Tax Assessment Department
 

Mark Burek, CTA       Tax Assessor

Liliane Ambrus           Assistant

Hours 9 am – 5pm  Monday –Friday,  973-983-2819, Fax 973-627-1081

Email: taxa@rockawaytowship.org 

            The Tax Assessor’s office is open Monday - Friday, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.

The Tax Assessor’s office is responsible for the valuation of all real property located within the Township.   This includes the maintenance and review of all the existing assessments and creating assessments for all new properties within the Township.  There are only three reasons why an assessment can change; when the Township goes through a Municipal wide revaluation and or re-assessment in which all the assessments in the Township are changed; a tax appeal is filed with either the Morris County Board of Taxation or the Tax Court and a Judgment is entered to either decrease or increase the assessment or when a building permit is taken out and this office determines that the value has changed based upon the work completed.  This office receives a copy of every building permit issued in the Township and inspects the property in relation to market value to determine the change in value, if any.  

            This office maintains a database for all the properties, which is known as the MOD IV. This database contains the basic information about every property located within Rockaway Township. It has the Owners name, mailing address, property location,  etc. This office shares that information with all the departments in the Township. This office receives a copy of all the real estate sales transactions from the County Clerk’s Office and determines whether or not a sales transaction is a usable or non-usable sale.  The Division of Taxation and the County Tax Board review the usable sales and determines what is called the equalization ratio. The ratio represents an assessments relationship to true value when a Municipality is not at 100% of market value. All assessments represent the value of the property as of October 1, of the pre-tax year. The last revaluation for the Township of Rockaway was as of October 1, 2001 for the 2002 tax year, this is known as the base year assessment. For the 2010 tax year all assessments represent 60.59% of true value. To view the assessments and information within Morris County you can see this information at County web site at: http://mcweb1.co.morris.nj.us/TaxBoard/           

            This office is governed by State Statues for all procedures.  The Assessor’s office answers to the Director of the Division of Taxation, The Morris County Board of Taxation and the Administration of the Township. As per the Statutes this office approves or denies Farmland Assessment, Exempt property status, Senior Citizens and Veterans deductions, all of which must be applied for through this office. All applicants must meet the requirements set forth by State regulations. Applications can be obtained from this office or the Division of Taxation web site at: www.state.nj.us/treasury/taxation/prntlpt.shtml 

            For information on the Property Tax Freeze Program you can review the requirements and forms online at: www.state.nj.us/treasury/taxation/propfrez.shtml. 

Each year every taxpayer is sent a postcard in February under N.J.S.A. 54:4-38.1. This postcard is to inform each taxpayer of the assessment placed upon property for the tax year as well as last years taxes billed against the property. On or before April 1st of each tax year a taxpayer has the right to file a tax appeal with the Morris County Board of Taxation for properties with assessed values less than 750,000 dollars. Taxpayers with assessments in excess of 750,000 may file directly to the Tax Court of New Jersey. The deadline for filing an Added Assessment appeal is December 1 of each tax year. Appeals on assessments must deal with the market value of the property as of October 1, of the pre-tax year only. Comparable assessments and the amount of taxes on the property are not reasons for filing an appeal. The properties assessment in relation to the market value is the basis for an appeal. In the appeal process an assessment can be lowered or raised by the courts. The burden of proof in the appeal process is on the person filing the appeal.  

            To determine if the assessed value is correct or has a basis for an appeal the average ratio is applied to the current assessment. For example if a property is assessed at 200,000 the implied market value for this property is 330,087 (200,000/.6059%). This represents the average value for the home. Since it is impossible to be exactly at the average value for every home in a Municipality, there is the Chapter 123 corridor of value. This corridor of value is 15% above and below the average ratio. The following values demonstrate the Chapter 123 corridor for the Township for the 2010 tax year;

            Assessment                             Ratio                           Market Value

            200,000           Upper Limit    69.68%                            287,067

                                    Average           60.59%                            330,087

                                    Lower Limit    51.50%                            388,349

            Based upon the example above in order to win a judgment on an appeal you the plaintiff must demonstrate that the market value for this property is worth less than the upper limit range of $287,067. The Municipality will try to demonstrate that the value falls within the corridor of value or 287,067 to 388,349. If the market value for the property is determined to be outside the corridor the average ratio is applied to the value. For example if the market value through trial is determined to be $250,000 the assessment would be 151,500 (250,000x.6059). This would be a reduction in assessment of 48,500. If the market value were determined to be $390,000 then the assessment would become 236,300 (390,000x.6059) an increase in assessment of 36,300. If the market value falls between the upper and lower limits then no change in assessment should occur.