How to Appeal Your Property Taxes in Florida: The VAB Petition, Step by Step

If your TRIM Notice shows a market value that looks higher than what comparable homes near you actually sold for, Florida gives you a formal way to challenge it: a petition to your county's Value Adjustment Board (VAB). Homeowners file these petitions themselves every year — no lawyer required. Here is how the process runs, end to end.

Before anything else: the deadline

You have 25 days by law from the mailing of your TRIM Notice to file the petition. The exact date is printed on the notice itself. This is the one step that cannot be recovered: file late and the value stands for the year — late petitions are accepted only for narrow good cause, so do not count on being the exception. Everything else in this guide can be revisited; the deadline effectively cannot.

Step 1 — Pull your property record

Start with your county Property Appraiser's record card for your parcel, available on every county appraiser's website. Check the facts the county used: living area, year built, lot size, bedroom and bathroom count, pool or garage. A factual error here — square footage the county has wrong, a feature that does not exist — is the simplest kind of appeal, and the appraiser's office will often correct a documented error informally, before any petition.

Step 2 — Gather comparable sales

The core of most appeals is market evidence: recent closed sales of homes similar to yours, near yours, from before the January 1 assessment date. Similar means similar — size, age, condition, neighborhood. Three to five solid comparables, adjusted for differences, carry more weight than a long list of loosely similar ones. Asking prices are not evidence; closed sales are.

This is the step most homeowners underestimate. Finding the right sales, adjusting them defensibly, and citing them in the format the board expects is where an appeal is won or lost — and it is exactly the part our report prepares for you.

Step 3 — File the petition

File the petition form your county's Value Adjustment Board accepts — most counties use the state's standard form — with the clerk of the VAB before your deadline. The filing fee is set by each county's VAB — most Florida counties now charge $50, a few still charge less, following the 2025 change in state law that raised the cap — so confirm the amount on your county VAB's website. Filing preserves your rights even if you later settle with the Property Appraiser or decide not to pursue a hearing.

Step 4 — Exchange evidence

After you file, both sides exchange the evidence they intend to present. Florida's rules give you the right to see what the Property Appraiser will use against your petition — ask for it, and read it. Sometimes the county's own comparables make your case better than yours do.

Step 5 — The hearing

VAB hearings are heard by a special magistrate, not a courtroom judge, and they are less formal than court. You present your comparables and explain the adjustment logic; the appraiser's office presents theirs; the magistrate recommends a decision to the board. Many homeowners handle this themselves. Bring copies, be brief, and let the numbers talk.

What the VAB can and cannot do

The board reviews the evidence and either lowers the value or leaves it unchanged — filing a petition does not, by itself, raise your assessment. Many homeowners who bring credible comparable-sales evidence see a reduction; some see no change. No honest guide can promise you an outcome, and you should be wary of anyone who does.

What it costs to do this

Three ways people get it done. Fully DIY: the county filing fee ($50 in most Florida counties, less in a few) plus your own hours pulling records and comps. A contingency firm: no upfront fee, but many firms charge 25% to 40% of your first-year savings — every year you use them. Or a flat-fee preparation service like ours: $199 once, for the comparable-sales report, the valuation analysis, and your county's official petition form — you complete it, you file it, and you keep 100% of any reduction, this year and every year it carries forward.

Not sure your home is a candidate? Run the free check first — if the market evidence is not there, we would rather tell you that before you spend anything.