Frequently Asked Questions

You have to enclose a self addressed stamped envelope with your payment and a receipt will be returned to you. Another option is to follow the credit card/debit card instructions and save email address to accounts applicable.

Download the Address Change Form (PDF), fill it out and mail or fax to the Collector's office

All exemptions are listed on the back of the tax bills. They are also listed in the Tax Assessor’s section of this website.

You will receive a copy of your bill even if you escrow. It most likely won't be necessary to send your mortgage company a copy. Most mortgage companies will be downloading the information automatically.

Tax bills on newly acquired properties will be sent out only if they are requested. Our normal schedule for mailing all bills is mid-July. Any persons requesting copies of bills for purchases after this date are required to call the Tax Office at 392-3800, ext. 105, and a copy will be mailed.

All information for billing motor vehicles is obtained from the RI DMV. In order to remove a vehicle, you must cancel the registration (return the plates) at the DMV. Be advised that the billing is for the previous calendar year, so the removal of a vehicle will not be immediately reflected on the current bill, but rather on the subsequent year's bill (or possibly the year after, depending on the cancellation date).

Tax bills are mailed each year in mid July. The information for billing motor vehicles is obtained from the RI DMV, reflecting the previous calendar year. If you had a vehicle registered for any portion of the prior calendar year, the vehicle will appear on your bill, showing the following in the description portion of your bill:

Description:
Yr/Make______ Plate Number ______ VIN ____ Full Value ____ Number of days registered ____ Prorated Value _____ Value____ Annual Tax ____

The bottom portion of your bill has the 4 quarterly coupons attached. This is the payment collection cycle, which extends throughout our fiscal year (ending the following June 30th). Even though you may have disposed of a vehicle during this period, you are liable to make the quarterly payments because the vehicles were registered to you during the noted assessment period.

Individuals who purchase parcels at our auction will pay all Town's outstanding taxes; as well as subsequent years. In addition, the buyer is responsibility the interest on said taxes and other legal costs and charges incident to the sale.

Deeds are executed by the Tax Collector within 60 days of the sale, and recorded with the register of deeds. They are then mailed to you.

You will receive a collector's deed subject to the right of redemption. Once you foreclose on the collector's deed, all previous title rights are extinguished, and you own the property free and clear. The only liens that survive foreclosures are those filed by governmental agencies in relation to the environmental protection act.

In the event that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has not been properly noticed regarding property on which the IRS has placed a lien, such IRS liens will survive the foreclosure process.

Caveat

The Tax Collector has the right to cancel the sale up to the time of the sale.

Plat maps and field cards can be located online at  and in the Land Evidence vault in the Town Hall.

When a property first becomes eligible for public auction, the minimum bid cannot be less than the total amount to redeem the property, plus cost associated with offering the parcel for sale. All payment must be either cash or cashier's check.

No. All parcels sold a public auction are sold "as is". No warranty is expressed or implied in any manner regarding property sold at a public auction, including, but not limited to, the following example: no claims are made to guarantee access to, or building permits for, any of the parcels involved in the sale. Prior to bidding it is the bidder's responsibility to adequately research properties to know what is being purchased.

Each bidder is given a form as required by RIGL. The lots are auctioned off in the order they appear on the tax sale list. Once the auction is over, each winning bidder must pay the full amount within one hour of the auction's completion. The tax sale bidders registration states if you are a resident or a non-resident. This form must be signed and notarized. Proper identification is required for this. In addition you must complete a form clearly stating how you want the title to the property to be held. Once you are done bidding and your bid has been accepted there is no need to wait until the end of the auction. You may pay and leave as soon as you are ready.

All bidders must be at least 18 years of age.

Actually, in most locations it does not. The majority of road right-of-ways in town are 50 feet wide, whereas the pavement only takes up about 24 to 30 feet of that. There usually is about 12 to 10 feet of land that the Town (or the State) actually owns before your property line begins, and where you would start to meaure your front yard set back for zoning. Occasionally, the Town needs to cut back brush, trees, and dead limbs within this shoulder area to the road for reasons such as site distance, drainage, and public safety. Avoid planting anything too big or valuable in this area that you wouldn't want to see cut back by the Town.

The Sign Regulations are contained in Article IV (PDF) of the West Greenwich Zoning Ordinance.

The Residential Compound regulations are included within the West Greenwich Zoning Ordinance.

