How to appeal your property taxes — notice to hearing.
A practical DIY walk of the property tax appeal process: read the notice, decide between informal review and a formal ARB filing, build the evidence packet, file before the county-published window, and walk into the hearing with the lines already rehearsed. Filed by every homeowner the $37 packet is built for — no contingency firm, no retainer, no vendor lock-in.
The five stages, notice to hearing.
The property tax appeal process turns on five stages — they don’t all run in the same order, but every successful case covers all five. The fifth stage lands the refund; the fourth stage gets the case in front of the ARB; the second stage is where most of the prep happens.
- STAGE 01
Read the notice of appraised value — line by line, the day it arrives.
The county mails a notice of appraised value once a year, typically in April or May for Texas and Georgia, with deadlines measured from the postmark date rather than the assessment date. Pull the parcel ID, the proposed value, the protest deadline, and the appeal body (usually the Appraisal Review Board, the Board of Equalization, or the Value Adjustment Board, depending on state). The notice is the input the rest of the case hangs on — nothing else, including comps or record-card math, matters until the deadline and the body are confirmed.
- STAGE 02
Walk the record card and pull the same comps the assessor trained on.
Order or download the assessor record card for the subject parcel and pull three comparable sales from the same neighborhood code, the same grade band, and the same GLA band — the comp set the assessor would have trained on if the comps list looks identical. The record-card audit is the input; the comps worksheet is the defended dollar value per adjustment. Where the line disagrees with the source, that disagreement is the adjustment the appeal argues — and the packet is the place it lands.
- STAGE 03
Decide: informal review, formal filing, or both.
Most counties offer an informal review with the appraiser before the formal protest window closes. The informal review is fastest, lowest-effort, and often the place a 5–15% reduction lands. The formal filing is the appeal of record: it goes in front of the ARB (or its state equivalent), it produces a written decision, and it sets up a court appeal if you lose. Many homeowners file the protest first, attend the informal review, and either accept the informal number or proceed to the formal hearing — the two are not exclusive.
- STAGE 04
File before the county-published window — and bring the packet to every step.
The county publishes one statutory window per year. Texas counties allow 30 days from the notice postmark (Tex. Tax Code § 41.44); Georgia counties allow 45 days from the notice postmark (O.C.G.A. § 48-5-311); Florida counties vary by county but post the same language every spring. File before the deadline — not the day-of. Submit the protest form, attach the evidence packet, log the confirmation receipt. The same packet supports the informal review meeting (if you elect one) and the formal ARB hearing, so the work compounds.
- STAGE 05
Walk into the hearing with the four rehearsed lines — and keep the savings.
The morning of the hearing, read the four-objection script once and bring the packet (declaration page, comps worksheet, record-card diff, photo set). The assessor likely leads with a property-tax-appeal-process challenge — comps not comparable, market stagnant, GLA miscount, or "sales understate value" — and the reply is a defended line from the packet, not a new argument. The decision issues the same day or within 30 days; the refund follows on the next quarterly tax cycle, or as a credit against the next year's bill.
The two paths the appeal can take.
Informal review is the fast track — a pre-filing meeting with the appraiser, often the place a 5–15% reduction lands. Formal ARB filing is the appeal of record — a written decision, a court-appeal hook, and the path inside Deadline Stage 04. The two are not exclusive; the same packet supports both.
- MODE A
Informal review — the fast track, the appraiser meeting, the small reduction.
A pre-filing meeting with the assessment staff, scheduled inside the protest window and built around the record-card diff and the comps list. Most counties offer it; some states mandate it before a formal filing. The reduction is often modest (5–15%) but fast, and it forces the appraiser to defend the value in writing before the ARB ever sees the case. If the informal review lands an acceptable number, accept it; if it doesn't, the formal filing is still on the table.
- MODE B
Formal ARB filing — the appeal of record, the written decision, the court hook.
A formal written protest filed before the deadline, heard by an independent board (the ARB in Texas, the Board of Equalization in Georgia, the Value Adjustment Board in Florida, with state-specific variants everywhere else). The board hears the case, the homeowner presents the packet, the assessor presents the response, and a written decision issues. A "no" decision is appealable to state district court within 60 days in most states — the formal filing is the on-ramp to a court appeal, not just a reduction.
