Is Your Town Facing a Municipal Revaluation in Connecticut in 2022?
By: Nicholas W. Vitti, Jr. and Joseph D. Szerejko
It is always important to carefully review your tax bill and/or notices of assessments, but even more so in the year in which your city or town conducts a revaluation.
Each assessment should be carefully reviewed, even if your assessment has not increased substantially, as an appeal immediately after a revaluation maximizes a property owner’s potential tax savings.
Connecticut law requires that each municipality conduct a general revaluation of the real estate within its borders, at least once every five years.
The purpose of a revaluation is for a municipality to determine the market value of real estate to be used to calculate property taxes.
Once a property’s value is set in a general revaluation, it remains constant over the entire five-year cycle, absent appeal, demolition, improvements or expansion. Of course, the annual taxes usually increase, as a municipality’s mill rate increases incrementally from year to year. Municipalities across the State are on differing revaluation cycles.
The following is a list of Connecticut municipalities conducting revaluations this year:
| Ansonia | Farmington | North Canaan | Sprague |
| Berlin | Glastonbury | Orange | Stamford |
| Bethel | Goshen | Plainfield | Sterling |
| Bozrah | Granby | Preston | Stonington |
| Bristol | Guilford | Redding | Warren |
| Canaan | Middletown | Ridgefield | Waterbury |
| Cromwell | Morris | Roxbury | Waterford |
| Danbury | Naugatuck | Simsbury | Wilton |
| East Haddam | New Britain | Southbury | Winchester |
| East Windsor | Newtown | South Windsor |
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If your municipality is conducting a general revaluation for the October 1, 2022 Grand List, you will receive a notice of tax assessment change soon.
Once the notices are issued, there may be a chance to meet informally with the assessor to discuss the new assessment, which should represent 70 percent of the fair market value of your real estate. However, if a property owner wishes to challenge the assessment formally, a written appeal must be filed with the local Board of Assessment Appeals by the February 20, 2023 statutory deadline. Note that tenants may file written appeals as well if they meet certain criteria.
It is in your best interests to be proactive in monitoring the revaluation process and your new assessment so that you can take all necessary steps to ensure that the assessment is equitable.
For more information about revaluations, contact Nicholas W. Vitti, Jr. at 203.653.5435 or nvitti@murthalaw.com and Joseph D. Szerejko at 860-240-6186 or jszerejko@murthalaw.com