Ordinance Number 84 (PDF) basically requires that your private well is drilled and yield tested in order to get a Building Permit, but please refer to the ordinance for how the yield testing is required to be performed

If your system is from 1986 or newer, the Building Official might have a copy. Call him at 392-3800 x 114. Otherwise, try RIDEM 222-6800.

The Planning Board has the sole discretion of deciding whether a project will be a Conservation Design subdivision or a Conventional Subdivision. The Zoning Ordinance Conservation Design requirements are here, and the Land Development and Subdivision Regulation Conservation Design requirements (PDF).

In Rhode Island, each community is required to have 10% of its housing stock as designated housing for eligible low and moderate income residents. In order for the housing structure to count, it has to have an affordability restriction, and it had to be either constructed new, or rehabilitated using special subsidies. So, the fact that the cost of a home is actually at an affordable price alone does not make it count towards this required 10% goal.

Each community, if they have not already met this goal, must have a special plan in place to spell out how they are going to meet this goal. Our plan is posted at the top of this page.

It doesn't matter, the goal is 10% of your total housing stock, because the assumption is that the need is much more than that. There is an analysis in the plan, called a 'housing needs analysis,' that breaks down the percentage of very low-, low-, and moderate- income households and assigns these percentages to your 10% in order to determine how you need to focus your efforts in your community. In West Greenwich, based on data from the year 2000, there are 258 low and moderate income households in Town who are paying more than 30% of their income on housing expenses. Our 10% goal is for 179 affordable units. Based on this method of determining 'need,' you can see that the need does exceed the goal.

There is another process that the State has in place to facilitate affordable housing. It is called the Comprehensive Permit process and it was created under the Rhode Island Low and Moderate Income Housing Act. This Act established a 'one-stop shopping' type of application review process for housing developments that include at least 25% of qualifying affordable housing. This process is called a 'comprehensive permit' because the applicant only needs to appear before one local board to receive all the relief and waivers from all the local regulations, instead of submitting separate applications to all the applicable boards. If the Town is not making efforts to implement the plan, we are vulnerable to this type of application being submitted.

The Low-Mod Housing Act also allows such an application to seek relief from the Town's local regulations and zoning, but differently than the typical application seeking relief, because the required findings of fact are different. (You can research this yourself by comparing the requirements for a zoning dimensional variance with the requirements for a comprehensive permit) The most common type of relief sought is with respect to lot sizes and frontage and setback dimensions (hence increasing density), as these types of regulations are perceived as a 'local barrier to affordable housing.' (Do a search for the word 'density' and/or 'barrier' in these documents: 'Not In My Back Yard: Removing Barriers to Affordable Housing,' and 'Why Not In Our Community: Removing Barriers to Affordable Housing')

Of course, increasing density is quite controversial and causes a lot of hard feelings when we think about our 'rural character' and raises concerns about water quality, water availability, increased traffic, increased school-age children and tax burden, and other concerns that residents often bring up at public meetings. It does not mean that the applicant can do whatever they want- the development still needs to be reasonable (the lots need to be buildable); and causing no significant negative impact to the environment or on health and safety are major factors in making a local decision to approve such an application. It is a balancing act.

A few years ago, RI communities were inundated with comprehensive permit applications, and many of these applications proposed double, triple, and quadruple the amount of homes that would have been allowed by zoning. Some were proposing even greater densities than that. The system was clearly being abused, but this situation forced the communities to adopt their required plans. The State amended the law and included a moratorium on all such applications until the communities got their plans adopted.

Well, an economy of scale should reduce costs, and if those reduced costs are passed on to the buyer, then cost per house is less.

It is the law. The theory is that the need for affordable housing is stronger than the local reason for the zoning regulations. The law states, "(v) Required findings. In approving an application, the local review board shall make positive findings, supported by legally competent evidence on the record which discloses the nature and character of the observations upon which the fact finders acted, on each of the following standard provisions, where applicable: (A) The proposed development is consistent with local needs as identified in the local comprehensive community plan with particular emphasis on the community's affordable housing plan and/or has satisfactorily addressed the issues where there may be inconsistencies. (B) The proposed development is in compliance with the standards and provisions of the municipality's zoning ordinance and subdivision regulations, and/or where expressly varied or waived local concerns that have been affected by the relief granted do not outweigh the state and local need for low and moderate income housing." (Emphasis added)

Yes. We can try to capture existing affordable homes. We can think of ways to reduce expenses in developing new housing. We can even require that affordable homes be constructed in new subdivisions and help with finding a subsidy source. See our Affordable Housing Plan, above, for discussion on these strategies.

