Bought a new construction home in Florida recently? You may be over-assessed. Learn when new construction homes qualify for a VAB appeal and how to build your case. TaxAppeal: $89 ready-to-sign kit.
Florida property appraisers assess new construction at full just (market) value annually, with no Save Our Homes cap protection until the owner establishes homestead exemption. For the first year or two after purchase, the assessed value is typically anchored near the purchase price. As market conditions change, the appraiser may increase or decrease the assessment based on market trends — but the purchase price remains the primary benchmark.
Three situations create strong appeal grounds for new construction homeowners. First, if builder pricing has declined since your closing and comparable resales are selling for meaningfully less than you paid, your assessed value may exceed current market value. Second, if your purchase price included above-market financing incentives (mortgage rate buydowns, closing cost credits) not reflected in the recorded sale price, the effective value was lower than the price suggests. Third, if your assessment includes features not yet complete at the assessment date (January 1), you may be paying taxes on an unfinished home.
The most powerful evidence for a new construction appeal is comparable resale sales — not new construction sales. New construction sales from the same builder may include incentives and will tend to anchor near your purchase price. Resale transactions of previously owned homes in your community or nearby that closed at lower prices per square foot are stronger evidence that the current market does not support your assessed value.
TaxAppeal USA prepares VAB petitions for new construction homeowners using the same flat $89 service. We check first whether a petition will lower your bill, then pull your assessment data from the county appraiser, analyze comparable resale sales in your community, identify any builder incentive patterns, fill in Form DR-486, and mail you a ready-to-sign kit with a return envelope addressed to your county's VAB. You sign it, add a cheque for the county's filing fee (paid by you, to the county), and mail it the day it arrives. If your assessment is above current resale market levels, we build the strongest possible case.
We check first. If an appeal will lower your bill, we mail you a ready-to-sign kit for $89 flat. You sign it and mail it, and you keep 100% of your savings.
TaxAppeal USA is a self-service document-preparation service. We prepare a ready-to-sign appeal kit and mail it to you; you sign it and mail it to the county yourself. In every state we serve, including Florida, we are not property tax consultants, agents, or representatives, we do not provide tax or legal advice, and we do not file appeals or represent customers before any appraisal district, board of assessors, board of equalization, value adjustment board, or review board. Every appeal, protest and petition is prepared for the property owner, signed by the owner, and mailed by the owner in the owner’s name. In Florida your petition is signed by you as the property owner under section 194.011(3), Florida Statutes, and the county’s Value Adjustment Board filing fee is paid by you directly to the county. TaxAppeal USA does not sign as your representative, does not appear before the Board, and does not present evidence or argument at a hearing.