Summit and Wasatch County Utah Property Tax Appeals

PLEASE NOTE: as of September 11, 2023, we are no longer able to help with appeals. We helped more than 25 people and hope they received some tax relief.

As a courtesy to our friends and clients, we help prepare tax appeals, and this year, we have helped more people than ever. When I say we “help” people, we show them how to prepare their appeal and provide them with comparable sales. We do not prepare the actual property tax appeals.

These past 2 years, Summit and Wasatch County have each become much more “aggressive” on their proposed “assessed value” for real property. The good and bad news of this is that for some, the assessed value has finally caught up to the market value. We all know the dramatic increases in sales price and equity since 2020.

Here are a few things to know before contacting us for help with your appeal.  

1. The deadline for appeals is 5:00 p.m. on September 15, 2023. You may not file a late appeal. If you would like help in obtaining comparable sales, please contact us by the end of August.  

2. The property tax appeal process is not designed to require a real estate or legal professional. Most of the time we are contacted to provide comparable sales to help support a tax appeal. You can learn more about the process for Summit County Property Tax Appeals and Wasatch County Property Tax Appeals.

3. The best property tax appeal is one where the owner can demonstrate that the assessor’s information includes incorrect information other than value about the owner’s property. Examples of this are incorrect acreage, incorrect square footage, incorrect property classification, etc. This type of appeal does not require an appraisal or other evidence of value, just evidence that the data in the County’s file about the property is incorrect.

4. The second best property tax appeal is one where the assessor has valued the property at a value greater than the price the owner paid for the property in the prior 12 months. This type of appeal also does not require an appraisal. Did you purchase your home in 2022 and the County valued it for more than you paid? You now have a great case.

5. The third best property tax appeals are those where the owner has obtained an appraisal from a licensed appraiser at a value significantly less than the value ascribed to the property by the County Assessor. Did you refinance in 2022 and have a copy of the appraisal?   

6. The fourth best property tax appeals are those where the owner or an agent has selected from a group of sales comparable sales and calculated the value of the property in question by adjusting the values to attempt to establish a lower value. These are the types of appeals where we can assist. There is no guarantee they will work, but it doesn’t hurt to try. We have seen many clients who follow our instructions successfully lower their assessed value. If we cannot find comparable sales to support a lower assessed value for your home we will let you know and at that point, you have no basis for filing an appeal.

We have written a couple of other articles about this topic that you may find useful. First, learn how property taxes work in these two counties. Second, make sure you are paying the correct property taxes and learn about various tax relief programs.

Good luck with your Wasatch or Summit County tax appeal, and please let us know how we can help.