• Draft Conservation Development Ordinance (PDF)

This section was included in anticipation of one of those ordinances mentioned at the very top of this page being adopted. While affordable housing is not yet required to be provided in a Conservation Development, it may be possible that some affordable houses could be built in such a development. You can understand how reducing infrastructure costs can help lower housing costs. This is entirely different than the comprehensive permit procedure discussed above, which increases density on the parcel to create an economy of scale. Both methods can bring down the cost of housing, but from two different approaches.

Here are some links to additional information about the topic of Affordable Housing:

• Rhode Island Housing Technical Assistance Resource Sheets for Cities and Towns
• HousingWorksRI
• Rhode Island Low and Moderate Income Housing Act

Real estate and tangible taxes can be appealed to the Tax Assessor within ninety (90) days from the due date of the first quarterly tax payment. Appeal forms are available in the Assessor's office.

• The Real Estate Tax Rate is $16 per thousand of assessed value for residential property. A 20% homestead exemption is automatically applied reducing the rate to $12.80.
• The Real Estate Tax Rate is $23.75 per thousand of assessed value for commercial property.
• The Vacant Residential Land Tax Rate is $17 per thousand of assessed value.
• The Tangible/Personal Property Tax Rate is $34.80 per thousand of assessed value.

The elderly exemption (also known as frozen or stabilized) is available to all property-owning town residents who are 65 years old and have lived in town for a minimum of seven years. Those residents that qualify need to file an application with the Tax Assessor's office the year they turn sixty-five (65). A continuance form will be mailed out each February and must be returned to the Assessor's office.

• Copy of the Ordinance (PDF)
• You must come to town hall with a copy of your license and apply in person.

The homestead exemption was drafted and approved by the Town Council and went into effect for the 2005 tax roll. The exemption is applied to improved residential property. The current exemption for the 2020 tax bills is twenty-nine percent (29%) off of the assessed value.

The exemption is automatically applied to all single-family and residential condos - no application required. It is adjusted in the years that we have a revaluation to protect residential properties from a swing in the tax burden.

Revaluations are conducted every three years according to state law. A complete revaluation was just completed December 31, 2019, for the 2020 tax roll. Visit this page for more details about the revaluation process.

The tax bills are mailed in July of each year and payable by August 31st. For bills over $50, payments can be made quarterly by the following date:

• First installment August 31st
• Second installment November 30th
• Third installment February 28th/29th
• Fourth installment May 31st

• Motor vehicle taxes are for the vehicles owned during the previous calendar year.
• Real estate taxes are assessed as of December 31st of each year for the current calendar year.
• Tangible personal property taxes are assessed as of December 31st.

Assessment data can be reviewed in the Tax Assessor's office or at the following web address: Visit the North East Revaluation website.

A revaluation is a tax equalization program that involves the reappraisal of all taxable property within a municipality. Revaluations are required in order to ensure that all property owners are paying only their fair share of the municipal tax burden.

The real estate market is constantly changing, and inequities develop over time. The goal of a revaluation project is to determine the market value of all properties as of a specific date in order to correct past inequities. The revaluation process does not raise any additional revenue for a municipality.

Market value is determined by people, by the activity in the real estate market, and by the general economy. Qualified appraisers will be used to analyze recent sales and estimate the value of all taxable property within the municipality. Qualified sales will be adjusted to reflect the characteristics of your property by the appraiser in order to generate an estimate of value.

During a full revaluation, a physical inspection of both the interior and exterior of each property is conducted where building dimensions and characteristics are noted. This is the data collection phase of the project. Each data collector carries an identification badge issued by the West Greenwich Police Department.

While the data collection phase is in progress, the revaluation company is also studying the sales in order to determine where the actual increases and decreases in value are occurring. This allows the appraisers to establish parameters to estimate the value of property that has not yet been sold. The appraisers then review the collected data and apply the determining factors of the sales analysis to determine the value of each property.

Each property owner received an individual notice of the new assessment. All property owners are given the opportunity to discuss their values, questions, and concerns with the appraisal staff at scheduled times. Should an inspection or revaluation be required, the appraiser will make that determination, and any changes that result will be forwarded to the property owner.

The tax rate will not be determined until after the completion of the revaluation project and the municipality's budget process. It is impossible to forecast the effect on your tax bill until both the revaluation and the budget process have been completed. It is important to keep in mind that the intent of the revaluation is to equalize the tax burden among the taxpayers, not to raise taxes.

