Broward County Property Tax Appeal Guide 2026: TRIM Deadlines, VAB Petitions & How to Win

If you own a home or commercial property in Broward County, there's a strong chance you're paying more in property tax than you should. Assessments are set in bulk by a mass-appraisal model, and that model gets a lot of individual properties wrong. The good news: Florida law gives you a clear, low-cost path to challenge your assessment, but the window is short, and it opens and closes on a fixed schedule every year.

This guide walks you through exactly how to appeal your 2026 Broward County property assessment: when your TRIM notice arrives, the Value Adjustment Board (VAB) petition fee, the evidence that actually moves the needle, and the deadlines you cannot afford to miss.

Short on time? AppealMyTax builds your Broward County evidence package with verified comparable sales, formatted and ready to attach to your VAB petition, so you don't have to decode Florida statutes or gather comps by hand. See if you're over-assessed in 30 seconds →

How Property Tax Assessment Works in Broward County

Your property taxes are driven by two numbers: your assessed value (set by the Broward County Property Appraiser, currently Marty Kiar) and the millage rate (set by the county, cities, school board, and other taxing authorities). You can't vote away the millage rate on your own, but you can challenge the assessed value, and that's where the savings are.

Every January 1, the Property Appraiser establishes the "just value" (Florida's term for market value) of every parcel in the county. Because there are more than 700,000 parcels in Broward, this is done with a computer-assisted mass-appraisal model, not an individual inspection of your home. The model can miss things: a dated interior, a smaller lot than it thinks, deferred maintenance, functional problems, or simply comparable sales that don't support the number.

Under Florida Statute 193.011, just value must be based on eight factors, including the present cash value, the highest and best use, and the net proceeds of a sale (which allows for costs of sale). If the Property Appraiser's number ignores those realities for your specific property, you have grounds to appeal.

The Save Our Homes cap matters

If your Broward home is homesteaded, the Save Our Homes amendment (Florida Constitution, Amendment 10) caps how much your assessed value can rise each year at 3% or the change in CPI, whichever is lower, even when market values spike. That's why long-time owners often have an assessed value far below market. Two things to know:

• The cap protects your assessed value, but the Property Appraiser's just value can still be wrong, and a successful appeal of just value can lower your bill and reset a lower baseline.
• New buyers lose the previous owner's cap. The year after you purchase, your assessed value can jump to full just value, a common trigger for an inflated first assessment worth challenging.

The 2026 Broward County Appeal Timeline

Florida's appeal calendar is statutory, so it's predictable. Here's how the 2026 cycle plays out in Broward:

The single most important date is printed on your TRIM notice. By law you have 25 days from the date the TRIM notice is mailed to file a petition with the Value Adjustment Board. In the 2025 cycle, Broward's filing window opened August 18 and the deadline was September 17. Expect a comparable mid-September 2026 deadline, but always confirm the exact date on your own notice, because a late petition is returned unheard.

Step 1: Read Your TRIM Notice Carefully

TRIM stands for "TRuth In Millage." Your notice is not a bill, it's a proposal. It shows your just value, assessed value, exemptions, and the taxes each authority proposes to levy. Check for:

• Just value vs. what you'd actually sell for. If the just value is higher than a realistic sale price, that's your appeal.
• Missing or wrong exemptions. Homestead, senior, veteran, or widow/widower exemptions that were dropped or never applied can be challenged.
• Incorrect property characteristics. Wrong square footage, bedroom/bath count, lot size, or pool/no-pool errors all inflate value.
• Portability. If you moved within Florida and transferred your Save Our Homes benefit, make sure it was applied.

Step 2: Try the Informal Review First

Before you file a formal petition, contact the Broward County Property Appraiser's office (BCPA). Many valuation errors, especially factual ones like square footage, get corrected in an informal review without any hearing. It's free, it's fast, and it does not cost you your right to file a VAB petition afterward. Do this early, because it does not extend the 25-day VAB deadline.

Step 3: File Your VAB Petition (Form DR-486)

If the informal review doesn't resolve it, file a formal petition with the Broward County Value Adjustment Board:

• Form: DR-486 (petition to the VAB). There are variants for value, exemption/classification denials, and portability.
• Fee: $25 per petition, approved by the Broward VAB on February 9, 2026 and effective March 1, 2026. Florida raised the statutory cap from $15 to $50 effective July 1, 2025 (Fla. Stat. 194.013, as amended by Ch. 2025-208), and each county board sets its own amount inside that cap.
• Where: File online through Broward's VAB portal (bcvab.broward.org) or with the Clerk of the Value Adjustment Board.
• Who hears it: A special magistrate, an independent appraiser or attorney, conducts the hearing and issues a recommended decision to the VAB.

