How a Property Tax Appeal Engagement Works
An engagement with SVA is intended to save you time and deliver superior results. Broadly, our process involves a property value review, a recommendation, hearing representation and resolution.
The Whole Process in Four Steps
Ten seconds of process. These four steps are the first cycle of the engagement, in Colorado or any other state I cover; the homepage shows the same four, and nothing else is added later. After that, they repeat every year.
Free Assessment Review
Send the notice of value, or the address and county. Acknowledged within one business day. Real property: a written read within one week of receiving the notice. Business personal property: a written declaration memo within 30 days of receiving the county's property record card and your fixed-asset ledger, or a written date ahead of your county's personal-property protest deadline (in Colorado, June 30, or July 31 from 2027 in alternate-procedure counties), whichever is sooner.
Engagement letter, fee fixed in writing
Each property's contingency rate from the published matrix appears in the letter itself, before signature. No minimums, no retainers, and nothing is filed without your written instruction.
I file and argue it personally
Assessor protest, county board, state board: every filing and every hearing, handled by the person who signed your engagement. Escalation decisions are made with you, never for you.
You pay only from realized savings
The fee is a percentage of the tax actually saved. If the taxes don't go down, there is no invoice. Then it repeats: every year, every property, recommendations weeks ahead of the deadline.
Not sure it is worth filing at all? Read should you appeal your Colorado commercial assessment. Prefer to start with the data? Check your assessment free: your value, your levy, and how you compare to your peers.
Every Year After the First
An engagement does not end when the first cycle does. A mature engagement runs on its own rhythm: each year, when the new notices of value arrive (May 1 in Colorado; every other state I cover has its own date), I review every property under engagement, real and personal, without being asked. Weeks ahead of the protest deadline you get a written recommendation for each one (file, hold, or watch) with the reasoning, so the call is yours and you have time to make it.
Appeals do not all resolve in one season. In any given month one property may be at the assessor, another at the county board, a third at the state board, and a fourth in abatement for a prior year, in one state or several, all at once. The written status memo every month a file is active, and the written checkpoint at each of three points (before anything is filed, before any settlement is accepted, and after every decision), run across all of them.
Business personal property runs on its own annual clock. In Colorado that means a declaration review before the April 15 filing, then a review of the notice in June (July in alternate-procedure counties from 2027), with the protest filed only on your written instruction; in the other states I cover, the same review runs against that state's declaration and protest dates. The thirty-day termination term in the engagement letter applies throughout.
What I Need From You
For the Free Assessment Review: the notice of value, or the address and county. For a filed real property appeal: the current rent roll, the last two years of operating statements, any recent appraisal, the closing statement if you bought within the cycle, and anything physical the assessor cannot see from the street. Plan on about fifteen minutes per building (the annual income and expense report and a signature). For business personal property I need two things: a signed agent authorization so I can pull the full property record card from the county, and your fixed-asset ledger. The annual declaration only shows that year's adds and deletes; the record card and the ledger together show what the county is actually taxing.
For the Free Assessment Review, per building
The notice of value, or the address and county. That is all. I start from the county's public record and, in Colorado, the benchmark database; in the other states I cover, the review runs on county records and comparable evidence. If a recent appraisal or a rent roll is handy, send it, but the review does not wait on it.
For a filed real property appeal, per building
The current rent roll; the last two years of operating statements; any recent appraisal; the closing statement if you bought within the cycle; and anything physical the assessor cannot see from the street: deferred maintenance, vacancy, a tenant that left. About fifteen minutes per building (the annual income and expense report and a signature). I do the rest.
For a business personal property account
A signed agent authorization naming Strategic Valuation Advisors for the account, so I can pull the full property record card from the county assessor: the complete asset listing the county is actually taxing, with cost, acquisition years, and depreciation as the county carries them. Then your fixed-asset ledger, the internal listing behind the schedule, so the two can be reconciled line by line. The current declaration and notice of value are useful context but not enough on their own; the annual declaration shows that year's additions and deletions, not the full assessment picture. Colorado is standardizing the authorization form under SB26-046, effective August 12, 2026, and no notarization is required; other states have their own agent authorization forms, and I send whichever applies with the confidentiality agreement.
