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The tax commission shall have power to remit or reduce a tax imposed upon real property where lawful cause therefor is shown or where such tax is found to be excessive or otherwise erroneous, but such remission or reduction shall be made only with respect to an assessment for which an application for correction has been made pursuant to section one hundred sixty-three of the charter, and no such remission or reduction shall be made when a claim to correct the assessment or recover the tax would be barred by passage of time or other adequate defense, or when, at the time that the determination is rendered, applications for correction or other proceedings are pending to review the assessment of such property for more than one subsequent fiscal year. Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section, the tax commission shall have no power to remit or reduce a tax pursuant to this section more than five years after the last day on which an application for correction could have been filed to appeal the unlawful or erroneous assessment upon which such tax was based. If such tax shall have been paid the commissioner of finance is authorized to refund or credit the amount of any such remission or reduction granted pursuant to this section. When the correction results from an application for correction made by the board of managers of a condominium, a refund may be paid to the board of managers for distribution to the individual unit owners with the consent of such board and on such conditions as the commissioner deems appropriate.
A right of entry upon real property and into buildings and structures at all reasonable times to ascertain the character of the property shall not be allowed to any person acting in behalf of the tax commission, other than the officials mentioned in sections one hundred fifty-six and fifteen hundred twenty-one of the charter, unless a certificate therefor, executed in writing and signed by the president of the tax commission, is presented by such person to the owner, lessee or occupant of the premises or his agent before entry thereon is made.
a. Employees of the tax commission, when authorized to take testimony on application, shall reduce such testimony to writing.
b. Within ten days after the evidence on any application is taken, they shall transmit the application and testimony so taken, with their recommendation, to the tax commission at its main office or such other office as the commission may prescribe.
It shall be unlawful for any person or his or her or its agents or employee, or any person acting on his or her or its behalf, to solicit, or procure through solicitation, either directly or indirectly, any retainer or agreement:
(a) Authorizing such person, or his or her or its agent, employee or any person acting on his or her or its behalf, to make application to the commissioner of finance or tax commission for the correction of a tentative or final assessed valuation of real property on behalf of an owner of such property or other person claiming to be aggrieved, or
(b) Authorizing such person, or his or her or its agent, employee or any person acting on his or her or its behalf, to appear for such purpose or represent such owner or aggrieved person before such commission or a commissioner or any other officer or employee authorized by law to act upon such application, examine applicants, take testimony, make or recommend the making of a correction of any such assessed valuation, or take any other official action in relation to any such correction. Any violation of this section shall be a misdemeanor.
Except as otherwise provided in section one hundred sixty-five of the charter, the final determination of the tax commission upon any application for the correction of an assessment and upon the evidence taken thereunder shall, where the evidence is taken by the commission or by a commissioner, be rendered within thirty days after the hearing of such application is closed. Where the evidence is taken by an employee of the tax commission authorized to take testimony on applications, the final determination shall be rendered within thirty days after the application and the testimony hereon shall have been filed with the commission at its main office. Immediately upon making a correction of an assessment, the tax commission shall notify the commissioner of finance thereof.
a. Any person or corporation claiming to be aggrieved by the assessed valuation of real property may commence a proceeding to review or correct on the merits a final determination of the tax commission by serving on the president of the tax commission, or his or her duly authorized agent, a copy of a verified petition as prescribed by law. No such petition shall be accepted unless, prior to the service thereof, an index number has been obtained from the clerk of the county in which the property is located. Within ten days after a proceeding has been commenced as hereinbefore provided, the original verified petition with proof of service shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the court in which the proceeding is to be heard.
b. Such review shall be allowed only on one or more of the following grounds, which must be specified in such petition:
1. That the assessment is illegal, and stating the particulars of the alleged illegality, or
2. That the assessment is erroneous by reason of over-valuation, or
3. That the assessment is erroneous by reason of inequality, in that it has been made at a higher proportionate valuation than the assessment of other real property on the assessment rolls of the city for the same year, and for assessments made after December thirty-first, nineteen hundred eighty-one, other real property within the same class as defined in section eighteen hundred two of the real property tax law, specifying the instances in which such inequality exists and the extent thereof, and stating that the petitioner is or will be injured thereby, or
4. That the real property is misclassified, and stating the class in which it is claimed the property should be classified.
c. The proceeding shall be maintained against the tax commission either by naming the president and the commissioners of the tax commission individually, or by naming the tax commission of the city of New York generally.
d. Such proceeding to review and all proceedings thereunder shall be brought at a special term of the supreme court in the judicial district where the real property so assessed is situated.
e. The justice or referee before whom such proceeding shall be heard may inspect the real property which is the subject of the proceeding.
Editor's note: For related unconsolidated provisions, see Appendix A at L.L. 1986/028 and L.L. 1986/068.
When it shall appear to the comptroller that the unpaid taxes or assessments, or both, together with the interest and penalties thereon which may have been levied upon a parcel of real estate subject to easements which were in existence prior to the levying of such taxes or assessments, equal or exceed the sum for which, under ordinary circumstances, such parcel of real estate would sell subject to such easements, the comptroller, with the written approval of the corporation counsel, may settle and adjust such unpaid taxes or assessments, or both, with the interest and penalties thereon, and when it shall appear to the comptroller that such parcel of real estate would sell under ordinary circumstances subject to such easements for only a nominal sum, then the comptroller with the written approval of the corporation counsel may cancel such unpaid taxes and assessments together with the interest and penalties thereon.
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