Ogdensburg landlord considers raising rents after new city assessment

OGDENSBURG, New York (WWNY) - A man who owns five properties in Ogdensburg is worried the city-wide reassessment will be too much on renters.

“You’re almost at 100% of what you can charge the taxpayer already. So where do you go from there? I mean, you’re going to be bankrupt soon, and the state’s going to take over your finances is what’s going to happen if you don’t do something,” said Wayne Washburn.

A Lisbon resident, Washburn rents his five properties in Ogdensburg to families. After the reassessment, his properties on Morris Street, Mansion Avenue and Gates Street all increased between $17,000 and $24,000 in value. His other property on Mansion Avenue went down in value by $10,000.

Another one of his properties, on Patterson Street, with brand new siding, went up the most: from $40,000 to $110,000. He’s been thinking about raising rents.

“I was anticipating that the taxes would go up, I just never believed in a million years that it would be this much money,” he said. “Who’s going to really pay for this in the long run in the city of Ogdensburg? It’s going to be the tenants. They’re the one’s that are going to be hit the hardest and they’re the one’s that got the least money to pay for it.”

Washburn said because of the increase of the assessments, he may have to increase rent for tenants up $50, and if that doesn’t work on his end, meaning he can’t make ends meet, he may have to sell his Patterson Street property.

Wednesday, city assessor Mark Schnorr told 7 News just because assessments go up, taxes may not. He said if the new assessments were used in today’s budget, the tax rate could have gone from $16.50 per thousand dollars, down to $12.50. However, on Washburn’s Patterson Street home, doing the math with the different tax rates shows Washburn would be paying around $700 more a year in property taxes.

“The profit margins for landlords are small, and when you have that much of a tax increase, a lot of times you can’t keep the property because it’s based on what you can get for an income out of it,” Washburn said.

Grievance Day is June 13th at City Hall.

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