After intake
One decision from you at each checkpoint (file or hold, accept or decline), with a memo in front of you each time. You are welcome at the hearing but not required; I will tell you if a walk-through with your site manager would change the case.
September to May, Month by Month
Colorado reappraises in odd years and the protest window is barely four weeks. The calendar below is Colorado's; every other state I cover runs on its own, and the same rule holds in all of them. A file opened in the fall walks into the protest window with the evidence already assembled; a file opened when the notice arrives is racing the calendar.
The evidence window is already closed
Colorado will value your property for 2027 as of June 30, 2026, so the sales, income and condition that decide the case are already on the record. This is when the Free Assessment Review runs on your current value, the engagement letter is signed, the agent authorization goes on file, and, if you have never protested, I check whether 2025 and 2026 are still reachable by abatement petition, which reaches back up to two years.
Assessment date
Real property is assessed on its January 1 status and condition. Personal property is listed wherever it sits at noon on January 1, and equipment on site but not yet in use, or still in shakedown, is exempt for the whole year. The commissioning dates get papered now, not in June.
The case gets built while nothing is due
Comparable sales adjusted to the June 30 level-of-value date, actual income against the assessor's pro forma, documented obsolescence, data errors. For business personal property the rule is simple. You keep filing. Under an engagement I review and mark up the schedule before it goes, working from the county's full property record card (requested under your signed agent authorization) reconciled line by line against your fixed-asset ledger, since the declaration alone shows only that year's adds and deletes. I handle the June protest and any prior-year abatement. The mark-up is where scrapped assets come off, software is carved out, and base-building items are reconciled against the county's building record.
Declaration schedules due
The DS 056 is due with each county assessor. Extensions of 10 or 20 days are available by written request. Schedules at or below the exemption ($56,000 per county through 2026, $58,000 from 2027) owe nothing and file nothing.
Notices of Valuation mail
The written read follows within one week of receiving yours, with the file-or-hold recommendation and the two-year dollars in it. Nothing is filed without your written instruction.
Protest deadlines
Real property protests are due June 1 (moved up from June 8 by SB26-046). Personal property notices mail June 15 and protests are due June 30, or July 15 and July 31 from 2027 in counties using the alternate protest procedure (the nine over 300,000 in a reappraisal year). From here the ladder runs assessor determination, then county board (July 15, or September 15 in the nine alternate-procedure counties). From the county board, the appeal goes to the state Board of Assessment Appeals, district court, or arbitration by September 1 (December 1 in alternate-procedure counties) or 30 days after the decision if it was mailed off the regular schedule (SB26-046, effective August 12, 2026). Every rung is on the Colorado calendar; the other states I cover are on the deadlines page.
What You Will Hear From Me, in Writing
Most complaints about property tax consultants are about silence, not results: a file that disappears into a queue and resurfaces as an invoice. These are commitments, not aspirations, and they are restated in the engagement letter.
Written acknowledgment of the engagement
The day the letter is signed, you receive written acknowledgment listing every property covered, the fee for each, and the next deadline on each. You know exactly what is engaged and what happens next.
A written status memo
A written status memo every month a file is active (parcel, county, stage, next deadline, value protested, value achieved, tax at stake), signed by me, not summarized by someone who was not in the room.
A written checkpoint at each of three points
A written checkpoint at each of three points: before anything is filed, before any settlement is accepted, and after every decision. Each one carries my recommendation, the expected range, and what it means in dollars; each one waits for your written instruction before the file moves.
An email when your file moves
Filed, scheduled, heard, decided, escalated: when a file changes stage, you get an email. You should never learn the status of your own case by asking for it.
A direct line to the principal
You get my direct line: 720-722-2911. There is no account team and no client-success layer between you and me. When you call about your file, you reach the person who is working it.
What the Engagement Letter Contains
The letter is written to be read, not lawyered around. Six terms are in every one, and none of them moves in the wrong direction after signature.
