small claims assessment review

The small claims route exists in New York City and it is narrow. The Tax Commission describes it as an optional procedure for owner-occupied one, two and three family homes, and its own eligibility note is narrower than the tax class: the lot must carry a one, two or three family home, owner-occupied, used exclusively for residential purposes, and a petition may relate to only a single tax lot. Condominium units qualify only where they are class one property under Article 18 of the Real Property Tax Law.

It excludes more than most owners expect. The Tax Commission's own list of what cannot be filed: a four-family house, a lot holding four one-family homes, a cooperative, a class two condominium unit, an unoccupied building, a house owned by a corporation, a house whose owner lives elsewhere, and a property containing a store or an office.

• The filing fee is $30, and the statute makes it the only fee required for such a petition.
• The petition is filed with the County Clerk in the county where the property is located, in person or by mail, and one copy has to be served on the City no later than ten days after filing.
• On a property whose equalized value is above $450,000, the claimed value may not be less than 75% of the original assessment. An owner wanting to claim less than that has to use the Article 7 route instead.
• The Tax Commission does not supply the petition form and says so. It is prescribed by the Office of Court Administration and obtained from the County Clerk's office.

The Article 7 proceeding

The broader route, and the one most commercial and multifamily cases take. Any person aggrieved by an assessment may bring it, and in a city of a million or more it is commenced by filing a petition alone. The statutory grounds are that the assessment is excessive, unequal or unlawful, or that the property is misclassified, which is the same four-part frame the Tax Commission application uses.

• An index number has to be purchased, and the Tax Commission gives the fee as $210.
• Only a lawyer may represent somebody else in the proceeding. An owner may act for themselves, but a corporate petitioner has to be represented.
• A petition on which no action is taken is deemed abandoned after four years.

The October date that governs both

New York City runs on its own deadline here, and it is a calendar date rather than a count of days from the roll. A proceeding to review an assessment must be commenced before October 25 within the tax year the assessment applies to, and the Tax Commission states that this deadline cannot be waived or extended by it. For 2026 that means filed or postmarked before October 25, which falls on a Sunday, so the Tax Commission's own guidance lands it on Friday October 23.

The year, end to end

The administrative filing that has to come first is on the Tax Commission page, the dates around it are on the deadlines page, and the filing that can disqualify you from a hearing before any of this starts is on the RPIE page. MGNY works these cases from the January notice through to the judicial deadline: 212-343-1111.