4.5 stars. My husband's and my school district had tried to raise our property tax assessment based…read moreon the purchase price of our house, although they should have used either a 2012 base year or a current market value that was depreciated to 2012. The result was that my husband and I would pay significantly more property tax than our neighbors pay. My husband's coworkers recommended that we hire Flaherty Fardo, a law firm that was founded in 1997 and has expertise in tax appeals, to defend our real estate tax appeal. In April 2021, the attorney Nicole Hauptman Amick, who graduated from the University of Pittsburgh's School of Law and has worked for Flaherty Fardo for several years, was assigned to my husband's and my case. Nicole reviewed our case and the sales of other houses in our neighborhood before agreeing to work with us. She offered representation for either a flat rate of $1,000 or a 50% contingency of the total tax savings from the purchase price backward for relevant tax years. (Please note that other clients' prices might differ.) My husband and I decided to pay $1,000, and it included representation for the entire appeals process. Our payment could be made with either a check or an online payment through their website. I had read that house buyers who are unaware of significant damage and repairs at the time of purchase could use that information to prove that their tax assessment should be lower. Although my husband and I had hired a professional inspector to inspect our house before we bought it, the inspector had not noticed a few major issues that we ended up spending many thousands of dollars to remedy. In May, we emailed a two-page document with details and photos to Nicole, but my husband said that he never received a response, so I am deducting 0.5 stars from my review. In June, this law firm notified us that our Board of Property Assessment Appeals and Review (BPAAR) hearing was scheduled for July. My husband and I were not required to participate in the proceedings. I was not sure how to dial in to listen to the proceedings, but we trusted that Nicole would represent us well. In July, Nicole emailed us that the school board had argued that our assessment should be increased based on comparable sales. Nicole presented evidence for three other recent sales in our neighborhood, and she argued that those sales supported a value below our purchase price. *** In early November, Nicole told us that our property appeal decision was to increase our assessment by a small amount (~13%) rather than the large amount (~40%) that the school board had wanted. The school board had 30 days to appeal the decision, and in early December, Nicole told us that the school did not appeal. Nicole was successful in negotiating for a lower assessment! :) ***

I had a issue and Noah Fardo cared and handled it with the utmost grace. His attention and care to…read morecustomer service is top notch. Thank you Mr. Fardo