Towards the end of the revaluation process, every homeowner will receive a notice of proposed valuation based on the analysis performed. If a homeowner has a question or concern regarding the proposed valuation, they are to call the revaluation company to set a date and time to meet with a representative from the company here at the Town Hall. The hearing is not to discuss taxes. It is strictly meant to answer questions and concerns the property owner has on the new valuation.

If any property owner believes the assessment on their property is in excess of market value, they may appeal to the Tax Assessor. After the assessor has rendered her decision, if the property owner is still unsatisfied with the result, they may appeal to the Assessment Board of Review. Finally, if once the Assessment Board of Review renders their decision and the property owner is still aggrieved, they may appeal to the Superior Court for the judicial district in which the Town is located.

The new assessments will be based on the market value of your property as of December 31, 2023. The first tax bill reflecting the new assessment is expected to be issued in July 2024. These pricing tables will be in effect until the next reevaluation in 2025.

When it rains, the water hits the ground and either soaks into the ground, or travels over the surface. As it travels, it picks up stuff like small dirt particles, oils that drip from cars, fertilizer and nutrients from the lawn, and germs (pathogens) from pet wastes. All this stuff travels with the water to wherever it ends up, which could be a nearby pond, stream, or wetland.

When it rains, since water can't soak into the street pavement, it travels downhill into these grates, called stormwater catch basins, or a "stormdrain." The road is actually designed to be higher in the center (the "crown") than along the edge (the "gutter"), so that water gets off the road to provide a safe driving surface. The water travels in the gutter to a catch basin, then into an underground pipe system that empties either into a man-made "water quality basin" in newer developments, or directly into ponds or streams. So, please don't dump anything into these stormdrains! Also, if you see leaves clogging it up on top, please brush them off, because blocking these drains could cause flooding on the street. The public works guys actually go down into these catch basins with a shovel to clean out the sand that accumulates in the bottom, as needed.

But there are no stormdrains on my street. Not every road has stormdrains, but look a little closer-the water still goes somewhere! There may be breaks in the curbing, with pavement and maybe some rough rocks leading to a shallow ditch ("swale") along your front lawn. Don't fill in that ditch! This is where the water goes when it rains, and you want it to keep on going along, instead of backing up in your yard. You probably also have a pipe under the end of your driveway. You guessed it! It is there so the water can keep going. If this pipe gets crushed or clogged with leaves and rocks, you should fix it. Some roads don't have curbing, and in this case the water flows right off the road, usually into a ditch, or down into the woods.

These look like small ponds, but most of the time don't actually have any water in them. You'll notice that all the catchbasins and/or swales in your neighborhood lead into these ponds. This is an effort to allow the sand (called "sediment") and pollutants to settle out of the water before it continues on into a wetland or stream, or infiltrates into the ground. This generally takes about 2 or 3 days to dry out after a rain storm. Some of these ponds just stay wet all the time. Don't dump your leaves and grass clippings in these ponds! First of all, you can compost this stuff. Second of all, these ponds were designed to be a certain size to hold a certain amount of water and if you fill them in there is less room for the water, but more importantly, these organic materials will stay wet or submerged and turn to muck, which can smother the vegetation that is supposed to help the drainage pond function properly. It also contributes nutrients to the water system.

Nutrients are not bad, we need them and plants need them to live. But anything in excess can be bad ("nutrient loading"). The nutrient balance is somewhat of a delicate thing. Too much, and different species take over. Basically you are providing food for algae to grow in the pond, and in the downstream water bodies. Too much algae can block sunlight from getting to the lower plants causing them to die, and decaying algae actually feed bacteria who steal oxygen from fish. I think you can get the picture of what a tangled web this is. Lawn fertilizer is the Number 1 contributor to scum in the pond. Check out this Lawn Care Fact Sheet (PDF) and the URI's Healthy Landscapes website for healthy lawn care tips.

It is a simple depression you make in your lawn to hold rain water while it soaks into the ground. In this depression, you plant a garden of plants that take advantage of the periodic soaking, both taking up the water and helping it to infiltrate into the ground. This is good because it helps recharge the groundwater for your well, and it also helps clean that stormwater before it flows into a nearby stream or pond. It also takes away some of the volume of water that might be contributing to washouts somewhere else on your property, or just areas of flooding in general.

