Philadelphia has property taxes: each parcel and building in town is worth something, and the City of Philadelphia wants a cut of that worth – a cut of property value. When the price of your house goes up, the City of Philadelphia wants a cut of that increased value. To figure out how much the value of your house might have increased, the Office of Property Assessment (OPA) estimates the price of every parcel and building in all 143 square miles of Philly. This is the entire point of the department, right in the name: a property assessment. If their latest assessment of your house’s value is higher than previously estimated, Philadelphia will raise your property tax.
So far, so good. And normal enough: Philadelphia isn’t the only city in America with a property tax system, and property has been taxed since way before the American Revolution. But this year’s assessment isn’t going so hot, for a few reasons:
The Problems with Philly’s 2024 Property Assessments
1. It took forever to deliver the assessments
The OPA’s 2024 property assessments (which set the 2025 property tax rates) were released on August 7th, just two months before the October 7th deadline to appeal the assessments (more on that in a minute). No one outside the mayor’s office seems to know why the assessments took so long. They might not know inside the mayor’s office, either: different Parker administration officials provided different assessment deadlines to reporters in the early part of this year, but the Office of Property Assessment blew through those deadlines, and eventually the mayor’s office just stopped offering assessment delivery dates. Now, suddenly, the property tax assessments are here!
2. Philly’s assessment process hasn’t been trustworthy in recent years
The assessment values are fiercely contested every time the OPA delivers a report, and this year will be no different. After the 2018 assessment (which determined 2019 property taxes), some Philly coders sorted through the OPA data, then color-coded the OPA’s property valuations to show that properties on the same block with the same square footage might vary in assessed value by tens of thousands of dollars. The Philly Controller also chimed in, explaining in detail how the OPA’s valuations (at least at that time) didn’t meet national standards for municipal property assessment.
Not to sound too radical: these unexplained differences in the assessment of similar properties are bad. (There, I said it.) Even worse, though, is the fact that the most dramatic tax hikes appear in some of the poorest parts of Philly. Community Legal Services, which provides free legal assistance to Philadelphians in need, reported in April that OPA’s valuations seemed to be least accurate in a few generally poorer neighborhoods – and that in these neighborhoods, “If you own a higher priced home […] you are more likely to be under-assessed; if you own a lower priced home, you are more likely to be over-assessed.”
Now, some credit where due: CLS also said Philly’s assessments have improved a lot over the last few years, and that “It is likely the OPA is more accurate now than it has ever been.” Even so, there may be some undercooked assessments in the latest batch.
3. There’s almost no time to file an appeal of the OPA’s assessments
This is really part of the first problem: the late delivery of assessments leaves precious little time before the October 7th deadline to file appeals of property valuations. Since the assessments came so late in the year, the OPA is about to be flooded – drowned, showered, inundated; all the water metaphors! – with appeals, and it’s unlikely they can process them all without long delays: homeowners will face tax hikes for months without knowing whether the OPA will grant an appeal of their property’s valuation.
Philadelphia Property Tax Relief Programs
Now, before we get into the appeals process, you should know that you have relief options if you truly can’t pay the increased tax rate based on the value of your home. CLS has a great list of resources right here, with good explanations of each program offered by the City of Philadelphia to ease its own tax burdens. Regardless of financial status, homeowners can also receive a Homestead Exemption: a sizeable property tax break for your personal home (as opposed to a rental property or property owned by a company you operate).
Now, to the main event!
Philadelphia Property Tax Assessment Appeal
Our first piece of expert, clear-eyed advice for an appeal of your property’s assessment: don’t do it.
Okay, fine, that’s a downer, and probably too simple. Let’s try again: don’t do it unless the valuation seems cartoonishly wrong and it threatens your ability to keep your home. Or one other option: don’t do it unless you are prepared to also consider years-long legal action at the state level.
There are two reasons to proceed with caution:
The OPA’s valuation of your house is probably correct
As bad as the OPA has been in the past, even critics like the Controller’s office (in that 2019 report) and Community Legal Services acknowledge the assessment results have improved over time. This means it’s more likely than not that your property was assessed… kind of accurately. For reasons way beyond local Philly rules and politics, houses are obscenely expensive across the county, and have only gotten more expensive in the years since the 2020 pandemic shutdown. The Philly OPA hasn’t delivered a property tax assessment in two years, and home prices have shot up in those two years. Sticker shock doesn’t mean the OPA is wrong (though it does mean, in my humble opinion, that we should build more housing across the city and country).
Your appeal will be heard by a zombie board that Philly tried to kill off in 2010
The OPA doesn’t hear your appeal of their property tax assessments: the Board of Revision of Taxes does. What is the BRT? Well, as their official City of Philadelphia website helpfully explains, the board “hears property assessment appeals,” and… that’s kind of it. Who’s on the BRT? These people! One of them has been receiving bizarre payouts from unpopular government agencies and authorities for at least 20 years while part of the club controlling jobs on the PPA. Another is known for, uh, not being super clear on the rules.
