How to appeal your property tax in 2026

1. Read your annual notice

Your county sends one document each year that decides your bill. In Texas, the appraisal district mails a Notice of Appraised Value between April and early May. In Florida, the property appraiser mails a Truth in Millage (TRIM) notice in mid-August. Both notices are legally required to list the assessor's opinion of market value, your assessed and taxable values, the exemptions on file, and the deadline to protest or petition.

Open the notice the day it arrives. The single most common reason homeowners miss the appeal is that the notice sat unopened until the deadline passed. Then run a four-line check before anything else: square footage, lot size, bedroom and bathroom count, and year built. County records get these wrong more often than you would expect, and every incorrect square foot inflates the appraised value. The appraisal district errors guide walks through the exact fields to verify and how to submit a correction request.

Confirm your exemptions are on file. In Texas, the residence homestead exemption removes the first $100,000 of value for school-district taxes and caps annual assessed-value growth at 10 percent. In Florida, the homestead exemption removes $25,000 plus a second $25,000 for non-school taxes and caps assessment growth at 3 percent under Save Our Homes. Missing either one is a bigger reduction than most appeals produce.

2. Understand the three numbers

Every property tax notice carries three values. Confusing them is the fastest way to file the wrong appeal. See the market vs assessed value guide for the full walkthrough.

• Market value is what the county believes the home would sell for as of January 1. This is the number you challenge with comparable sales.
• Assessed value is the number actually used for taxes. In Texas homestead properties, it can be capped 10 percent below market. In Florida homesteads, it is capped at 3 percent annual growth under Save Our Homes. Recent buyers often see market value near purchase price and assessed value well below it.
• Taxable value is assessed value minus exemptions. Your bill is taxable value multiplied by the millage rate.

If assessed value is capped well below market value, cutting market value alone may not lower your bill this year. That is fine — the reduction still lowers the cap ceiling for future years and often shows up in year two or three. Appeal anyway if the market number is unsupported.

3. Build comparable sales evidence

Comps are the appeal. Appraisal Review Boards and VAB special magistrates decide residential cases on the sales comparison approach 90-plus percent of the time. Legal arguments almost never move the needle at the informal or first-level formal stage. Three to five well-chosen recent sales beat any statute citation.

Three comp types matter, in order of weight:

1. Recent arms-length sales in the same neighborhood, closed in the past 12 months, ideally within 90 days of January 1. Same year built within a decade. Living area within 20 percent. Half-mile radius or tighter.
2. Adjusted comps — the same sales with dollar or percentage adjustments for differences in square footage, garage, pool, lot, and condition. The comparable sales method guide shows the adjustment logic every appraiser uses.
3. Unequal-appraisal comps (Texas only, Tax Code § 41.43(b)(3)) — a set of properties similar to yours whose assessed values, adjusted for the same factors, are lower than yours. This is a separate legal ground for reduction and often wins where sales comps do not. See the unequal appraisal guide.

The full evidence and comps guide walks through the two-page packet layout that informal appraisers actually read: subject-property photo on top, comp table in the middle, adjustment column on the right, requested value at the bottom.

4. File the right form before deadline

The form and deadline are state-specific. Missing the deadline ends the appeal for the entire tax year. Every county we cover appears in the appeal deadline calendar with the exact date, form, and portal link.

Texas note: the legal term is protest, not appeal. Homeowners in Texas file a "property tax protest" under Tax Code § 41.41. The rest of the country calls the same process an appeal. See the Texas protest guide or the Florida appeal guide for state-specific procedure, judicial-review paths, and county filing links.

5. Stack every exemption you qualify for

Exemptions and appeals are separate levers. Exemptions reduce taxable value. Appeals reduce market or assessed value. They stack — both reductions flow into the final bill. If you have not filed the homestead exemption on your primary residence, that is usually a larger one-time reduction than any appeal will produce.

The homestead exemption filing guide walks through the paperwork state by state. The full Texas vs Florida exemption comparison adds senior, disabled, veteran, and portability categories with statute references. File the exemption first, then appeal on top of it.

6. Write a short, factual appeal letter

One page. Two paragraphs. Three numbers. Paragraph one states the assessor's value. Paragraph two states your supported value and the median of your three anchor comps. A comp table sits below. No rhetoric, no complaints about the tax rate, no references to the neighborhood being unfairly targeted. Reviewers read hundreds of these a week and reward brevity.

The appeal letter template is a copy-paste starting point plus a real example that won a reduction. Ask for a specific dollar figure. The single biggest predictor of a settlement offer at the informal stage is naming a number rather than asking the appraiser to propose one.

7. Take the informal review seriously

The informal review is where 55 to 70 percent of Texas protests and roughly half of Florida petitions settle. A district appraiser reviews your evidence, offers a number, and you accept or move to the formal hearing. Nearly all reductions this homeowner will ever get happen here, not at the ARB or VAB.

Three principles apply. First, come with the two-page packet, not a stack. The appraiser has 15 minutes. Second, request a specific dollar reduction. Third, get the settlement offer in writing before agreeing, even if it is a phone call — a signed portal note or emailed number is standard. The informal vs formal hearing guide details what to bring, how the offer works, and when to reject and escalate.

8. Prepare for the formal hearing

If the informal review does not resolve the case, the file moves to the Appraisal Review Board (Texas) or a VAB special magistrate (Florida). The hearing is 15 to 30 minutes. Both sides present evidence; the board or magistrate issues a written order or recommended decision.

Texas homeowners should walk through the ARB hearing checklist the night before. Florida homeowners work off the hearing preparation guide (both are useful for either state). The two rules that matter more than everything else: stay factual, and never let the hearing become about the tax rate. Value is the only issue on the table.

9. After the decision

A reduction flows to the corrected roll and the next tax bill reflects the new value. If the decision is a full loss or a partial reduction you disagree with, every state has an appeal path.

• Texas: within 60 days of the ARB order, file for binding arbitration (Form 50-791, residential up to $5M), file suit in district court under Tax Code § 42, or petition SOAH for certain property types. Binding arbitration is the most common consumer path — the filing fee is refundable if the arbitrator sides with you.
• Florida: within 60 days of the VAB final decision, file suit in circuit court under Fla. Stat. § 194.171. The court hears the case de novo. Most homeowners do not escalate; the fixed cost usually outweighs the additional reduction.

The after-the-hearing guide covers accept-reject decision rules, the arbitration versus litigation math, and what changes on the next tax bill.

Self-file vs contingency firm

Contingency firms — Ownwell, ProTax Consultants, ResolutePropertyTax, and others — keep 25 to 50 percent of your first-year savings. For most single-family homes, the actual work is comp pulling and form filing, both achievable in under an hour when the comps are handed to you. The math heavily favors self-filing at every price point above the tens-of-thousands homes where the appeal is trivial and below the multi-million homes where firms have real value from specialist-level appraisal work.

A middle path — the one we built — is a fixed-fee comp packet plus pre-filled form for $49 total, so you keep every dollar of the reduction. That is the tool below.

Yearly appeal timeline

Next-step guides

Deep-dive references for each stage of the appeal.

Frequently asked questions

General information only, not legal or tax advice. Confirm every deadline on your most recent notice.