Queens co-op and condo owners who complained last year of wildly inflated property assessments were right on the mark, city Comptroller John Liu reported yesterday.
Liu said his auditors determined that the market value of co-ops citywide went up 12 percent in the tentative 2011-12 property tax rolls — while Queens co-ops were hit with an average 32 percent hike.
Liu also said a review of all 859 co-op complexes in Queens turned up 92 that were mistakenly “over-valued” by as much as 25 percent.
The primary reason for the sudden spikes, according to the comptroller, was an unannounced shift by the Finance Department in the method used to determine how much properties were worth.
“The Department of Finance’s arbitrary decisions and actions will affect many families for years to come and raise serious questions,” charged Liu. “Even after enormous public outcry, there is still no explanation behind many of the agency’s measurements of market value.”
Finance officials shot back that Liu’s conclusions aren’t backed up by the evidence. They said the change in assessment methods was designed to restore the system to rationality after a previous switch left many Queens properties undervalued.
As proof that the numbers they’re producing are legitimate, the officials pointed out that only 3 percent of the Queens co-ops that appealed their assessments before the Tax Commission won their cases last year.
Under state law, co-ops have to be valued as if they were income-generating rental apartments, which isn’t always easy in areas where there aren’t many rentals with which to compare.
City Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Queens) is leading an effort to develop a simpler system.