Village tax expert meets with Board of Trustees

Dozens of Scarsdalians don’t pay their fair share of levies.

This hits home  Some residents expand or improve their houses without informing the authorities.

BY DEBORAH SKOLNIK

On Tuesday, October 7th, the Village Board of Trustees had a very important work session: Village Assessor Victoria Sirota shared information about how Scarsdalians’ taxes are calculated, as well as how a considerable amount of money never reaches the town’s coffers due to unreported property upgrades.

The home taxation process begins beyond Scarsdale’s jurisdiction, Sirota explained. Assessed values of all municipalities in Westchester County are considered, and our portion of the county tax levy depends on our taxable assessment value. Next, there is a process by which Scarsdale homes are assessed and their share of taxes is calculated. (For a detailed summary, watch the video of the meeting here.) Since 2014, total assessed values have increased by 1.5%.

Uncaptured upgrades and additions

Some residents don’t understand that the increases due to property expansions and improvements aren’t as onerous as they seem. For example, Sirota and the Trustees said, if someone’s home is already assessed at $1 million, and they put on an addition determined to be a $50,000 improvement, the new assessed value of the home is $1,050,000, even if its value has skyrocketed in the intervening years due to market appreciation.

Despite this, the number of cases of non-permitted work has risen in recent years, from an average of about 60 properties per year between 2021 to 2023 to 84 in 2024. “That is a significant jump year over year. Is this a trend that we're going to see going forward? We're going to keep close tabs on it,” Sirota said, while stressing that these incidences represent just a small fraction of home improvements in Scarsdale.

Sirota then spoke about how some of this illegally done work is uncovered when her team sees public information about home sales from the multiple listing service. In addition, they sometimes get word of shady work “from people calling us and saying, ‘My neighbor did blah-blah-blah,’” she explained. Although the number of home sales listed on the MLS has decreased since 2023, the number of these illegal occurrences has increased from 22.4% in 2023 to 40% in 2024—almost double. “When we uncover discrepancies, we send an email about the discrepancy to the Building Department, and the Building Department takes it from there,” Sirota said.

Beyond financial concerns, covert work raises issues of safety. Sirota said it’s not uncommon to find numerous violations, including electrical systems that were incorrectly installed and a lack of systems to detect carbon monoxide.

“Low taxes” ads can be a giveway

Certain real estate ads are assessor catnip.”When someone says the house has low taxes, they say, ‘Great news!’ But I say, ‘What does this mean?’” Sirota said. “Why is the house underassessed? Is it underassessed because the market just appreciated greatly? Or is it underassessed because there's all this work that we don't know about?” Recently, Sirota said, aerial views captured a home that was supposed to have a sports court, but instead, officials discovered a pool house. There was 1,600 square feet of new patio as well—also put in without a permit. “If one property is not paying their fair share because they did all this work without permits, then they're being subsidized by the rest of municipality,” Sirota said.

Buyer beware  Was that nifty finished basement constructed legally? You need to find out.

Seeking soutions

How widespread is this problem? Sirota said that between June 1st and September 30th, over 20,000 square feet of finished basements were discovered that the Building Department didn’t know about. She cited other figures, including that were over close to 6,000 square feet of patios and porch surface areas that differed from what was listed in the homes’ property records.

Sirota and the Trustees then discussed the difficulties in locating homes that are having work done without permits. One possibility, Sirota said, is to ask the police to help. “They drive around town all the time. You can absolutely get a good sense from the street construction vans and trucks,” she explained.

While no definitive answer was reached, Sirota did stress how important it is for homebuyers to be educated and vigilant. If a house has had work done, it’s crucial to find out whether it was accomplished the right way, with a permit. Otherwise, the buyer might be stuck with a problematic property—which can be taxing all on its own.