Seven Steps Property Owners Should Take in the Event of a Revaluation

While the time to appeal property tax assessments is in February, it is critical for Connecticut property owners to take action now to determine if they will appeal and, if so, to get the wheels in motion well ahead of the deadline.

Bridgeport, Fairfield, Greenwich, Newington and Westport are among 32 Connecticut municipalities conducting a general revaluation on the Oct. 1, 2025, Grand List. Depending upon the municipality, property owners have either already received their change of assessment notice from their local tax assessor or will receive them within the next month.

In a revaluation, the assessor determines the value of every parcel of real property in the municipality as of the Oct. 1 revaluation date. Connecticut law requires municipalities to conduct a general revaluation at least once every five years. Therefore, in the ordinary course, the assessment established on the revaluation date will be used to determine the taxes to be levied for the next five years.

Appealing immediately after a revaluation maximizes a property owner’s potential tax savings. The importance of challenging a property’s value is emphasized this year given the volatility in the real estate market, and, in many instances, the shifting of the tax burden from certain market segments to others, e.g., office/retail to multi-family residential/industrial.

The key issue in a property tax appeal is the property’s true value as of the Oct. 1 revaluation date. Even if an assessment has decreased since the last revaluation, an excessive assessment will result in the property owner bearing a disproportionate share of the tax burden.

Local assessors gather property-related data and information on an ongoing basis but ramp up their efforts in the months leading up to a revaluation. If your municipality is conducting a general revaluation for the Oct. 1, 2025, Grand List, you will have already received, or soon will receive, a notice of tax assessment. Once the notices are issued, there may be a chance to meet informally with the assessor or his representative to discuss the new assessed value; however, if a property owner wishes to challenge the assessment formally, a written appeal must be filed with the local Board of Assessment Appeals by the Feb. 20, 2026, statutory deadline. In some situations the deadline may be extended, but unless your municipality notifies you of this extension, you should assume the Feb. 20 deadline applies.

What Steps Should a Property Owner Take With a Revaluation?

Here are seven steps for property owners to take or consider with their revaluation:

1. Watch for notice from the municipality related to the revaluation. This notice usually contains information on the new assessed value, the opportunity to meet informally with the assessor or his representative and the deadline (Feb. 20) to appeal to the local Board of Assessment Appeals.
2. Review the notice carefully. Does it accurately identify your property? Do you own other parcels for which you did not receive notices? If the assessor’s new value is stated in the notice, do you believe that it reflects the property’s true fair market value as of Oct. 1, 2024, based on market conditions and property-specific facts?
3. If you believe the new value is too high, assemble information and documentation which supports your position. Recent appraisals, listings for sale and offers to purchase, sales of comparable properties, income and expense statements, leases and the like are all helpful in determining a property’s value. Of course, data close in time to the Oct. 1, 2025, revaluation date will be most relevant.
4. Confer with experienced legal counsel. In consultation with counsel, all matters related to the property’s value as of the revaluation date and appropriate legal and valuation grounds for an appeal will be discussed, and a go-forward strategy will be formulated.
5. Decide whether to attend an informal meeting or to appeal to the Board of Assessment Appeals. Often, factual errors or mistakes may be corrected during an informal meeting with the assessor or his/her representative. The formal appeal process, however, begins with filing a written appeal with the Board of Assessment Appeals. Unless extended, the deadline to do so is Feb. 20, 2026, although an appeal should be prepared well in advance of the deadline. Except in unusual circumstances, you will lose the ability to challenge the Oct. 1, 2025, assessment if a timely appeal to the Board is not filed.
6. Once the Board issues its decision, decide whether to appeal to the Superior Court. If a property owner remains dissatisfied with the Board’s decision, the only recourse is to appeal to the Superior Court. A court appeal must be filed within two months of the Board’s decision, or the right to appeal is lost.
7. Work with experienced legal counsel to identify a qualified appraiser. With the 2022 revisions to Conn. Gen. Stat. §12-117a, a property owner who appeals their assessment to Court, where the assessment is over $1 million in value, must file an appraisal with the Court not later than 120 days after the commencement of the appeal. This highlights the importance of getting an expert appraiser involved early on.

As with any contested administrative or court proceeding, the decision whether to pursue a tax appeal should not be made lightly. A thoughtful, critical analysis of whether an appeal is warranted in the first instance is essential, and it will usually result in a financial benefit to the property owner, whether an appeal is ultimately pursued or not. Once an appeal is underway, the property owner and counsel must work as a team to prepare a compelling presentation to the Board and, if necessary, to the Court, utilizing fact and expert witnesses and documentary evidence to establish that the municipality’s value is excessive, and that the taxpayer’s proposed value is correct.

If you need assistance or want more information about appealing your revaluation, our Commercial Real Estate Practice Group can help. Please contact attorney Nicholas W. Vitti Jr. at (203) 653 -5435 and nvitti@harrisbeachmurtha.com; attorney Joseph D. Szerejko at (860) 240-6186 and jszerejko@harrisbeachmurtha.com; or the Harris Beach Murtha attorney with whom you most frequently work.

This alert is not a substitute for advice of counsel on specific legal issues.

Harris Beach Murtha’s lawyers and consultants practice from offices throughout Connecticut in Bantam, Hartford, New Haven and Stamford; New York state in Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, Ithaca, New York City, Niagara Falls, Rochester, Saratoga Springs, Syracuse, Long Island and White Plains, as well as in Boston, Massachusetts, and Newark, New Jersey.

Harris Beach Murtha is the exclusive member firm in Connecticut for the American Property Tax Counsel (APTC) – the only organization of law firms providing major portfolio owners with a single source for their property tax reporting and tax reduction needs. Nicholas W. Vitti Jr. and Joseph D. Szerejko are the APTC representatives for Connecticut from Harris Beach Murtha.