Maryland · Do-it-yourself · $29
Appeal your Maryland property taxes yourself.
Everything you need to appeal your Maryland assessment yourself — including the Petition for Review that two-thirds of Maryland homeowners are entitled to file each year and almost nobody knows about. All three appeal levels are free.
Straight talk: we don’t have per-home comparable-sales data for Maryland — Maryland assessments are produced by SDAT at the state level and its per-parcel worksheets are not published as a bulk dataset with the building detail we would need to size-adjust a comparable set. So this is a guide and templates, not a comp report, and you pull your own comps— the kit shows you exactly how. That’s the honest reason it’s $29 instead of the $49 done-for-you kit we sell in states we cover.
The Maryland DIY Appeal Kit
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How a Maryland appeal works
The short version, free. The kit is the long version with the forms, the filing steps, and the letter.
- Maryland's state agency SDAT — not your county — values your home, reassessing one-third of the state each year and mailing a Notice of Assessment in late December.
- If you got a notice, you have 45 days from the date printed on it. You choose a written, phone, video, or in-person hearing with an assessor, and all of it is free.
- If you were NOT reassessed this year, you can still appeal: file a Petition for Review by the first business day after January 1. Nothing arrives in the mail to remind you, which is why almost nobody does it.
- If the assessor says no, you have 30 days to your county's PTAAB board, and 30 more to the Maryland Tax Court. All three levels are free, and a residential assessment cannot be increased mid-cycle because you appealed.
What to check on your assessment notice
- The appeal deadline printed on page 1, plus the Notice Number and Control Number — you need both to file online.
- The total new market value. Is that genuinely what your home would sell for as of January 1? That single number is the only thing an appeal can change.
- The assessment phase-in box — three separate figures for three years. The largest one is not this year's number, and the taxable figure shown for July 1 is what actually drives your bill.
- The Homestead Tax Credit status line. If it reads "No Application" you have never applied and you are unprotected against future increases. Fixing that is a separate action from your appeal, and often worth more.
Official lookup: SDAT: find your local assessment office and file online→
What’s inside
✓A plain-English Maryland appeal walkthrough across all three free levels: Supervisor, PTAAB, and the Maryland Tax Court.
✓The Petition for Review route that two-thirds of Maryland homeowners are entitled to use every year, with the deadline and the form.
✓The 60-day new-owner appeal, which is the strongest fact pattern in the state if you bought between January 1 and June 30.
✓How to get SDAT's own property worksheet and area sales listing for free, before your hearing, and what to look for in them.
✓The date-of-finality rule that decides which comparable sales actually count.
✓How the three-year phase-in works, so you calculate your real savings rather than the headline number.
✓The Homestead Tax Credit trap: why it is not an appeal, and how to tell from your notice whether you have ever applied.
✓A ready-to-edit appeal letter citing the right Tax-Property Article sections.
How it works
- Buy the kit — the PDF lands in your inbox instantly.
- Work out which route you are on first: a Notice of Assessment dated late December means 45 days from the date printed on it; no notice this year means a Petition for Review by the first business day after January 1; and a purchase between January 1 and June 30 means 60 days from the transfer.
- Gather the evidence on the checklist and edit the appeal-letter template.
- File the Notice of Assessment appeal form (or form SDAT-RP-PetRevForm) with your local SDAT Supervisor of Assessments office before your deadline.
Deadline: Which deadline applies depends on which of three situations you are in. If you received a Notice of Assessment (mailed in late December to the third of the state being reassessed), § 14-502 gives you 45 days from the date of that notice, and the exact date is printed on the notice — read it there rather than counting yourself, because it is a postmark deadline. If you were NOT reassessed this year, § 14-503 lets you file a Petition for Review on or before the date of finality for the next taxable year; the date of finality is January 1, and because January 1 is a legal holiday § 1-303 carries the deadline to the first business day after it. This right exists in any year of the cycle and nothing is mailed to prompt it. If you bought the property between January 1 and June 30, § 14-502 gives you 60 days from the date of transfer, and you should attach a copy of the deed if it was recorded after June 30 or the appeal may be dismissed. Escalation runs on two separate hard clocks: 30 days from the supervisor's final notice to PTAAB (§ 14-509, waivable only for good cause shown from physical inability), then 30 days from the PTAAB order to the Maryland Tax Court (§ 14-512, timely if postmarked in the window).
What Maryland charges to file
These are your county or state’s fees, not ours. Listed so there are no surprises.
- Maryland Tax Court — explicitly no fee. The court states that there is no fee for filing a petition.
- Supervisor's Level (SDAT) — SDAT publishes no filing fee, and the Property Owner's Bill of Rights guarantees the appeal, the explanatory brochure, and the area sales analysis at no charge.
- PTAAB — publishes no filing fee.
- Copies of OTHER properties' comparable worksheets cost $1.00 per comparable, by check or money order payable to the State Department of Assessments and Taxation, and require an active appeal. Your own worksheet and the area sales listing are free.
- Above the Tax Court, an appeal to Circuit Court does carry filing fees set by the Maryland Rules, and the appealing party must order the transcript at their own expense. That is beyond the scope of a do-it-yourself appeal.
Questions
Why is this $29 and not $49?
The $49 kit includes a comparable-sales analysis pulled from county records. We don't have that data for Maryland yet, so this kit is the guide, the deadline rules, the exact form, an evidence checklist, and an appeal-letter template — you gather the comps yourself, and we show you how. Honest work, honest price.
When is the Maryland property tax appeal deadline?
Which deadline applies depends on which of three situations you are in. If you received a Notice of Assessment (mailed in late December to the third of the state being reassessed), § 14-502 gives you 45 days from the date of that notice, and the exact date is printed on the notice — read it there rather than counting yourself, because it is a postmark deadline. If you were NOT reassessed this year, § 14-503 lets you file a Petition for Review on or before the date of finality for the next taxable year; the date of finality is January 1, and because January 1 is a legal holiday § 1-303 carries the deadline to the first business day after it. This right exists in any year of the cycle and nothing is mailed to prompt it. If you bought the property between January 1 and June 30, § 14-502 gives you 60 days from the date of transfer, and you should attach a copy of the deed if it was recorded after June 30 or the appeal may be dismissed. Escalation runs on two separate hard clocks: 30 days from the supervisor's final notice to PTAAB (§ 14-509, waivable only for good cause shown from physical inability), then 30 days from the PTAAB order to the Maryland Tax Court (§ 14-512, timely if postmarked in the window).
What form do I file to appeal my Maryland property assessment?
the Notice of Assessment appeal form (or form SDAT-RP-PetRevForm) (Appeal of Assessment / Petition for Review), filed with your local SDAT Supervisor of Assessments office. The kit walks you through completing it line by line and includes a ready-to-edit appeal letter to attach.
Do you file the appeal for me?
No — this is a do-it-yourself kit. You file the Notice of Assessment appeal form (or form SDAT-RP-PetRevForm) yourself with your local SDAT Supervisor of Assessments office. The kit makes that straightforward with step-by-step instructions and a ready-to-edit letter.
What if it doesn't help?
30-day money-back guarantee, no questions asked. If the kit isn't useful, reply to your delivery email and we'll refund you.
Is this legal or tax advice?
No. It's general information to help you file your own appeal. Always rely on the date and instructions printed on your own assessment notice and confirm current requirements with your county.