What the packet carries.
Six evidence types cover almost every winning case. The first row is the input to every other row — the record-card audit walks the parcel before the comps list stages itself. The record-card audit ships as a printable PDF in the packet; the free comp sources list ships as the second file.
- EVIDENCE 01
Record-card diff — the line-by-line walk of the assessor's own file.
Pull the parcel record card from the county, then walk each line against the source: deed key, building sketch, land lines, prior-year value, bed / bath count, fixtures and features, condition rating (C1 through C5), year built, effective age, permit stub. Anywhere the card disagrees with the source, that line is the adjustment the appeal defends. The audit is the input to every other piece of evidence.
- EVIDENCE 02
Comps pack — the three sales that hold up the value.
Three closed sales inside the same neighborhood code, the same grade band, and the same GLA range as the subject — pulled from the five-source list (county appraisal district, county recorder, MLS public portals, Zillow as range-check, county supplemental sales DB). Each comp carries the closing date, the closing price, a defended adjustment grid (time, site, GLA, condition), and a one-line source citation. The comps pack is what the ARB reads first.
- EVIDENCE 03
Photos — four per side, interior included, dated within 12 months.
A photo set sized to one per side of the structure plus interior shots of each room the record card lists. The photo set doubles as the condition-rating defense — the C-rating the assessor assigned is "what we saw"; the photos are "what you saw." Date the photos, geotag them where the county allows, and attach them to the packet as Appendix A.
- EVIDENCE 04
Prior-year value — the equal-and-uniform argument the jump exposes.
The record card lists the prior certified value side-by-side with the current value. A jump without a permit, addition, or comparable sale behind it is the equal-and-uniform argument — the kind that wins without comps, on the basis that the assessor treated this parcel differently from the comparable neighbors. Pull the prior-year value from the card, the current value from the notice, and let the difference argue for itself.
- EVIDENCE 05
Permit log — the additions the assessor quietly dropped.
Pull the permit log from the county (most publish a search UI by parcel ID) and reconcile it against the record card. A permit on file for a bathroom addition the card doesn't list is a $5–15k adjustment; a permit for a finished basement the card missed is the same. The permit log is the unforgeable line that backs the record-card diff.
- EVIDENCE 06
Building sketch — the footprint and GLA the worksheet should be reading.
The record card includes a building sketch (typically a small floor plan submitted at original construction). The sketch is the source for the worksheet's GLA. If the sketch shows a footprint but the worksheet takes GLA, the assessor didn't read the sketch. Walk the parcel and the floor plan together; the difference between the two is the line the adjustment defends.
What the assessor says — and what you keep in the file.
Four objections cover almost every property tax appeal hearing. Each one is pre-handed on the packet’s evidence page — and the fully rehearsed line lives on the hearing-script page for the morning of the hearing. Read the pre-handle below; read the rehearsed line the morning of.
- OBJECTION 01
“Comps not comparable — different neighborhood code, different vintage, different grade.”
The three comps on page two are inside the same neighborhood code and the same grade band as the subject, with a defended adjustment grid for the remaining line items. Where the comps list and the subject disagree, the adjustment grid gives each difference a dollar value with a source — the parcel record, the MLS field, or the photo. File the comps pack, the adjustment grid, and the photo set as Appendix B.
- OBJECTION 02
“The market's been flat since those sales — the comps are stale and the number is high.”
The county's own sales records for the same neighborhood code, covering the same 12-month window, support the level of value in the evidence packet. Time adjustments sit on the adjustment grid, not in narrative. Pull two or three county sales side-by-side with the comps and the subject; the trend line holds, and the only way the trend supports a higher number is if the assessor rejects the assessor's own data.
- OBJECTION 03
“GLA, condition, or feature count differs from the comps — value isn't apples-to-apples.”
The record-card audit matches the assessor's own card line by line. The comp selection rule applies the same GLA range, the same condition band, and the same feature count before a comp is admitted to the roster. The adjustment grid accounts for any remaining line-item differences. If a specific line is in dispute, point to it and defend the adjustment with the source — parcel record, MLS field, or photo — not a guess.
