Appealing your Appraisal
An informal guide to appealing your appraisal in Alachua, County, Florida.
Informal: The first and most successful option for appeal of your property value is a meeting with one of our appraisers. In this meeting, you will review the physical information on your property (i.e., Is the property measured correctly and are the correct building materials reflected in our records?) and review sales of other properties and other pertinent information. If you have the time to review our record of sales and information on your property before your appointment, you will feel better prepared and the process will go more quickly. In any case, we encourage you to ask for an appointment if you have questions.
VAB: The Value Adjustment Board is the next step in the appeal process. However, this procedure is slightly more complex and formal than an informal meeting with one of our appraisers. It is highly recommended that you exhaust the informal approach prior to undertaking this step.
Circuit Court: If you are still not pleased after the VAB, your next step is to file a suit against us in circuit court. This proceeding gets very formal and has a lot of rules. If you are considering this option, you should talk to an attorney.
One last note which applies to all levels of appeal: There is no provision in Florida law for your value to be reduced because of personal hardship or inability to pay. While we definitely empathize with the many difficult personal situations people experience, we cannot lower values because of them. Likewise, what other properties are appraised for is irrelevant in the appeal process. The theory is that two wrongs do not make a right. If you point out that someone else is too low, our correct response is to raise the other person, not lower your property value. Please be prepared to talk about your market value. Market value and the exemptions are the only place in the process where we have any control.
Samuel A. Mutch: A Blog 