How to appeal your assessment

There are four main reasons that you may want to appeal your assessment:

• Your locality has the wrong information about items that affect property value, such as number of bathrooms or square footage or a new structure like a garage.
• Your assessment is too high based on evidence you have that similar properties in the area have sold for less than the estimated market value of your property.
• Your assessment is too low and you're concerned this will affect your ability to sell your home at the price you want.
• Your assessment is fair and accurate, but not comparable to similar properties in the area therefore making your assessment unbalanced.

How to Appeal

Gather information

• Contact your local assessment office.
• Be sure you understand the deadlines and procedures for making an appeal; instructions should be on your assessment notice.
• Research what your local real estate assessment office has on record about your property.
• Talk to your neighbors who have similar size houses about their assessments to determine if your assessment is significantly different.
• Compare your assessment to the price that similar size homes in your area have sold for to see if they are comparable.

Evaluate

• Review and evaluate the data you have collected; you may find that your assessment is on target.

Review and Appeals

• If you wish to proceed with the review and appeals process, follow the instructions given by your locality. The first step may include a review by your local real estate assessment office. If a dispute still exists after the review, you may appeal to the Board of Equalization and Assessment Review. The Board is appointed locally and it has the power to increase your assessment as well as decrease it.