The process
How an appeal works
An assessment appeal isn’t a lawsuit. It’s an administrative review with three rungs, and most cases end on the first or second. This page walks through each stage, who does the work, and what it costs you if the value stays put: nothing.
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01
We build the case
Before anything is filed, we test whether the county’s number holds up against your property’s income, comparable sales, and the assessment ratios across the jurisdiction. We pull the tax records ourselves. If the numbers say the assessment is right, or that filing would invite a second look you don’t want, we tell you that too and nothing gets filed.
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02
Open rolls with the assessor
Each year the assessor opens the rolls for review before certifying them, often for only a few weeks. We present the evidence to the assessor’s office directly, and a good share of corrections happen right here, informally, before any formal appeal exists. Miss the window and the formal deadline behind it, and the tax year is closed.
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03
The county review board
If the assessor doesn’t move, we file the formal appeal before the county’s deadline. The board hears the evidence and can set the value itself. Filings, deadlines, and the hearing are handled for you.
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04
The state commission
Where the board’s answer is still wrong, the case can go up to the state’s tax commission. Administrative work (preparation, evidence, filings, appearances) stays at our cost all the way through this rung. Going to court beyond it only ever happens if you choose it, in writing, with the costs estimated first.
Some places contest next year’s value.
Depending on the jurisdiction, an appeal filed this summer can contest the value headed for next year’s rolls rather than this year’s. It feels early, but that is the window, and we track which year yours contests.
Auditors keep finding a thumb on the scale.
Legislative audits have documented assessors using sales chasing, a practice tax authorities prohibit, leaving recently sold properties assessed well above comparable properties that hadn’t sold. If you bought in the last few years, that gap is exactly what an appeal tests.
Two things to know while it runs
You keep every decision.
Our role is advisory: we recommend, prepare, file, and present. Whether to accept an offer, settle, escalate, or withdraw stays with you, always.
Tax bills stay payable.
An appeal doesn’t pause collection. You pay bills as they come due, and when the value comes down after payment, the difference comes back as a refund or credit.
What it costs
One fee, once, and only if you save.
The fee is 25% of your first-year realized savings, computed from the certified roll and your actual bill, never from an estimate. It’s charged once per successful appeal: if the corrected value holds for the rest of the reassessment cycle, those later years are free. And if the value doesn’t come down, the fee is zero.
In the fee schedule’s illustration, a $6.0M building corrected to $4.5M at a typical local millage, the one-time fee works out to about 6.25% of what the reduction returns across a four-year cycle, if the corrected value holds.
This cycle’s window is open now.
Deadlines land county by county, and once one passes, the tax year is closed. Start now so there’s time to authorize and file properly.
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