Per-property fee, quoted in writing before signature
Each property's contingency rate appears in the letter itself. No schedule "to follow," no rate that materializes after the work has started. Court filing fees and third-party experts, only if you choose to litigate, pass through at cost with your prior approval.
Nothing filed without written instruction
No protest, appeal, escalation, or withdrawal goes out without your written go-ahead, property by property. You may instead give a standing written authorization in the engagement letter for assessor-level protests on named parcels; petitions, escalations and settlements always wait for your written go-ahead. You always know what is being filed in your name.
30-day termination
Either side can end the engagement on thirty days' written notice. No exit fee, no wind-down charges.
No fee tail on unfiled work
If we part ways before an appeal is filed, you owe nothing on it: no trailing claim on savings you later win without me.
Audit support included
Any position filed on my recommendation is supported through county audit at no additional fee. A finding that cannot be defended in an audit is not a finding.
Confidentiality, in writing
A mutual confidentiality agreement, on your paper if you prefer, precedes any exchange of documents. Client records never enter my published database or my marketing: everything I publish is compiled from public county records, and the two are never mixed.
Fees are contingent on realized tax savings; the rate for each property is fixed in the letter before any work begins. See the published fee matrix for how rates scale with tax liability.
Starting with a review instead? Some engagements begin with a free written work product instead of an appeal: a business personal property declaration review, a diligence memo, a reserve figure. The same rules apply: a mutual confidentiality agreement before any document changes hands, a defined scope in writing, findings that belong to you, and nothing filed with any county without your written instruction. What a declaration review needs from you, and when the memo follows, is answered under the questions below.
Seven Questions to Ask Any Property Tax Firm
Including this one. Every answer below is how I answer; hold other firms to the same questions and compare in writing.
1. Will you quote my fee per property, in writing, before I sign?
My rate comes from the published matrix (8%–20% of realized savings, per property, by that property's liability tier) and appears in the engagement letter itself.
2. Who, by name, argues my hearing?
Here, the principal who built the case. A backup practitioner, named in the engagement letter before signature, covers the full protest season if I cannot appear or file. Whoever you hire, get the hearing-room name in writing; account leads and hearing arguers are often different people.
3. What exactly is in your engagement letter?
Mine carries six fixed terms: per-property fee, nothing filed without written instruction, 30-day termination for convenience, no fee tail on unfiled work, audit support included, and written confidentiality.
4. Do you publish the data behind your work?
I publish my county benchmarks (19,939 Colorado properties) and my research. Ask any firm what of theirs you can check before hiring them.
5. What do I owe if my taxes don't go down?
Nothing: no retainers, no minimums, no consultation fees, and no assessor- or board-level filing fees. Court filing fees and third-party experts, only if you choose to litigate, pass through at cost with your prior approval. If a firm's answer has exceptions, get them in writing.
6. Who owns the workpapers if we part ways?
You do: models, evidence, filings, correspondence, returned within ten days. You should never be a hostage to whoever holds your records.
7. How will I know what's happening on my file?
A written status memo every month a file is active, and a written checkpoint at each of three points (before anything is filed, before any settlement is accepted, and after every decision), plus an email the day your file changes stage. You will never learn the status of your own case by asking for it.
Each of these is answered somewhere on this page; here they are in one place.
How does a property tax appeal engagement with SVA work?
An engagement with me runs in four steps: a Free Assessment Review, acknowledged within one business day, with a written read within one week of receiving the notice of value for real property, or, for business personal property, a written declaration memo within 30 days of receiving the county's property record card and your fixed-asset ledger, or a written date ahead of your county's personal-property protest deadline (in Colorado, June 30, or July 31 from 2027 in alternate-procedure counties), whichever is sooner; then an engagement letter that fixes each property's fee in writing, then the protest and any hearings filed and argued by me personally with your written instruction at every filing decision, and an invoice only from realized savings. After the first cycle it repeats every year: each spring I review every property under engagement and you get a written recommendation for each one weeks ahead of the deadline.
