Property tax bills can startle home owners and commercial property owners, especially those who believe their assessments are too high.
In communities throughout Connecticut, property owners are fighting town hall, either through appeals to local boards that assess the property assessments or through the courts.
In Connecticut, boards of assessment appeals are empowered by state statutes to hear appeals and make adjustments to assessments levied by local town assessors. The boards have the authority to raise, decrease, or make no change to the assessment in question.
Boards also have the option of declining to hear an appeal on property with a value of $1 million or more. In those cases appellants can make an appeal to superior court.
Locally elected boards meet to hear appeals in March for real estate and personal property, and in September for the supplemental motor vehicle list of the previous grand list year.
Appeal applications must be filed on or before Feb. 20 and all appellants must appear in person or send a duly authorized representative, such as an attorney, appraiser or other qualified professional, to the scheduled appeals appointment. boards will not hear appeals if the appellant or representative does not attend the scheduled meeting.
Appellants or their representative must also consent to be sworn in before giving testimony and answer all questions touching their taxable property, according to state statutes.
Many municipalities in the state contract with private appraisal companies to conduct their revaluation, which is required every five years by state law.
The Middletown Board of Assessment Appeals, for example, has heard 90 property owners’ appeals of their 2025 tax bills this year. That number was nearly double what the board heard on 2023 assessments and more than double than it heard regarding 2024 assessments, according to city records.
The board approved 19 appeals and denied 71. Some of the denials were for no-shows and appellants who withdrew their claims. The board also denied two appeals that were valued at more than $1 million, according to city records.
In Westport, after the town’s five-year property revaluation in October which saw values rise, homeowners knocked about $16 million off their property assessments, town officials said.
About 370 property assessments were appealed to Westport’s Board of Assessment Appeals — 66 commercial and 305 residential, said Assessor Paul Friia. All the appeals, which resulted in a total reduction of $16,483,057, were tied to the revaluation, said Friia.
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