The 2024 Value Adjustment Board (VAB) cycle has been completed and this is a good time to review, and in some cases, update our citizens on Florida’s value adjustment board process prior to this year’s decisions. If you feel your property is improperly assessed, your first stop should be with the property appraiser. If after you still believe your assessment is incorrect, the VAB process is available.
The VAB settles disputes between taxpayers and the County’s Property Appraiser. Taxpayers are notified each August of their property’s assessed and market values in a Truth in Millage (TRIM) notice. A taxpayer may file a petition with the Value Adjustment Board if he or she feels the Property Appraiser’s assessment, classification or exemption status for their property is not correct. The cost to file this petition with the VAB is $15.
The VAB is an independent entity and is not affiliated with the Clerk and Comptroller, Property Appraiser, or the Tax Collector. Board membership consists of two county commissioners, one school board member and two citizen members who approve and hire special magistrates to settle disputes during scheduled quasi-judicial hearings. The chairman must be one of the county commissioners. One citizen member must own homestead property within the county and the other citizen member must own a business occupying commercial space located within the school district. Two-fifths of the expenses of the VAB shall be borne by the district school board and three-fifths by the district county commission.
The Value Adjustment Board is required to be represented by independent private counsel and no meeting of the VAB may take place unless counsel to the VAB is present. In counties with populations exceeding 75,000, including Collier County, the VAB is required to appoint special magistrates to take testimony and make recommendations on petitions filed with the Value Adjustment Board. Florida Statutes entrust the Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller to administer the Value Adjustment Board process. These duties include the receipt and processing of petitions, maintenance of a VAB database and scheduling and recording the special magistrate hearings.
At a VAB hearing on value, the special magistrate will determine if the assessment complies with applicable law and professionally accepted appraisal practices. This determination is based on evidence produced by the Property Appraiser. The special magistrate will determine if the market value exceeds just value (or is less than just value, if applicable) based on evidence produced by the petitioner. At a VAB hearing involving denial of a classification or exemption, or involving portability transfer, the special magistrate will determine if the petitioner is entitled to the classification, exemption, or portability transfer requested by the petitioner based on evidence produced by the petitioner. A taxpayer may institute legal action in the circuit court at any time during the VAB process.
Timely filed petitions for the 2024 Value Adjustment Board cycle were due by 5:00 PM, Friday, September 13, 2024. Taxpayers may file petitions after this date, but the VAB counsel must determine that the petitioner has a good cause that justifies consideration and that the delay will not be harmful to the performance of VAB functions in the taxing process. “Good cause” means the verifiable showing of extraordinary circumstances such as personal, family or business crisis, physical or mental illness, miscommunication with the Property Appraiser or Clerk to the VAB or any other cause beyond the control of the petitioner that would prevent a reasonably prudent petitioner from timely filing.
For the 2024 cycle the Clerk to the VAB received 593 petitions covering 804 individual parcels, with most of the petitions related to property valuation. As a result of these petitions, 229 went to hearings before the magistrates. The increase in average taxable property valuation from January 1, 2023, to January 1, 2024, was 10.2%.
The results of the magistrate hearings and the statistics relating to the 2024 VAB cycle were presented to the Value Adjustment Board for final approval and discussion at an advertised hearing held on March 17, 2025. The 2024 VAB cycle resulted in an overall decrease in taxable value of $17,363,512 for both residential and commercial property due to a variety of circumstances. Timely filed petitions for the 2025 Value Adjustment Board cycle will be due by 5:00 PM, Friday, September 12, 2025. For more information, please visit our website at www.collierclerk.com.
Citizen Reminder:
Often citizens do not understand, or it is not made clear to them during a property sales transaction, that in the year of purchase of a residence the new buyer assumes the seller’s valuation for property tax purposes. In the case of a homestead property, capped at an increase of 3% per year, the valuation transferred as of January 1 of the year of sale can be significantly less than the actual value of the home. This amount resets in the subsequent year and can be dramatically different than the taxable value of the property in the previous owner’s hands.
Florida’s Save Our Homes portability provision allows you to transfer up to $500,000 of tax benefit from a Florida home with a homestead exemption to a new home within the state of Florida that qualifies for a homestead exemption. To qualify for portability, you must establish your new residence on or before January 1, of the third year after leaving your previous homestead. Portability can constitute a tremendous tax savings for Florida residents.