Your August TRIM notice starts a hard 25-day clock to challenge your assessment. Miss it and you carry an inflated bill for a full year. Enter the mailing date on your notice to get your county Value Adjustment Board deadline and a plain read on whether your assessment looks high enough to be worth fighting.
Every August, Florida property appraisers mail a Notice of Proposed Property Taxes, the TRIM notice. It is not a bill. It is your preview of what the appraiser thinks your home is worth and what the taxing authorities plan to charge. Buried in it is a hard deadline: under Florida Statute 194.011(3), a petition to your county Value Adjustment Board on a value issue must be filed within 25 days of the mailing date. Because notices go out in mid-August, most county deadlines fall in mid-September. Miss that date and, short of a good-cause exception, you carry the assessment for the full year with no way to challenge it. The tool above turns the mailing date on your notice into your exact deadline and a live countdown.
An appeal is not a complaint that your taxes are high. It is a specific argument that the appraiser valued your property above what it is worth. The question that matters is simple: is the market or just value on your notice higher than what your home would realistically sell for today? If yes, and you can back it with recent comparable sales, a value petition has a real basis. If the appraiser's value is at or below a realistic sale price, a value appeal is a harder case, and your energy may be better spent confirming your exemptions are all in place. This is why the tool asks for two numbers: the appraiser's value and your honest estimate of market value.
Homesteaded owners need to read their notice carefully, because it shows two different values. The market or just value is the appraiser's opinion of what the home is worth. The assessed value is often lower, because the Save Our Homes cap limits how fast a homestead's assessed value can rise to 3 percent a year. You appeal the market or just value, not the capped assessed value. If your assessed value is far below market because of years of Save Our Homes protection, that gap is a benefit, not an error, and it is not grounds for a value appeal. Enter the market or just value line into the tool, not the capped number.
Find the appraiser's market or just value and the petition deadline printed on the notice, usually in the lower right. Enter the mailing date above to get your countdown.
Pull three to five recent sales of similar nearby homes that closed below your assessed market value. A comparative valuation is the core of a value case. A Momentum agent can prepare one from current sales.
File the DR-486 petition with your county Clerk of the Value Adjustment Board on or before the deadline. The fee is capped at $15 per parcel under Florida Statute 194.013, and it is waived for eligible recipients of temporary assistance under Chapter 414. Confirm the current amount with your county.
At least 15 days before the hearing, give the property appraiser your evidence and a summary of your witnesses. Present your case to a special magistrate, who recommends a decision to the board. Keep paying at least 75 percent of your ad valorem taxes before the delinquency date so the petition is not denied.
The deadline is calculated as your TRIM notice mailing date plus 25 days, following Florida Statute 194.011(3), which governs the value petition window. The filing-fee cap of $15 per parcel and the temporary-assistance waiver come from Florida Statute 194.013. The petition is the Department of Revenue DR-486 form, available through the Florida Department of Revenue Value Adjustment Board resources. Duval County petitions are filed with the Duval County Value Adjustment Board. The over-assessment read compares the appraiser's market value to your own estimate and is a directional guide only, not an appraisal or a prediction of the board's decision. Exact TRIM mailing dates and deadlines vary by county and are set each August, so confirm your date against your county before filing.
This is educational, not legal, tax, or appraisal advice. Use it to understand your TRIM notice and your deadline, then confirm the specifics with your county property appraiser, Clerk of the Value Adjustment Board, or a qualified professional. Deadlines, fees, and procedures are deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
County pages with the local Value Adjustment Board address, petition form, and filing details:
See whether your rate actually dropped in the rollback rate and TRIM decoder, check the Jacksonville property tax shock study, run the December 31 residency question in the homestead deadline checker, see how much tax benefit you can carry to your next home in the Save Our Homes portability calculator, estimate your year-one bill in the Save Our Homes tax estimator, or open your county from the full Florida property tax hub.
A value appeal lives or dies on comparable sales. A Momentum agent can prepare a hand-built comparative valuation from current sales near you, so you know whether an appeal is worth filing before the deadline.
Request a comparative valuation →