Thousands of property owners file value appeals
Boards of Revision in Montgomery, Greene, Butler counties report high but not record-level appeals after spike in property tax valuations.
Thousands of property owners who have appealed their new county-set valuations in Greene, Montgomery and Butler counties are seeking decreases to their homes’ values for tax purposes.
Although it was a record-breaking year for property values in many Ohio counties, auditor’s offices in the region reported that the number of appeals their revision boards have received has not been as historic.
Montgomery County’s Board of Revision received appeals on 3,081 properties.
“That’s not the most we’ve ever gotten, and it’s not the fewest,” said Mike Brill, the Montgomery County Auditor’s Office communications and community engagement manager.
In Greene County, 541 parcels are linked to appeals, while the Butler County board received 592 applications for appeals.
How the process works
Montgomery County saw residential property values increase by an average of 34% countywide as part of the state-mandated triennial update last year. Similarly, Greene and Butler counties saw average increases of 29% and 37%, respectively.
Final property values were released in January, and property owners received a notice of their property value in the mail or viewed it online.
Between Jan. 1 and April 1, property owners filed appeals with their county’s Board of Revision if they disagreed with their new value. People filing complaints about their values in this formal process were tasked with providing evidence for their proposed value change.
Property taxes don’t rise in lockstep with property values, but they did go up for most residents. The Montgomery County average increase was about 6%,
and the Greene County average rise was 13%, but some communities were hit harder.
Appeal breakdown by county
Of the 3,000-plus Montgomery County appeals that were filed, the Board of Revision has already made decisions on 821 properties. A total of 47% of these properties received a decrease in value.
Another 115 properties were dismissed or withdrawn, according to data provided by the Montgomery County Auditor’s Office, and more than 2,000 still await a decision by the county’s Board of Revision.
The number of appeals filed this year is a decrease from the 2020 reappraisal of property in the county, which saw 4,500 appeals filed. After the 2017 triennial update, the office saw 3,500 appeals.
For Greene County, hearings for appeals will begin this month and go through June.
The revision board has 26 offers to settle complaints filed during the appeal application period, and Greene County Auditor David Graham said that number will likely grow as the process continues.
The Butler County Board of Revision will begin its appeals hearings in the coming weeks, according to Butler County Auditor Nancy Nix.
The Butler County board received 592 applications for appeals, 80% of which will result in a hearing. Of these appeals, 506 are for residential properties. Butler County is home to more than 160,000 parcels of property total.
“I believe we had a couple hundred cases last year, but keep in mind 2022 was not an update year like 2023 was,” Nix said.
“Update years normally result in a higher number of (Board of Revision) cases because the values recently changed.”
Property owners in Ohio could challenge their home value in a couple of stages. County auditor’s offices last year had informal review periods where property owners could come into their offices and provide more information about their property and ask questions about the valuation process. The appeal process is a formalized step to challenge a property’s value.
In Montgomery County, these informal reviews resulted in $37.4 million in changes in property values, with the values of thousands of properties lowered.