- OBJECTION 04
“Sales understate value; cost approach supports the current assessment.”
The three approaches to value are sales, cost, and income — and the appeal builds the case from whichever the county recognizes as primary. If the assessor leans on cost to defend the current value, the rebuttal is the income and sales evidence already in the packet, not a new argument; the line that closes the hearing is "which of the three approaches do you want to argue against, and what's the source?"
Where the decision lands.
Four factors cover almost every successful property tax appeal — each weighs on a different part of the packet. Comp set wins on speed, equity wins on principle, factual accuracy wins on proof, presentation wins on the rest.
- FACTOR 01
Comparable sales — the comp set the ARB can read in 60 seconds.
The board weighs the comps pack first. A defended comp set — three closed sales, same neighborhood code and grade band, defended adjustment grid, dated within 12 months — pulls more weight than a longer unaudited list. The comps are the line the board most often cites in the decision; the record card and the photos support, but the comps lead.
- FACTOR 02
Equity and uniformity — the appeal that doesn't need comps.
A homeowner with a strong equal-and-uniform case (this parcel is assessed higher than comparable neighbors, on a year-over-year basis) can argue equity without introducing comps at all. The argument rests on the assessor's own record card and the prior-year value. Texas counties specifically recognize this ground (Tex. Tax Code § 41.43); most other states recognize it by another name.
- FACTOR 03
Factual accuracy — the record-card diff that wins on the spot.
A factual error — wrong GLA, wrong bed/bath, missing permit, miscounted fixtures — can be confirmed from the record card alone. Factual errors are the easiest appeals to win because the proof is in the assessor's own data: the card disagrees with the source. File the record-card diff, the source citations, and the photo set as evidence.
- FACTOR 04
Taxpayer presentation — the order the board reads.
The board weighs presentation: the case that pulls the comps, the record-card diff, and the photos into a single readable packet wins more often than the case that doesn't. The packet the ARB reads in 60 seconds — photos on the left, comps on the right, record-card diff appended — is the packet that lands; the one that buries the math in narrative is the one that loses on a technicality.
The state filing instructions your county inherits.
The property tax appeal process is set by state statute and applied at the county level — the answer to “how long do I have to appeal property taxes” lives at the county-published filing window, not the state average. The dossier below grounds the five most-active filing states and links the canonical all-50 directory.
- The all-50 dossier
The canonical filing-instructions directory for all 50 states — region-grouped, procedural grounds per state, typical filing window per state, and a waitlist CTA for the 46 unbuilt state pages. Open /states →
- Lookup-focused alias
The legacy lookup surface — pick a state and county to see the cited deadline, or render an honest “data pending” branch where the county hasn’t been seeded. Open /filing-instructions →
- Texas counties
30-day protest window from the notice postmark (Tex. Tax Code § 41.44). Most Texas counties run an informal review first; the formal ARB filing is the appeal of record. Open /texas →
- Georgia counties
45-day protest window from the notice postmark (O.C.G.A. § 48-5-311). The Board of Equalization hears the formal filing; the county appraiser optional informal review first. Open /georgia →
- Florida counties
Filing windows vary by county, posted each spring; the Value Adjustment Board hears the formal petition. Homestead-residential filings historically have the highest success rate. Open /florida →
- Carolinas (NC + SC)
North and South Carolina run county-published filing windows under different statutes; both ship the same review/appeal ladder as the rest of the South. /north-carolina → /south-carolina →
Walk the case. Read the script. File.
The page above is the same walkthrough the $37 packet ships — the dossier on a long-form surface. The packet templates the case, the comps sources list stages the evidence, the record-card audit pulls the diff, and the hearing-script rehearses the four lines for the morning of. Same kit, same overline: not legal advice, and for rentals, multi-property, or active-litigation cases, consult a property tax attorney.
This page walks the property tax appeal process a prepared homeowner would walk. Pull the deadline, fill the record-card audit, build the comps list, and file. For rentals, multi-property, or active-litigation cases, consult a property tax attorney.