Under Florida Statute 194.301, once you present credible evidence, the burden shifts to the Property Appraiser to prove the assessment is correct. That's a meaningful advantage for a well-prepared petitioner.

Don't want to file alone? AppealMyTax prepares your DR-486, assembles the comparable-sales evidence, and gets everything in before the Broward deadline. Start your appeal →

Step 4: Build Evidence That Actually Wins

Special magistrates decide on evidence, not frustration. The strongest cases include:

1. Comparable sales (the #1 factor). Find 3-5 recent arm's-length sales of similar properties in your neighborhood that sold for less than your just value. Match on square footage, age, lot size, condition, and location. Sales closest to January 1, 2026 carry the most weight.
2. A recent appraisal or purchase price. If you bought the property near the assessment date for less than the just value, that sale price is powerful evidence.
3. Condition problems. Photos and repair estimates for roof, foundation, plumbing, flooding, or code issues that the mass-appraisal model never saw.
4. The Property Appraiser's own data errors. Pull your property card from BCPA and flag any wrong square footage, features, or lot dimensions.
5. Income data (for rentals/commercial). Actual rent rolls and operating expenses can show the model over-valued an income property.

For a deeper walkthrough of pulling and matching comps, see our companion guides on the AppealMyTax blog, or let the AppealMyTax evidence engine do the comp analysis for you automatically.

Is a Broward Property Tax Appeal Worth It?

Yes, for most over-assessed owners the math is lopsided. The petition costs $25. Broward's average effective property tax rate runs a bit above 1% of value, so even a modest $30,000 reduction in assessed value can save several hundred dollars a year, and because Save Our Homes caps future increases off that lower base, the savings compound for as long as you own the home. A single successful appeal often pays for itself many times over across the years you hold the property.

The catch is time and know-how: gathering defensible comps, filling out DR-486 correctly, and presenting to a magistrate. That's exactly the friction AppealMyTax removes, flat, transparent pricing, no percentage-of-savings cut, and a done-for-you evidence package.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the Broward County property tax appeal deadline for 2026? You have 25 days from the date your TRIM notice is mailed, historically that lands in mid-September (the 2025 deadline was September 17). Confirm the exact date printed on your 2026 TRIM notice, because late petitions are returned unheard.

How much does it cost to appeal in Broward County? The VAB petition fee is $25 per petition (Form DR-486), effective March 1, 2026. Florida's statutory cap rose from $15 to $50 on July 1, 2025, and boards set their own fee inside it. The informal review with the Property Appraiser is free.

Do I have to hire a lawyer or consultant? No. Florida law lets you file and represent yourself. Many owners do. That said, a service like AppealMyTax handles the paperwork and evidence so you don't have to learn the process under a two-week deadline.

Will appealing raise my taxes or trigger a reassessment? A VAB petition challenges the current year's just value. The special magistrate can lower it or leave it unchanged, but the process is not a mechanism to increase your assessment above the Property Appraiser's number.

What if I miss the VAB deadline? You generally lose your right to a VAB hearing for that tax year. In limited circumstances you can pursue relief in circuit court under Florida Statute 194.171, but that's a far heavier and costlier path. The practical answer: don't miss the 25-day window, set a reminder for when TRIM notices mail in August.

What's the difference between just value and assessed value? Just value is market value. Assessed value is just value minus caps and adjustments (like Save Our Homes for homesteaded property). You can appeal the just value even if your assessed value is capped.

Don't Leave Money on the Table

Broward County mails TRIM notices in August, and the clock starts the day yours goes out. If your just value looks high, or your exemptions look wrong, you have a low-cost, statute-backed right to push back. Read your notice the day it arrives, request an informal review, and file your DR-486 before the mid-September deadline.

Want to know if you're over-assessed before the TRIM notice even lands? AppealMyTax checks your Broward County assessment against real comparable sales and builds your appeal for you, in minutes, not weeks. Check your assessment now →

This guide is for general informational purposes and reflects Florida property tax procedures under Chapters 193 and 194, Florida Statutes. Deadlines and forms are set annually, always verify the exact dates on your official Broward County TRIM notice.

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