A New Jersey tax court judge has granted a property owner’s request to reduce its tax assessment by about $1.5 million. The Court found that the taxes should have equaled a judgment entered two years earlier under the Freeze Act.

In Norwood Realty Associates v. Township of Ocean, Judge Mala Sundar approved the property owner’s request to use the Freeze Act to substantially lower the taxes on a property located in Monmouth, Ocean Township. The property owner argued that the tax assessment should be $1 million pursuant to a final judgment on the property’s 2014 assessment. That amount was based on a settlement between the parties.

Judge Sundar rejected the township’s argument that the Freeze Act did not apply because the property had undergone a tax revaluation which can be an exception to the Act. She explained that since “there was no revaluation for 2016 . . . , the application of the Freeze Act is not automatically barred.”

Article by David B. Snyder of Fox Rothschild LLP