New Jersey taxpayers have long struggled against high taxassessments and property taxes. Historically, even when taxpayerssuccessfully reduced high assessments, there were taxingjurisdictions that filed appeals year after year to increase thosereduced assessments. Despite the fact that a taxpayer successfullyreduced his assessment in a court proceeding, there was nothing toprevent an increase in assessment for the following tax year.

The Freeze Act to the rescue. As a result of this abuse of thesystem, the legislature passed New Jersey Statute 54:51A-8, a lawcommonly referred to as the Freeze Act. It is the single greatestdefensive tool any taxpayer in New Jersey can employ. It was passedto protect taxpayers from the need to file and prosecute annual taxappeals. Now more than ever, it has become crucial that taxpayershave a clear understanding of how the Freeze Act works and underwhat conditions it may not work.

For the Freeze Act to apply, a final judgment by the Tax Courtmust have been rendered regarding a real property tax assessment,and that judgment must be binding and conclusive on all parties,including the taxing district and municipal assessor. Generally,the Act makes that final judgment of the Tax Court binding for thenext two successive assessment years.