Legal Question in Real Estate Law in New York

My wife and I own two seperate residences in adjoining counties. We each claim one of the residences as our legal address and this is reflected on our licenses, voting registration, mailing addresses, etc. For the past two years we have both claimed New York State STAR exemptions based on our different residences. Today I received a threatening letter from the tax assessor in the town I live in notifying us that we were not entitled to separate STAR exemptions because we never filed for legal separation, and threatening a $100 penalty plus other penalties under New York State Real Property Law section 425 Paragraph 4-A, and possible prosecution unless we submit proof of legal separation. We were never told we could not file separate claims, as we were clearly living apart, and my wife even has to maintain a residence in her county as a public employee. We submitted all the proper proof of residency documents to NYS when making the applications, and were never informed of any problems by NYS.

What should we do at this point?

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