For What It May Be Worth

As it is the season for Connecticut municipalities to send out Notices of Assessment to property owners, here are the five steps to take to understand your property assessment and your rights to challenge the municipality’s proposed assessment:

 1. Read your Notice of Assessment.

It might sound simple, but the first thing that you should do is understand the information in the Notice. By law, your Notice of Assessment should include the following information:

1. The prior (2024 Grand List) and proposed (2025 Grand List) gross assessment, net assessment, and any exempt amount(s), which normally are indicated using the 70% assessment ratio; and
2. Information describing the process for filing an appeal with the board of assessment appeals (BAA).

Importantly, most Notices also include a date by which you can schedule a meeting with the municipality’s revaluation company or assessor’s office to discuss the proposed new assessment as of October 1, 2025.

It is critical that you understand the information in your Notice of Assessment, as it contains not only the proposed new assessment, but important dates, deadlines, and processes for challenging your assessment.

2. Check your property’s record/field card(s).

Next, you should review the municipality’s property records for your property. This information is likely available online, either by visiting the revaluation company’s website (normally provided on the Notice) or by visiting your municipal assessor’s website. The field card will provide information on the zoning and acreage of your property, as well as descriptions, including the square footage of improvements on the property, and the property’s historical appraised (100%) and assessed (70%) values.

A review of the field card(s) allows for a better understanding of how the municipality arrived at its assessment. It also gives you the opportunity to identify any errors in the description and/or classification of your property, which you can discuss at your informal hearing or before the local Board of Assessment Appeals.

3. Research Comparable Property Assessments.

Another step you can take to better understand whether your property is fairly assessed is to look up the proposed assessments of similar properties in your neighborhood or municipality, as those proposed assessments could provide some insight into your own property’s assessment. Further, knowledge of recent sales of similar properties that closely precede the date of valuation – October 1, 2025 – are likely to be more helpful in considering the assessed value of your property.

4. Take advantage of your various opportunities to challenge an assessment.

As mentioned previously, your Notice of Assessment should include the opportunity to schedule an informal hearing with your local assessor’s office or with the revaluation company that conducted the municipality-wide revaluation.

These informal hearings may benefit you in multiple ways. First, they provide an opportunity to present your own opinion of value of your property, including presenting any comparable property sales you may have, as well as to discuss any errors noted in the assessor’s records. Second, the informal hearing will also give you an opportunity to hear directly from the party responsible for assessing the property and better understand how your property was assessed. 

The informal hearing is the first opportunity to challenge your proposed assessment. If the desired result is not obtained at the informal hearing, you still have multiple opportunities to challenge your property’s assessed value. The second appeal opportunity will be before your municipality’s Board of Assessment Appeals. The deadline to appeal to the Board of Assessment Appeals will be either February 20, 2026 or March 20, 2026, depending on your municipality.

If you are unsuccessful before the Board of Assessment Appeals, there is yet another opportunity to appeal – this time to the Superior Court.

5. Contact Pullman & Comley to assist with challenging your assessment.

The attorneys and paralegals in our Property Tax and Valuation Department have over 100 years of combined experience navigating all stages of the property tax appeal process, helping commercial property owners understand their property tax assessments, and assisting taxpayers in exercising their appeal rights.

If you would like to learn more about Connecticut’s property tax appeal process, or better understand your Notice of Assessment, please contact the Pullman & Comley property tax and valuation department for more information.

To read an alert including a full list of Connecticut towns undergoing revaluations this year, click here.