Protest for Errors in Property Characteristics
If the assessment record has errors about the property, provide evidence of such. Perhaps you have photographs or contractor bids to support your protest. The Assessor may visit the property to verify such characteristics and adjust the assessment as appropriate.
Protest on Value
If you are protesting your assessment based on value, please know that it is your responsibility to provide data to support your requested change in the assessment. Such data may include a recent appraisal of the property or recent sales/rents of similarly designed properties in competing areas. Any recent sales of the property may also be considered.
Cost Analysis
In simple terms, this analysis is based on the land value, the construction costs, and depreciation for the property. While this method can be valid for protests, it is usually not as persuasive for supporting the value as the Sales or Income analyses.
Sales Analysis
Present sales of similar properties. The sales need to be arm’s length transactions for comparable properties. There are not fixed parameters but the best sales are:
- Recent
- Nearby
- Size
- Appeal to the same type of buyer (owner-user vs investor)
It may be helpful to create a table that compares your those sales to your property, something like this.
| Property | Subject | Sale 1 | Sale 2 | Sale 3 |
| Assessed Value/Price | $200,000 | $180,000 | $190,000 | $200,000 |
| Size | 1,800 sf | 1,600 sf | 1,800 sf | 1,900 sf |
| Age | 35 yrs | 33 yrs | 37 yrs | 36 yrs |
| Quality | Average | Average | Average | Good |
The three sales are compared to the subject.
- Sale #1 is inferior for size so supports a value above $180,000.
- Sale #2 is similar to the subject so supports a value near $190,000.
- Sale #3 is superior for size and quality so supports a value less than $200,000.
These three sales support a value less than $200,000, and near $190,000 has the best support.
Income Analysis
An income analysis is based on reviewing the potential revenues and expenses, and then applying a capitalization factor to arrive at a value.
It may be helpful to present some of these items for your protest.
- Information about your subject property
- Rent roll showing units, sizes, rents, and any reimbursement expenses
- Listings of space for rent in your property
- Profit & Loss statements for the last few years for your property
- Rents for comparable properties
- Profit & Loss statements for comparable properties
- Revenue multipliers or capitalization rates for sales
It’s not that you necessarily have to present all these, but the more complete the information, the more compelling the protest may be.
Protest on Equalization
Equalization is having competing properties assessed at similar ratios to their actual market value. To protest based on equalization, show competing properties of the same use classification that have lower assessed values compared to their values. Below is an example.
| Subject Property | Competing Property | |
|---|---|---|
| Assessed Value | $200,000 | $200,000 |
| Actual Market Value | $200,000 | $240,000 |
| Ratio of Assessed Value to Market Value | 100% | 83% |
In the example above, the competing property is assessed the same as the subject property, but the ratio isn’t fair. If the subject were assessed at 83% of its value, then its assessed value would be $166,000.