If you’ve lived in Philly for a bit and follow local news, this might sound familiar. You might ask yourself, “Didn’t we get rid of the Board of Revision of Taxes?” And boy, did you and Mayor Michael Nutter try! Back in 2010, “Voters overwhelmingly approved […] a referendum that does away with the Board of Revision of Taxes in Philadelphia” following Nutter’s long fight with the BRT. City Council and Nutter also enacted a law replacing BRT board member’s standard $70,000 salary with a $150/day stipend for days actually spent on BRT business. But the Board itself sued Philadelphia (to stay intact and keep their money), saying that the City of Philadelphia didn’t have the right to dissolve its own Board of Revision of Taxes. And the BRT won that case.
Now, you might wonder how it’s possible that a governmental review board in Philadelphia could possibly be outside the control of Philadelphia. Well, as you often find where the local government of Philly is not allowed to do normal city stuff, power is claimed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The BRT was in fact created by the Commonwealth government in the 1930s, and there’s a specific section in PA’s laws assigning a special BRT for Philadelphia (technically it’s for any county “of the first class,” but the “first-class” in PA only includes Philly). The BRT, at creation, was charged with assessing property value and hearing appeals of tax bills affected by the assessment (it was also supposed to assess every year, which… whoops).
After its creation by the Commonwealth, the county (then consolidated city-county) of Philadelphia paid the salaries of the BRT members and controlled the BRT’s operations. Because of this, when the BRT sued Philly itself, the Commonwealth Court kicked them out of the room, saying, in effect: this is cuckoo nonsense (I’m paraphrasing a little). But the PA Supreme Court took up the matter and decided that even though the City of Philadelphia was allowed to strip the BRT of most of its work, the City could not destroy the Board itself, and further must allow the BRT to hear appeals of property assessments.
So this is how you get an appeal board that no longer bothers with most of the work it was created for, but which is still allowed to tell you no, sorry, we don’t approve your assessment appeal and we don’t have to explain our decision. (The PA Supreme Court of 2010 may have had it in for Philly, depending on how you read their use of damning quotes about the BRT to supposedly bolster their argument – I see Harrisburg taunting Philadelphia; you may see elegant judicial reasoning.)
We hear people complain a lot about Philly government (often with reason!), but this one is entirely a state government problem. It’s also why Commonwealth courts might be your only recourse if the BRT denies your appeal: if City Council were allowed to, it would have already eliminated the BRT.
… but maybe you still want to appeal your property assessment
Okay, okay: you don’t care about the history lesson or our dim view of your odds before the BRT. You still want to appeal your 2024 assessment before you’re stuck with 2025 taxes. Here’s how you do it:
First, be sure you certain you can make one of three arguments the BRT will even consider:
- The assessed value of the property is too high (or too low, but… why are you arguing that?)
- The assessed value of the property doesn’t match the assessed value of other, very similar properties on the same block
- The reasoning used to assess the property’s value is “substantially incorrect” (and you can prove it!)
Second, consider a First-Level Review. The Office of Property Assessment sends each homeowner the FLR form in the mail with their assessment notice. This review isn’t a full appeal to the BRT, but it is a chance to notify the OPA when they noticably goof an assessment – you might get them to re-value the property if you can convince them a mistake was made. Crucially, the FLR is a way to avoid the BRT while still questioning the OPA’s assessment. You can even appeal to the BRT after you receive the result of your First Level Review, if you want to try your luck at both institutions.
Whether you’re going for the FLR or a full appeal, though, get ready to prep some documents! Every appellant needs to provide pictures of the property, but depending on the nature of your property (and level of review), you might have to include a survey, operating expense schedule, lease, rental summary identifying tenants, or additional construction plan. If you’re arguing over the cost of improvements to your property – additions, renovations, etc. – you’ll want to include a stack of vendor receipts. If the value in question is above a million dollars, then you need to provide an appraisal of the property effective January 1, 2025, and the appraiser must be either a Pennsylvania State Certified General Appraiser or a Certified Pennsylvania Evaluator.
Finally, whether you’re sending a FLR application to the OPA or a comprehensive appeal to the BRT: submit everything by October 7th! That’s the pencils-down date; no exceptions. Like I said at the top, it’s not a lot of time; and it’s why the delay in property assessment delivery is perplexing.
Permit Philly’s Appeal Work
If you’re determined to appeal and assessment and don’t where to start, you can always call or email us! You’ll probably want an attorney, and we can recommend one with significant experience in this arena. While you generally don’t need an attorney to appeal to the BRT, if the potential tax bill is big enough to go through the trouble you should really engage one.
If you can’t afford an attorney and your new tax bill is still frightening, you should turn to Community Legal Services: they can file appeals to the BRT and take cases beyond the Board when they find it reasonable. Where they don’t think an appeal is warranted, they can help you sort through your other options for tax relief.
And finally, if you’re confident in your own ability to argue before the BRT, Permit Philly can file an assessment appeal for you. While we don’t think most people should file an appeal, if you’re dead set on it and want to proceed without an attorney, we can explain the process and get your case in the system by October 7th. We can even file for you while you’re still figuring out which lawyer you will hire for the BRT hearing. Just give us a shout!
