How To Appeal Your Maryland Property Assessment Mid-Cycle

How to Appeal Your Maryland Property Assessment

We are starting to see home prices decrease slightly in 2023, from the highs of mid-2022. While no one has a crystal ball, when it comes to home values, homeowners need to be prepared for various possibilities.

What we do know is that home values have risen as much as 20% in Maryland over the last two years, depending on your location.

Property Assessments are Lagging Indicators

Property assessments will reflect that increase over the next few years. Assessments are always lagging indicators, they follow the market.  That’s why you won’t see them come down (or up) to market value until well after the market value is established.

Assessors and appraisers (usually) use the statistics from the previous six months to get values, so its always after the fact.  (BTW- its the same as values increase.) Over the next three cycles of assessments, Maryland homeowners are more than likely to see their assessments increase. Many may want to consider appealing their property value assessment, which determines their property taxes.

Chris and I attended a meeting at the Frederick Public Library a few years ago and learned a lot about the Property Assessment Appeal Process. Many people don’t know that you can appeal your assessment mid-cycle.

Appeals may be filed on three occasions:

1)  When you purchase your house between January 1 and June 30. You may appeal within 60 days.
2)  Upon receipt of an assessment notice; the cycle is every three years.  The next notices will come out July 1, 2023. You have 45 days to appeal.  If your appeal is successful, you will not see the effect on your taxes until the next year. That’s why you might want to appeal…
3) mid-cycle, that’s what the above-mentioned meeting was about. It is called a “Petition for Review”.

When you wade through the government wonk-speak, its really not that complicated. Here is my primer on the Mid-Cycle Appeal Process:

The mid-cycle appeal process:

Petition for Review can be found on the SDAT website Forms Page. The form is called “Petition for Review and New Owner Appeal of Property“.  There is a lot of useful Tax and Assessment information on the site.

1.  The important part of this form is the supporting documentation you need to attach. You need to have some kind of compelling evidence that your values have declined. There are several items that would be appropriate.

• Any friendly, helpful local Realtor can look at the recent sales in your neighborhood and give you the information, (caveat: if there have been enough sales in the last six months). Contact us by phone *  or email, we’ll be happy to help.
• If your home is not easily comparable, perhaps you live in an area that is not in a neighborhood, or your home is very unique, you should seriously consider an appraisal. The cost is somewhere between $400 and $600 on average, depending on the size of your home, and is well worth it. There are several appraisers in the area, we can recommend someone.
• You can call the SDAT and ask for information about other properties that have successfully appealed. You can put together a compelling appeal based on the successes of others. I have found the staff at the local SDAT office to be very friendly and helpful.
• You can do your own research at the Courthouse, finding recent sales. You can find recent sales in the newspaper. The assessment office has worksheets of comparable properties for a nominal fee.

2.  File your appeal online, or by mail, to your local assessment office, with supporting documentation. Addresses linked below.

3.  You will be scheduled for a hearing, or, if you prefer, your petition can be reviewed without a hearing. We were told that the law stipulates that you must be notified in writing.

The Appeal Process is a Process

1.  The first level of the appeal process is the Supervisor’s level and is informal. Hearings usually take about 15 minutes, in which you will present your evidence to an assessor. You can obtain a copy of the information worksheet that the assessor will use from the website. It seems to me that studying this worksheet will give you an edge.

2.  After the hearing, you will receive a final notice. If you have done an adequate job of documentation, you should receive good news. If you disagree with the decision, you can appeal to the next level, the Property Tax Assessment Appeal Board. The appeal must be filed within 30 days from the date of notice. The independent appeal board is made up of three local residents in each of the counties which have been appointed by the Governor.

3.  If you still are dissatisfied with the results, you can go to the Maryland Tax Court. This is a legal body, whereas the first two steps are based on opinion. The assessor who shared this with us last night said he had only seen 2 cases in 30 years go to the Maryland Tax Court. It doesn’t sound too promising, so you want to get step number 1 right, from the start.

You can read in fine detail about the appeal process at the Maryland.gov website.

Tips From the Assessment Office

If you file a mid-cycle appeal, you may not have your previous assessment handy.

1.  Contact your local tax assessor’s office and ask for someone in Reassessment. Find out when appeals are heard, and how the process for submitting a property tax appeal works.

2.  Ask for a copy of your property card. Review the card and confirm that the basic information about your property is correct, the square footage and number of rooms, etc. Note any corrections that need to be made.

3.  Many counties use a formula that uses a percentage of market value to determine assessed value. Ask what the formula is. An assessment that is less than market value still might be too high.

Here are some tips from the Assessment office to help you prepare your documents:
*  Focus on those points that affect the value of your property.
*  Indicate why the Total New Market Value does not reflect the market Value.
*  Identify any mathematical errors on the worksheet, or inaccurate information describing your home.
*  Provide examples of sales of comparable properties which support your
findings.
*  Avoid issues that are irrelevant:  past values, additional costs, the amount of the tax bill, and properties in other jurisdictions.

My suggestion:  When you get comparable home sales, make an easy to read table with the statistics from each of the properties.  Make your letter short and sweet and to the point. The assessor at the meeting told us that they do 4,000 to 6,000 properties a year. You might stand a better chance if you make your documentation really easy to read.

The good news, according to the National Taxpayers Union, is that about 33% of property tax appeals succeed! Taking the time to review the accuracy of a tax bill could easily save you hundreds of dollars per year, adding up to thousands of dollars during the time you own your home. Please feel free to contact me for more information or for a referral on an appraiser.

Local Offices:

FREDERICK COUNTY

Frederick County Home Page

Reassessment Map and Contact information

WASHINGTON COUNTY

Washington County Home Page

Reassessment Map and Contact Information

MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Montgomery County Home Page

Reassessment Map and Contact Information

CARROLL COUNTY

Carroll County Home Page

Reassessment Map and Contact Information

HOWARD COUNTY

Howard County Home Page

Reassessment Map and Contact Information

All other Maryland counties