I have had several clients call me in the past few weeks holding a reappraisal notice with the same question. The valuation jumped about 30 percent. The bill is about to follow. What do I do?
Here is the honest read. The math, the deadline, the process, the cost, and the cases where I tell clients to appeal versus leave it alone.
What just happened
Ohio counties run property reappraisals on a six-year cycle, with a three-year triennial update in between. Several Central Ohio counties are in a heavy adjustment year right now.
Fairfield County completed a full reappraisal for tax year 2025. Pickerington and Lancaster homeowners got the notice, with the new bill coming due in 2026. Delaware County is in the middle of a full reappraisal for tax year 2026. Powell, Lewis Center, Sunbury, and the Olentangy footprint are in scope, with notices shipping later this year and bills following in 2027. Franklin County is running a triennial update for tax year 2026, the lighter adjustment, so Westerville, Dublin, New Albany, Bexley, and Upper Arlington homeowners will see smaller jumps than Delaware or Fairfield, but they will see them.
The jumps in this cycle are running roughly 25 to 40 percent on most parcels in the active markets. That is the headline number.
What it does to your actual bill
This is where homeowners stop reading the notice and start panicking. They should not.
Ohio's HB920 tax cap rollback keeps the bill from rising in lockstep with assessed value. When the assessed value jumps 30 percent, the voted millage on most levies gets rolled back so the dollars collected from each levy stay roughly flat. The result: a 30 percent value increase typically produces a 7 to 12 percent bill increase, not a 30 percent one.
That is still real money. On a $700,000 home in Powell, a 10 percent bill increase is roughly $1,300 to $1,500 per year added to escrow, or $13,000 to $15,000 over a ten-year hold. The other thing HB920 does not protect you from is new operating levies that pass during the cycle. If your school district passes a new operating levy, the new value and the new levy compound on each other. That is the worst case for a buyer who just closed at the top of the market.
The deadline nobody tells you about
Ohio's appeal window is hard. You have until March 31 of the year following the tax year to file with the County Board of Revision. Tax year 2026 values are filed via DTE Form 1 by March 31, 2027. There are no extensions. Miss the date and you wait three years for the next triennial update or six for the next full reappraisal.
How the appeal actually works
The process is administrative, not adversarial. The Board of Revision is a three-member panel that includes the county auditor, the county treasurer, and a county commissioner or their designee. They hear hundreds of these a year. They are not the IRS.
Step one. Pull your parcel through the county auditor's website. Find your current assessed value, your prior assessed value, and the recent sales the auditor used to set your new number.
Step two. Decide your evidence. The Board accepts three things: a recent arms-length sale of the subject property in the last 24 months, a recent professional appraisal in the last 24 months, or three comparable sales of similar properties in your immediate area in the last 24 months.
Step three. File DTE Form 1. Most counties accept e-file or mail. The filing fee is zero dollars in Ohio for owner-filed appeals.
Step four. The Board sets a hearing 60 to 180 days after filing. You present your evidence, the auditor's appraiser presents theirs, and the Board rules, usually within 30 days.
Step five if needed. If the Board rules against you and the math justifies it, you can appeal to the Ohio Board of Tax Appeals. That is when the cost goes up.
What it actually costs
An owner-filed Board of Revision appeal with three comparable sales you pull yourself: zero dollars. With a professional appraisal: roughly $300 to $700 for the appraisal, almost always worth it on a home valued over $750,000 because the appraisal is the strongest evidence the Board can see. Attorney-handled: roughly $500 to $2,000 depending on complexity. A Board of Tax Appeals escalation: roughly $3,000 to $10,000 including attorney, expert witnesses, and filing fees, only worth it on a six-figure annual tax liability.
What the success rate looks like
National data on owner-filed property tax appeals tracks 50 to 70 percent winning some reduction when the evidence is real and well-documented. The typical reduction when an appeal succeeds runs 5 to 15 percent of the assessed value. On a $700,000 home with a 30 percent jump that brought the value to $910,000, a successful appeal that knocks 10 percent off puts you near $820,000, roughly $9,000 of assessed value protected per year, which at a 2 percent effective rate is about $180 of annual bill reduction. Modest at the $700K tier, material at the $2M tier.
When I tell clients not to appeal
Three situations where I tell clients to leave the auditor alone. First, the auditor's value is within 5 percent of your recent sale price, because they used your sale to set the value and they are right. Second, you cannot find three comparable sales, because the Board will not accept your opinion of value without documented arms-length comps. Third, the annual bill reduction does not justify the time, because a 5 percent win on a $400,000 home is roughly $400 of value protected per year and your time is worth more than that.
The carpenter's read on this
My dad taught me to build to the inch, not to the eye. The auditor sets your home's value by formula, not by walking your kitchen. They have not seen the dated cabinets, the boiler that needs replacing, or the basement that floods. The comps you bring will. That is the gap that wins appeals.
Pull your parcel before you decide. Look at what the auditor thinks they know about your house, then look at what they actually know. The difference is your evidence.
If you want me to pull your specific parcel, look at the new value against your last appraisal or sale, and tell you whether the math justifies the appeal, that is what I do every week with clients. Call me. If you are in Franklin County and weighing a sale, my Franklin County reappraisal breakdown gets into how the new value affects your listing, and there is more on the Powell and Lewis Center markets if Delaware County is your area.
Adam Geuy at NextHome Experience. 937-239-2919.