Here are some good resources with information on how to make them and what kind of plants to plant:

• List of Suggested Rain Garden Plants for Rhode Island available on URI Healthy Landscapes website
• Rain Gardens in Connecticut: A Design Guide for Homeowners
• Rain Gardens: A Design Guide for Homeowners in Rhode Island (Draft)
• Landscapes for Maine: Adding a Rain Garden to Your Landscape
• More Resources to help you Plan your Rain Garden from the URI Outreach Center's website (*Scroll down to the video clips and you can watch the NBC 10 Plant Pro segment on the West Greenwich Library Rain Garden!*)
• Resources to help you understand and Maintain your Rain Garden from RI Stormwater Solutions
• Link to the Town of North Kingstown Rain Garden Demonstration Site (we have a demonstration site in West Greenwich (PDF), too! It is in front of the Louttit Library near the bike rack.)

Just planting native species in your landscaping goes a long way. Think about it- you don't need pesticides, or have to keep watering. Let our existing climate, rainfall, and wildlife (including existing beneficial insects) do the work for you! The RI Wild Plant Society has a good list of native RI flowering trees and shrubs (and tells you what is invasive in RI so you know what to avoid) that also tells you which plants are valuable for wildlife, if you are in to that kind of stuff. Check out the RIWPS's fact sheet "Going Native: Selecting Non-invasive Plants for Your Landscape." Use this in conjuction with the URI Cooperative Extension's Sustainable Trees and Shrubs guide (PDF) to give you details on the individual plants (how big they get, what kind of conditions you can plant them in, etc.). You can also use the RI Coastal Plant Guide to pick and choose plants for your specific conditions, including a selector function to list suitable rain garden plants (just set the column 'Native Status' to '+', then set column 'Rain Garden' to '+'). This valuable list includes the local nurseries where you can buy these plants. RIWPS also has a list of nurseries where you can find Native Plants. If you have issues with Deer eating all your plants, try selecting appropriate plants from this list: URI Green Share- Plants Least Preferred by Deer.

Here is an awesome booklet put out by Save the Bay. I know West Greenwich does not 'touch' the Bay, and you might think we don't affect it, but we do. Regardless, there are really great tips for your backyard in this beautiful little booklet-rain garden design, native plants, lawn care tips- check it out!!

Bay-Friendly Backyards: Yard Care Tips that Save Time, Money, and the Bay (PDF). For more information on Save the Bay (and your backyard).

To conserve water (and reduce runoff) you can install a Rain Barrel on your down spouts. Check out these upcoming events where you can purchase a rain barrel in advance: URI Spring Festival at East Farm (Mother's Day Weekend, every year), URI GreenShare Field Day (Fall weekend, every year). Or, you can make your own. Here are a few sources: URI Healthy Landscapes, Rain Barrel/Rain Garden poster by SRF and CWP (PDF).

West Greenwich is covered under a General Permit issued by RIDEM (as authorized from the U.S. EPA) to discharge storm water off of roads, property, etc. through a storm drainage system (whether pipes or natural swales, etc.), which ultimately flows to various water bodies. The whole point of all this is to reduce or eliminate as much pollution as possible from contaminating water bodies. Some types of pollution are obvious, like someone pouring motor oil down the catch basin, but other types of pollution are not so obvious. The technical jargon for this is "non-point source pollution," meaning, "pollution that comes from places other than out of a pipe." This not-so-obvious pollution is the dirty bath water when the Earth takes a shower, so to speak. When it rains, (or when you water your lawn or wash your car) the water washes over different types of surfaces (lawns, parking lots, roads, forests, etc.) and picks up different types of things (fertilizers, pesticides, soaps and grime from washing your car, oils from leaking cars in a parking lot, pet waste, etc.) with it as it continues to travel on as "runoff." The cleaner the surface is to begin with, the cleaner that runoff will be. And that is what we are trying to achieve. This is the same water that we swim in, fish live in, and we drink.

Well, yes, to some extent, but it is not as perfect as you might think. And it is all connected. The ground will naturally purify most of this water if it infiltrates down into the soil, but on hard surfaces, the water will just run off along the surface and can end up in the nearest water body without having a chance to be filtered. Also, you want to be really careful about what you do around your well. You are responsible for your own well. See URI Home*A*Syst program for Healthy Drinking Water and Water Quality Protection. They offer excellent workshops!

Or those soap scum cleaners that you stopped using because you cough too much when you use them? Do not dump them, or even leave them in the can on the side of the road in Big River (or anywhere else)!!