New Jersey Senior Freeze Program - do I have to fill out the form every year?

Vested Land Services LLC is ready to help you make that home purchase a reality instead of a title headache.  Here's some background information about the New Jersey Senior Freeze Program that helps senior citizens with their real estate taxes from NJMoneyHelp.com.  Information about the current program can be found at the end of the article.

Q. Do I have to fill out a form every year for the Senior Freeze?
— Hater of paperwork

A. Let’s go over the Senior Freeze.

The Senior Freeze property tax reimbursement program reimburses eligible senior citizensand disabled persons for property tax or mobile home park site fee increases on their principal residence, said Abby Rosen, a certified financial planner with RegentAtlantic in Morristown.

To qualify, you must meet all the eligibility requirements for each year from the base yearthrough the application year, currently 2016.

You qualify if you, or your spouse or civil union partner, were:

1) 65 or older; or actually receiving Federal Social Security disability benefit payments (not benefit payments received on behalf of someone else).
2) You lived in New Jersey continuously for at least the last 10 years, as either a homeowner or a renter.
3) Homeowners: You owned and lived in your current home for at least the last three years.Mobile Home Owners: You leased a site in a mobile home park where you placed a manufactured or mobile home that you owned for at least the last three years.
4) Homeowners: You paid the full amount of the property taxes due on your home. Mobile Home Owners: You paid the full amount of mobile home park site fees due.
5) Your income did not exceed $87,007 for 2015 and $70,000 for 2016, as long as they meet all other requirements. Applicants whose income was over $70,000 but was $87,007 or less can establish their eligibility for future reimbursements by filing an application by the due date.

So yes, you must fill in a form every year to participate in the Senior Freeze, Rosen said.

“A form PTR-2 should be mailed to you annually if you filed an application the prior year and met all eligibility requirements,” she said. “You must file a PTR-1 if it’s your first time applying or you were ineligible the prior year.”

Rosen said you must file your application (Form PTR-1 or PTR-2) for 2016 on or before the extended due date of October 18, 2017. The original due date was June 1, 2017.

Information about the current program may be found on the official New Jersey website.

For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us. We can help. Located in Fairfield, NJ, we are the title insurance agent that does it all for you.

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For your next title order or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow AT vested.com

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How to Keep Unwelcome Pigeons at Bay - it's not title insurance, but.....

Title insurance from Vested Land Services LLC, the consumer's title agent, will not keep pigeons away from your railings, roof or other places they might gather.  But here's a quick answer from the NY Times that might be of help.

How to Keep Unwelcome Pigeons at Bay

Q: I live on the 15th floor of an Upper East Side co-op with windows facing First Avenue. Pigeons are roosting on my window ledge. The birds’ vocalization is loud enough to wake me up in the morning and they leave behind gray and white stains from their droppings. I shoo the birds away when I’m home, but cannot do this all day. I want to be able to open my window in the spring without worrying that the germs from their droppings will enter my room. What can I place on my window ledge to discourage the pigeons from roosting there? I do not want to use anything that could fall off the ledge, endangering a pedestrian below, or poison the birds. What is a safe remedy?

A: You should be able to open your windows this spring without worrying that a pigeon will fly into your apartment or its droppings will soil your home. While their droppings do not generally pose a serious health risk, they are still unsanitary, and gross. But your building, not you, should get the birds off your ledge. As a shareholder, you are responsible for everything inside the walls of your apartment, and the co-op board is responsible for the building. So the board needs to figure out how to get the birds to find a new home.

 “Residents should not attempt a solution on their own,” said Daniel Wollman, the chief executive of Gumley Haft, a Manhattan property manager.

Write the managing agent and the co-op board a letter alerting them to the pigeon problem and insisting that they fix it. If the birds are nesting on your ledge, they are probably nesting on another resident’s, too. In the letter, ask that management also clean the ledge of any droppings.

The building should be able to get the birds to nest elsewhere without damaging the facade or risking the safety of anyone on the street below. For example, at a Gumley Haft-managed property with a pigeon problem in its inner courtyard, management suspended netting over the area to keep the birds away.

Netting will not solve the problem at your building, but there are other methods. John McGowan, the director of operations for Bugged Out Pest Management in Brooklyn suggested that your building consider using Bird Barrier Optical Gel, a bird deterrent, which he described as “awesome.”g

This article and others may be read on-line at

nytimes.com/2018/04/14/realestate/how-to-keep-unwelcome-pigeons-at-bay.html

For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us. We can help. Located in Fairfield, NJ, we are the title insurance agent that does it all for you.

