How to appeal your Florida property tax assessment

Every August, your county property appraiser mails a Truth in Millage (TRIM) notice. It shows the proposed market value and assessed value of your home, your exemptions, and the taxes each authority plans to charge. It is not a bill. It is the one moment in the year when that value is still contestable.

An appeal asks the county's value adjustment board (VAB), an independent body, to lower the assessed value the appraiser put on your property. If the value comes down, so does the tax. You are not arguing about the tax rate, which is set by elected bodies, only about whether the value is right.

You have 25 days to file. Florida law sets the window at “the 25th day following the mailing of notice by the property appraiser” (Fla. Stat. 194.011(3)(d)). The clock starts on the mailing date printed on the notice, not the day it lands in your mailbox or the day you open it.

You file a petition (form DR-486) with the clerk of the value adjustment board. Miss the window and the assessment locks in for the year, so if you are close to the deadline, file first and gather your evidence after. A petition can always be withdrawn later.

The filing fee is set by each county's board, but the law caps it: a petition “shall be accompanied by a filing fee… in an amount determined by the board not to exceed $50 for each separate parcel” (Fla. Stat. 194.013(1)). Many counties charge less, often $15. Your county's exact fee and its petition portal are on your county's page here once we have verified them with the county.

Most petitions are heard by a special magistrate, an appraiser or attorney the board appoints “for the purpose of taking testimony and making recommendations to the board” (Fla. Stat. 194.035(1)). The magistrate hears your evidence and the appraiser's, then recommends a value to the board.

Evidence is exchanged before the hearing, not sprung at it. At least 15 days before the hearing you give the property appraiser your list of evidence and copies of your documents, and the appraiser must likewise provide you theirs before the hearing (Fla. Stat. 194.011(4)). Your strongest evidence is usually qualified sales of similar nearby homes that closed near January 1 of the tax year.

This is the rule most homeowners never hear about. To keep your petition alive, you must make a partial payment of at least 75 percent of the assessed ad valorem taxes, less the applicable discount, before those taxes become delinquent (Fla. Stat. 194.014(1)(a)). Taxes become delinquent on April 1, or 60 days after your tax bill mails, whichever is later (Fla. Stat. 197.333).

Skip that payment and your petition is dismissed, no matter how strong it was. If your appeal is still pending when the bill comes due, pay the required amount on time and keep the receipt.

An honest answer sometimes is “don't bother,” and the most common reason is Save Our Homes. For homestead property, the law caps how much the assessed value can rise each year at “3 percent of the assessed value of the property for the prior year” or the change in the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower (Fla. Stat. 193.155(1)).

After a few years of rising prices, that cap usually holds your assessed value well below your home's actual market value. When it does, an appeal cannot lower your bill, because the number you would be arguing down is already below market. A capped homestead is the clearest case where filing is a waste of time, and a free check will tell you honestly whether that is you before you spend a cent.

An appeal is about value; exemptions are separate and often worth more. The homestead exemption and others must be applied for by March 1: “Failure to make application, when required, on or before March 1 of any year shall constitute a waiver of the exemption privilege for that year” (Fla. Stat. 196.011(1)(a)). If you bought or moved this year, confirm your homestead exemption is on file before you worry about an appeal.