Challenging Your Assessment
Step One: Establish Your Market Value
Before pursuing a review of your assessment, you should first determine if you are assessed fairly.
Develop an estimate of the market value of your property. You can learn how to estimate the value of your home or contact an appraiser or other real estate professional. We recommend you find comparable sales using the view property information link on the Assessor’s website. You’ll want to look for sales that have occurred between 7/1/2019 and 7/1/2022.
Sales offered on the open market and considered arm’s length are the best to use. They can be found using the view property information link. If you decide to use sales from private websites, you should ensure there is an MLS number associated with that sales price, or it may not be indicative of the market but a special circumstance like a foreclosure, estate sale, or transfer between related parties. Those sales are not considered arm’s length and may be rejected.
The most straightforward way to challenge your assessment is by looking at the current real estate market. By determining what homes of a similar style, size, and location to your home are selling for, you can get a good measure of what your home is worth.
A few options are available to anyone who wishes to challenge their assessment. All of the options require you to submit information to support your determination of the property’s market value. So, it is important that you do the work of determining your market value prior to filing a challenge. The challenge you will pursue is determined by the time of year. New York State set the property tax cycle (PDF) that the Assessor’s Office is required to follow.
If you are assessed fairly but feel your taxes are too high.
Assessors do not determine your property taxes. If you feel as though your assessment accurately reflects the market value of your property, but you still feel that your property taxes are too high, you may wish to address this matter with the taxing jurisdictions that impose taxes in your community – school board, county legislature, city council, town board, fire district, and other special districts. The Assessor can explain how property taxes are calculated, including what property tax exemptions are offered in the Town of Cheektowaga.
Next Step: Informal Reviews
The next opportunity to challenge your assessment will be Informal Reviews done by mail. This process begins in March of 2024. More information will be available when we get closer to March.