A 7573: Permits persons sixty-five years of age or older to be granted a real property tax freeze.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 7573 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN ASSEMBLY April 1, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. SANTABARBARA -- read once and referred to the Committee on Real Property Taxation AN ACT to amend the real property tax law, in relation to permitting persons sixty-five years of age or older to be granted a real property tax freeze The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The real property tax law is amended by adding a new 2 section 467-o to read as follows: 3 § 467-o. Real property tax freeze for persons sixty-five years of age 4 or older. 1. (a) The governing board of a municipality may, by local 5 law, ordinance or resolution grant a real property tax freeze for quali- 6 fying real property owned and occupied by one or more persons, each of 7 whom is sixty-five years of age or older, or qualifying real property 8 owned and occupied by spouses or by siblings, one of whom is sixty-five 9 years of age or older. For purposes of this section, "sibling" shall 10 mean any sibling, whether related through half blood, whole blood or 11 adoption. 12 (b) For the purposes of this section, "qualifying real property" shall 13 mean a one, two or three family residence, a farm dwelling or residen- 14 tial property held in a condominium or cooperative form of ownership and 15 located in this state. If the property is not an eligible type of prop- 16 erty, but a portion of the property is partially used by the owner as a 17 primary residence, that portion which is so used shall be entitled to 18 the real property tax freeze provided by this section; provided that in 19 no event shall the taxes for such property be frozen in an amount that 20 exceeds the assessed value attributable to that portion. The primary 21 residence and occupancy requirement shall be waived if the qualifying 22 person or persons are absent from the property due to medical reasons or 23 institutionalization. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD11318-02-5 
 A. 7573 2 1 (c) Application for a real property tax freeze shall be made annually 2 to the municipality by the owner or owners of such real property. The 3 age of each owner of such property shall be the age of such person at 4 the commencement of the municipality's fiscal year for which an applica- 5 tion for such real property tax freeze is made. 6 2. Qualifying real property taxes shall be frozen in the amounts paya- 7 ble at the time such application for a property tax freeze is made. 8 3. A real property tax freeze granted to spouses pursuant to this 9 section, once granted, shall not be rescinded solely because of the 10 death of the older spouse so long as the surviving spouse is at least 11 sixty-two years of age. In the event that the surviving spouse is less 12 than sixty-two years of age, such surviving spouse shall be eligible for 13 the real property tax freeze upon reaching sixty-two years of age 14 provided all other eligibility requirements are met. 15 4. Any person who has already attained the age of sixty-five years or 16 older is eligible for such real property tax freeze and shall be enti- 17 tled to a real property tax freeze based on the tax year immediately 18 preceding the effective date of this section. 19 5. The freeze period shall expire when either no eligible person 20 remains in the property, or when the beneficiary of the freeze fails to 21 reapply for such freeze; provided, however, that the municipality shall 22 provide a notice sixty days prior to the annual reapplication deadline 23 via United States Postal Service to the beneficiary's primary residence. 24 6. Any conviction of having made any willful false statement in the 25 application for such freeze, shall be punishable by a fine to be deter- 26 mined by the municipality and shall disqualify the applicant or appli- 27 cants from further freezes for a period of five years. 28 § 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after 29 it shall have become a law.