If you do not agree with the actual value the assessor has placed on your property, you can begin by submitting a protest to the assessor. If this does not resolve the situation, you can appeal the assessor’s decision to the county board of equalization. As a final option, if you are dissatisfied with the county board’s decision, you can appeal to an arbitrator, district court, or the Board of Assessment Appeals.

Colorado has a strict timeline that must be followed for appeals (see below). There are also restrictions about the data upon which the valuation is based. For 2013 values, the assessor’s base period (usually 18 months) ranged from January 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012. As mentioned previously, commercial real estate valuations are based on market, cost or income values, while residential property values can only be based on market value.

Valuation and Appeals Timeline:

May 1: Real Property Notices of Valuation are mailed out to property owners. These notices list the location, classification and value of your property for the previous year as well as the current one so that you can see if the value has increased.

June 1: Deadline to deliver or mail protests to the county assessor. Protests can be made orally or written.

End of June: The assessor has until the last working day of June to make a decision regarding your protest.

July 15: Deadline to apply to the county board of equalization to appeal the assessor’s decision.

August 5: Last day for the county board to conduct hearings on appeals. The board must notify you of its decision within five days of making it.

August/September: Further appeals must be made within 30 days of the mailing date of the county board’s decision.

Counties can decide to extend these deadlines, so it is recommended that you contact your county assessor’s office for the deadlines they are following at the time you wish to file a protest or appeal. Denver County also has different dates this year because of a pilot program.

3 Keys to a Successful Appeal

Before embarking on the appeal process, make sure that you have an argument for why the assessed value is inaccurate other than that the taxes are “too high.” There are three key ingredients to a successful appeal.

Know the rules. Make sure that you know the 18-month base period for data (January 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012 for 2013) so that your appeal will be given full consideration. If you provide sales comparisons or other data that is not within the allotted time period for the assessment, then your appeal is unlikely to succeed.

Do your research. The best appeals provide the assessor with additional information that they did not have. The first place to start is by collecting all the details you can about sales on comparable properties during the base period so that you can paint a complete picture about these properties and yours in comparison to them. For commercial properties, you should also gather information about competitive rental rates and operation expenses. You may be able to show that your property has higher expenses or lower rents than the market the assessor’s statistical model was unaware of.

Provide supporting evidence. If your property does not conform to statistical model being used by the assessor’s office, be sure to show them why this is. This can be a sale offer that supports a lower market value, decrease in income that shows an under-performing asset, or other details about the property or its defects for which the assessor’s model did not take into account. The condition of the property can also affect the valuation, so providing photos, especially of any defects, can sometimes provide support for a reduction in value.

If the appeals process appears daunting, there are a number of real estate consulting and law firms with their own appraisers who can assist you with appeals process. They can ensure that you meet all necessary deadlines as well as helping with the compiling and sorting through the research. Most work on contingency, charging a percentage of the tax dollars saved, so you only pay if the appeal succeeds.

This blog was written by Bob Amter, President of Montegra Capital Resources, LTD., a Colorado hard money lender.  [google_authorship] has been in the private capital lending business for 41 consecutive years.