Should you appeal your property taxes?

Property taxes tend to increase every year. While they are an important income source for local governments to provide services, steep increases can affect household finances negatively.

In such cases, the homeowners have the right to appeal their property taxes. If successful, they can enjoy paying their taxes at a lower rate. That said, it is important to evaluate your circumstances to see if you may qualify for such savings.

For the purposes of property tax appeals, what matters more is whether your property value is “fair”. The “fairness” of your assessment is measured against other properties with similar characteristics. Let’s review an example.

Assume there are 3 similar properties: A, B, and C. To keep things simple, let’s assume that these properties are in the same neighborhood, have the same number of rooms, similar square footage, built around the same time, with no major renovations. Based on these measures, the properties look very similar. If property A is valued at $300 per square foot while properties B and C are valued at $250, then the owner of property A would likely have a case for receiving a property tax reduction.

Homeowners typically have a month to appeal after they receive their tax bill. Once you receive your tax bill, you should do your best to evaluate your savings potential before the deadline.

The deadline may seem far out, but weeks go by fast! Try not to delay evaluating your savings as soon as you receive your bill to enjoy significant savings on your taxes for years. Zappeal provides a free service for homeowners to evaluate their savings potential by identifying the best comparable properties in seconds.