What do I need to send you?
For the Free Assessment Review: the notice of value, or the address and county. For a filed real property appeal: the current rent roll, the last two years of operating statements, any recent appraisal, the closing statement if you bought within the cycle, and anything physical the assessor cannot see from the street. Plan on about fifteen minutes per building (the annual income and expense report and a signature). For business personal property I need two things: a signed agent authorization so I can pull the full property record card from the county, and your fixed-asset ledger. The annual declaration only shows that year's adds and deletes; the record card and the ledger together show what the county is actually taxing.
Can I just file the protest myself?
Yes, and for some properties you should. The assessor-level protest is free to file, reveals nothing you have not already given the county, and is where a clean data error (wrong square footage, a mis-coded use) often gets fixed without a hearing. If your value benchmarks fairly, file nothing; the Free Assessment Review will tell you so in writing. Where the fee earns its keep is everything after the form: the valuation case, the county-board disclosure decision, and showing up.
Can I start with a review instead of an appeal?
Some engagements begin with a free written work product instead of an appeal: a business personal property declaration review, a diligence memo, a reserve figure. The same rules apply: a mutual confidentiality agreement before any document changes hands, a defined scope in writing, findings that belong to you, and nothing filed with any county without your written instruction. For a declaration review you sign an agent authorization so I can pull the full property record card from the county, and you send your fixed-asset ledger; the annual declaration only shows that year's adds and deletes. The written declaration memo follows within 30 days of receiving the county's property record card and your fixed-asset ledger, or by a written date ahead of your county's personal-property protest deadline (in Colorado, June 30, or July 31 from 2027 in alternate-procedure counties), whichever is sooner.
Can I Just File the Protest Myself?
Yes, and for some properties you should. The assessor-level protest is free to file, reveals nothing you have not already given the county, and is where a clean data error (wrong square footage, a mis-coded use) often gets fixed without a hearing. If your value benchmarks fairly, file nothing; the Free Assessment Review will tell you so in writing. Where the fee earns its keep is everything after the form: the valuation case, the county-board disclosure decision, and showing up.
What the form cannot do
"Everyone appeals in a reassessment year" is true and beside the point. A protest with no valuation behind it gets a rubber-stamp denial and puts you at the county board, where Colorado compels income-and-expense disclosure for income-producing property, due by a hard July 15 in the big alternate-procedure counties. The case has to be built before you decide what the record will show: comparable sales adjusted to the June 30 level-of-value date, actual income against the assessor's pro forma, documented obsolescence. That work is the appeal; the form is the envelope.
Showing up
The 2025 county-board records make the point plainly. In Douglas County, 63% of decided commercial petitions were administratively denied (no appearance, no evidence argued), while 68% of the petitions the board actually heard won a reduction, against 25% for the county's decided petitions as a whole. Across the Front Range, commercial success rates ran from 6% in Adams County to 44% in Larimer. The 2025 record, county by county →
The arithmetic, both ways
File it yourself and you keep 100% of a win; you also carry the disclosure decision, the hearing, and the escalation deadlines. Hire me and you keep 80% to 92% of the savings, per property, and I carry the rest, including the county audit on any position filed on my recommendation.
When I will tell you to file it yourself
A pure data error the assessor will correct on the phone. A value that benchmarks fairly with a small cycle number. A disclosure cost that outruns the reduction. If the right answer is "file it yourself" or "file nothing," that is what the Free Assessment Review says, in writing, and there is no invoice for saying it.
Start with the Free Assessment Review
Send your notice of value, or the address and county, from Colorado or any other state I cover. I acknowledge within one business day. Real property: a written read within one week of receiving the notice. Business personal property: a written declaration memo within 30 days of receiving the county's property record card and your fixed-asset ledger, or a written date ahead of your county's personal-property protest deadline (in Colorado, June 30, or July 31 from 2027 in alternate-procedure counties), whichever is sooner. Including when the answer is don't file.
Prefer to start with the data? Check your assessment free: your value, your levy, and how you compare to your peers.