Who qualifies for SCAR?

• You own it and you live in it

  The statute's words are owner-occupied. A house you rent out entirely, a home held in an LLC, or an investment property does not take the small-claims lane; its assessment is still challengeable, through the Tax Commission's annual protest, which is a filing MGNY makes every year.

• It is a one, two or three family home

  One family, two family, three family: the classic Class 1 house, attached or detached, anywhere in the five boroughs. A small vacant lot that could only hold such a home also qualifies. Four or more units is Class 2 territory and a different route.

• It is used only as a residence

  Exclusively residential, in the statute's own words. A storefront on the ground floor, a professional office with its own entrance, or any commercial use inside the building puts the small-claims lane in question, and how the space is actually used decides it. Worth a specialist's read rather than a guess.

• Condos: class 1 units qualify

  In New York City an owner-occupied condominium unit designated tax class 1 can use SCAR like a house can. Most condo units sit in class 2, where the play is different: the RPTL 467-a abatement and the building's Tax Commission protest. The checker on the landing page reads which one your unit is.

• You protested to the Tax Commission first

  A SCAR petition reviews the assessment as the Tax Commission left it, so the Commission filing must come first: mid-January to March 15 for Class 1, no extensions. Missed it this year? The next window is months away, not years, and the case built now is filed the day it opens.

• The ask fits the small-claims ceiling

  Above $450,000 in equalized value, which covers nearly every NYC home, the petition may request at most a 25 percent reduction of the assessed value. Deeper cases are not lost; they run through the Tax Commission and, where warranted, an Article 7 proceeding.

Failing a test here is rarely the end of the story: every property in the city has the right to protest its assessment through the Tax Commission, whatever its class. The tests above only decide whether the $30 small-claims lane specifically is open.