For your next title order or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow AT vested.com
@vestedland

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Finding Peace of Mind for Your Home Away From Home

Title insurance from Vested Land Services LLC, the consumer's title agent, will protect the title to your home or second home.  But how do you protect that second home from a distance.? The NY Times has an answer.

"Nathan Lavertue and Geneva Simms keep tabs on their country house in Dutchess County with a range of smart home tools.

"Geneva Simms and Nathan Lavertue were driving to their country house in Dutchess County one recent weekend when there was yet another spring snowstorm. But when they arrived late that night, their home, which was built around 1780 and was once a Quaker meetinghouse and a stop on the Underground Railroad, wasn’t bitterly cold. That is because during his lunch break in Brooklyn, Mr. Lavertue had turned on the heat remotely, using his smartphone.

“We have three cameras — two exterior and one interior — four Nest thermostats, two Echo Dots, one Echo Show, one traditional Echo and 10 smart lights. And also the Nest smoke detector,” said Mr. Lavertue, a global experience design director for IBM, who installed the equipment himself. “The cameras are for security, but they provide plenty of entertainment. I have really funny footage of Geneva running after a U.P.S. truck.” 

Seems very smart to me - to read the full column, go to
nytimes.com/2018/04/13/realestate/finding-peace-of-mind-for-your-home-away-from-home.html

Any comments?  We'd love to hear from you.

For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us. We can help. Located in Fairfield, NJ, we are the title insurance agent that does it all for you.

For your next title order or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow AT vested.com
@vestedland

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Dramatic changes in New Jersey - a report from Vested Land Services LLC, the consumer's title insurance agent

Vested Land Services LLC, the consumer's title insurance agent, is proud of New Jersey-

See the 7 most dramatic changes in N.J. over the past half century

The only thing still recognizable of New Jersey of 1968 may be its borders. 

The last 50 years have starkly reshaped the landscape of the Garden State, from its sardine-packed Gold Coast to the white sands of Cape May. We analyzed decades of Census data to show the myriad ways New Jersey has evolved.  

What emerges is a portrait of a society that's constantly shifting and potentially foreshadows the challenges of the years ahead. The graphics below detail seven of the most dramatic shifts, which are fundamentality shaping who we are as a state.

Packed like sardines

This likely isn't news to most residents, but it's important. New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the nation, packing more than 1,200 people per square mile of space. This colors not only how development proceeds, but could also have impacts on how growth occurs. 

The Great Slowdown

After experiencing nearly exponential growth from the 1790s through 1970, New Jersey has been adding fewer and fewer new residents. As New Jersey is outpaced by other states around the country, its Congressional delegation has suffered.

Growth has slowed to a near halt over the last decade or so, which could imperil one of the state's 12 seats in Congress after the 2020 Census.  

Read the full story- http://www.nj.com/data/2018/04/7_ways_new_jersey_has_changed_over_the_last_centur.html#incart_river_index

For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us. We can help. Located in Fairfield, NJ, we are the title insurance agent that does it all for you.

For your next title order or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow AT vested.com

@vestedland

#NewJersey

#homebuyer

#mortgage

#refinance

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NJ Governor Murphy recommends changes to bill allowing prepaid property taxes - a report from Vested Land Services LLC

It's not title insurance but NJ Biz, a report on New Jersey taxes from Vested Land Services LLC, the consumer's title insurance agency- 

Murphy recommends changes to bill allowing prepaid property taxes

Gov. Phil Murphy has recommended certain technical changes to a proposed bill that would permit New Jersey taxpayers to make dedicated prepayments toward anticipated property taxes.

Murphy took this action in response to President Donald Trump’s signing into law the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which limits a person's maximum state and local property tax (SALT) deductions to $10,000.

Murphy wants to eliminate possible confusion in Bill 3382by explicitly “clarifying that taxpayers may indeed prepay their property taxes, regardless of whether the municipality had issued the quarterly tax bills prior to submission of the prepayment. This clarifying language is retroactive to July 1, 2017, and applies to any taxpayer who attempted to prepay a third or fourth quarter property tax installment for tax year 2018 in calendar year 2017.”

New Jersey residents pay among the highest property taxes in the nation.

Read the full article at - http://www.njbiz.com/article/20180406/NJBIZ01/180409875/murphy-recommends-changes-to-bill-allowing-prepaid-property-taxes

For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us. We can help. Located in Fairfield, NJ, we are the title insurance agent that does it all for you.

For your next title order or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow AT vested.com

@vestedland

#titleinsurance

#homebuyer

#refinance

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