Real Property Appeals

Appeal Flow Chart

Frequently Asked Topics

• Appeal the Value

  ›› When assessment notices for property are sent to taxpayers near the beginning of August there is always a form attached with instructions for taxpayers on how to appeal the assessment. It is important to remember that it is only possible to appeal the assessed value of a property, not the estimated taxes due.
• Valid Basis for Appeal

  ›› Art. XIII Sec 2(1) of the Utah State Constitution provides that "all tangible property in the state shall be assessed at a uniform and equal rate in proportion to its fair market value." This means that an appeal may be based on either an estimate of value in the assessment that is higher than the actual market value of a property or an estimate of value that is out of line with other assessed values of similar properties.
  For more information about the real property equity, click here
• Appeal Deadline

  ›› State law dictates that an appeal of a property tax assessment must be filed within 45 days of the day valuation notices are mailed or September 15 th, whichever is later. There is a process for filing an appeal after the deadline. It is not guaranteed that the county board of equalization (BOE) will accept an appeal filed after the deadline.
• Evidence

  ›› An appeal of a property tax assessment should include adequate evidence that the assessed value is either incorrect or that it is out of line with assessments of properties similar to the subject in location, style, quality, size, and condition. Unless valid evidence is provided the law assumes that the county assessment is at or below market value and the appeal will be dismissed. Types of evidence that would be considered adequate in an appeal include:
  
  

  Example:

  • Comparable Sales – Recently sold properties similar to the subject property may effectively indicate the value of the subject property based on the principle of substitution. A good rule of thumb for evaluating the quality of comparable property sales as evidence in an appeal is to consider if potential buyers of those properties would have considered the subject property as a competing listing similar to those that sold. Sales which close as close as possible to the tax lien date (the effective date of the assessment).
  
  
  • Recent Purchase of Subject Property – If the subject property was purchased within 12 months of the lien date the sale of the property should be considered as evidence in an appeal. It is important to remember that a sale that wouldn’t be considered an arm’s length transaction may not be good evidence.
  
  
  • Recent Appraisal Report – An appraisal of the subject property dated within 12 months of the lien date can be a significant piece of evidence in an appeal.
  
  
  • Income/Expense Information – If the parcel in question is an income producing property (commercial, industrial and residential 5+ units) the most effective evidence of its value will be income and expense data from the property together with a capitalization rate indicative of market investment demand. This evidence effectively makes a case for what a typical investor would pay for the subject property if it were available on the market.
  
  
  • Factual Error In Assessor Information – Errors in the description of a subject property maintained by the assessor’s office may result in significant errors in assessments. If the Assessor’s Office has incorrectly listed the square footage of a building on a property or has not correctly considered the legal zoning of a parcel (or if there is any other possible error in assessor data) an appeal with information regarding the error will allow the county to correct their description and assessment of that subject property.

The Davis County Assessor has instituted a new policy for successful appeals: any property whose value has been agreed to in a stipulation, a Board of Equalization action, or a State appeal,  will remain at that value level for the year it is instituted andwill also be frozen for the following year. This will help citizens because they will not have to file an appeal for the following year – the value will remain at the agreed level.  The only exception to this is an obvious error.

Appeals are typically filed the Tax Administration Department of Davis County. This page has a link to a flow chart showing the decision tree for the appeals process, as well as frequently asked questions. 

Here is a chart showing that appeals have decreased each year since 2007, including 2011. These numbers of appeals are expected to continue to decrease for succeeding tax years. 

If you would like to see how these appeals turned out (roughly ¼ were denied) – click on the information Links on the right hand side of this page to open it – go directly to page 21 of the report.