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Allegheny County Appeals
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT ALLEGHENY COUNTY TAX ASSESSMENT APPEALS
Why did I receive a letter from you?
You received a letter because our research indicated that you may benefit from an Allegheny County tax assessment appeal, and it is likely that you are over assessed. This is based on an algorithm that takes into account when you purchased your property and the percentage of change in value of properties in your zip code since that time. However, no individual analysis has been completed prior to sending the letter, and therefore, there is no guarantee at this point that you are over assessed. That would be done after you respond to our mailing and indicate you are interested in us looking more closely at your case (by completing the easy form above).
Why should I file a tax assessment appeal now?
Due to recent litigation, (Gioffre v. Fitzgerald et al (GD 21-7154) in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, where the Plaintiffs allege that the Allegheny County Assessment Office submitted improperly coded sales data to the State Tax Equalization Board (STEB), Allegheny Court of Common Pleas judge Alan Herzberg issued a preliminary injunction to reduce the common level ratio (CLR) for 2022 appeals in Allegheny County from 81.1 to 63.53. The CLR is what converts your assessed value, which was based on the 2012 countywide reassessment to the current market. The CLR fluctuates from year to year. Here is an example of how this change affects tax assessment appeals.
Say you can prove at your tax assessment appeal hearing that your property is valued at $100,000.
Under the old formula: $100,000 x 81.1% = new assessment of 81,100
Under the new formula: $100,000 x 63.5% = new assessment of 63,530
How does this affect your taxes? Your taxes are calculated by multiplying the millage by the assessment. To find your total annual tax bill, you would add up your Allegheny County, municipal, and school millages and multiply by your assessment and divide by 1000. Here is an example if the above property is in Mount Lebanon Township.
Allegheny County 4.73 mills + Mt Lebanon Township 4.91 mills + Mt Lebanon School District 25.59 mills = Total 35.23 mills.
Under the old formula = 81,100 x 35.23 mills divided by 1000 = Your annual tax bill is $2,857
Under the new formula = 63,500 x 35.23 mills divided by 1000 = Your annual tax bill is $2,237
As you can see, due to the recent litigation and the reduction in the CLR, it is much more beneficial to file a tax assessment appeal now than it was before the litigation.
For appeals in 2024 the common level ratio is 54.5%. So under this formula, a property that is valued at $100,000 for 2024 market value purposes would have a new assessment of 54,500. At this point, we would be filing an appeal for you for 2024.
Ok, I’m interested. What is the process?
No fee is due up front. Tell us you’re interested by signing and emailing the representation agreement included in your mailing to allegheny@lavangalaw.com, mailing the agreement to Lavanga Law, 322 North Shore Drive, Building 1B, Ste 200, Pittsburgh, PA 15212 or faxing the agreement to 215-689-3480. If you purchased your property after 1/1/23, please send a copy of your ALTA or HUD-1 settlement statement. Otherwise, our staff will do an informal analysis of your property based upon Allegheny County records and compare it to recent sales of similar properties. Similar properties would be properties in your school district that are similar in age, style, size, amenities, etc. After this step, we will share our findings on value by email, tell you how much you will save if we can ultimately prove that value, give a recommendation on the likelihood that your appeal will succeed, and tell you if we recommend or do not recommend that we proceed. We would then refer this to our appraiser.
2. As the deadline to file is March 31, 2024, we may file the appeal before your appraisal comes back. In the highly unlikely event that the appraisal does not support an assessment decrease, we would withdraw the appeal so you would not be exposed to an assessment increase.
3. After we file the appeal, we attend the hearing on your behalf and represent you in Pittsburgh. We will get a notice of the hearing date and time, and you will be copied on the notice. You do NOT need to attend. Hearings are usually by phone.
4. Decisions are typically made 60-90 days after the hearing. After we are notified of the decision, we will analyze it and determine the following:
A. If the decision is what we expected or close to what we expected, and you received a reduction, you would pay a fee of 50% of the difference between what your taxes would have been before the appeal and what they would be after the appeal as a tax reduction fee. For example, if your taxes were $10,000 and you received a decrease that would have made your taxes $8,000 had that assessment been in place in 2024, you would have a $2,000 annual decrease, and you would owe a fee of $1,000. ($2,000 x 50% = $1,000). Please note that this fee is not affected by changes in millage for 2025 — we are comparing your current millage before and after the appeal to determine the fee. This new assessment is permanent unless you make a change to the property that would result in an interim assessment increase, or there is another countywide re-assessment, which is not likely to happen for a very long time. At this point our representation is complete. There are no fees for future years, unless you want us to file a new appeal for a future year.
If our initial projection on the letter you received showed a projected savings above $2,000 a year, no appraisal or filing fee is due, and your only fee is the 50% of the first year’s savings. This would be reflected on your agreement. So for example, if we saved you $3,000, your fee is $1,500, inclusive of all fees and costs.
If our initial projection on the letter you received showed a projective savings below $2,000 a year, you would pay an additional $500 on top of the 50% of the first year’s savings, however this is capped as an overall fee for our legal services and the appraisal and filing fee at your annual savings. For example, if we wind up only saving you $400, your fee would normally be $700 ($500 for the appraisal and filing fee and $200 for 50% of $400. However, the fee would be reduced to your annual savings so your only fee would be $400.
B. If the decision not what we expected, (this could happen if your case is completely denied or you receive a smaller reduction than expected) we will make an evaluation as to what went wrong, and if we determine the Board was in error and that an appeal to the Court of Common Pleas, Board of Viewers may result in a $1,000 or greater decrease in your taxes, we will file an appeal to this Court. At that point, we are typically negotiating a settlement with the solicitor for your school district. The school district may order their own appraisal at their expense. You will be informed of settlement negotiations and will have the right to accept or reject any settlement. This process sometimes takes a year or more, but any reduction would be retroactive to 2024, so you would receive a tax refund if you had already paid 2024 taxes. If we receive an acceptable settlement, you would pay a fee of 50% of the difference between what your taxes would have been before the settlement and what they would be after the settlement. For example, if your taxes were $10,000, and the Board reduced them to $9,000, but we believe they should have decreased them to $8,000 and we reach a settlement reducing them to $8,000, you would owe a fee of $1,000. ($2,000 x 50% = $1,000). If you got a small reduction as a result of Board’s decision, you would get a bill for the small reduction (in this case, $500) and then a second bill for the difference between the reduced assessment after the Board’ decision and the further reduced assessment after the settlement (in this case, another $500).
C. If we get denied, and we determine it is not in your best interest to pursue an additional appeal, or if we are unable to reach a settlement after the additional appeal, we would terminate representation. No fee is due at all for appeals where we achieve no assessment reduction.
How long is the savings good for?
Your assessment reduction would be good until the next countywide reassessment, you file another appeal, or you make a substantial change to the property that results in an interim assessment increase. You do NOT have to appeal year after year unless you want to.
Can my assessment go up as a result of an appeal?
In theory, your assessment can increase, decrease, or stay the same as a result of an appeal. In practice your assessment will never go up, as our appraiser would measure your property and any discrepancies between the official county records and your actual property would be noted. If we determine that after an appraisal it is not in your best interest to continue with the appeal because you risk an increase, we would withdraw or just not file the appeal.
How long does this process take?
This may be a long process. The 2022 appeal season has not concluded as of January, 2024. We expect that 2024 appeals will start being held in May of 2024 and continue for most of the year. Filing your 2024 appeal before March 31, 2024 preserves your rights and will allow any reduction to be retroactive to 2024 (and result in a refund), however, it’s very possible we do not get a decision until late in 2024 or even 2025.