The V.A.B.

The Broward County Value Adjustment Board (VAB) is the independent appeals board that has initial jurisdiction over challenges to any property valuations (the "assessed value"), denials of exemptions, denials of classifications, and other similar matters. The VAB is composed of five members: two members of the Broward County Commission, one member of the School Board, and two layperson taxpayers (a homesteaded property owner selected by the County Commission and a commercial property owner selected by the School Board). The Board is completely independent of the Property Appraiser's office.

Challenging Your Property Assessment

If you feel your taxes or tax rates are too high, the Value Adjustment Board cannot help you. You need to attend the annual public budget meetings of those Taxing Authorities (County Commission, School Board, Water Management District, Hospital District, City Commission, etc.) that set the tax rates. You can find a schedule (time, date and place) of all the annual budget public hearings for each governmental entity listing in your TRIM Notice of Proposed Property Taxes mailed to all taxpayers each August.

If you believe the market value as shown in the box "Your Property Value This Year" is higher than the market value of your property as of this past January 1, we encourage you to contact us. One of our Deputy Property Appraisers will happily meet with you and discuss your market value and how it was calculated. After this conference, if you still feel your market value is too high, you can file a simple petition with the VAB. The VAB appeal application forms are available on our website and are also available online on the VAB's website (and you can also check the status of your filed petition). The VAB has a statutory $15 filing fee, which must accompany the application. The VAB does not accept petitions on valuation cases after the mid-September filing deadline.

V.A.B. Hearings

The Value Adjustment Board appoints Special Magistrates -- who are all qualified, professionally designated real estate appraisers and/or attorneys (for exemption cases) -- to conduct the hearings. These Special Magistrates are not connected with the Property Appraiser's office in any way. The only question the Special Magistrates can determine is whether the market value of your property as shown on your TRIM Notice was higher than the property's market value as of January 1. For more details on the Florida Administrative Code rules which govern the VAB process, please click here to visit the Florida Department of Revenue's website.

The Petition Process

You must fill in the petition completely, with all questions answered, or it may be rejected by the VAB. The Petition is filed with the Clerk of the Value Adjustment Board, Broward Government Center, 115 South Andrews Avenue, Room 120, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301. If you have any questions, you may contact the VAB directly at 954.357.7205 or 954.357.5367, or .

Pay close attention to the deadline for filing a petition printed on the TRIM Notice. The deadline for VALUATION disputes is in mid-September of each tax year. For 2024 valuation appeals, the timely filing deadline is September 18, 2024 . Contact the VAB directly for more information about "good cause" late filing if you missed the filing deadline for a value appeal.