Fairfax County property tax appeals, with the source next to every claim.
Guides to how the county's appeal process actually works — the deadlines, the three legal grounds, the burden of proof, and the evidence rules. Every factual statement links to the county form, county page, or section of the Virginia Code it came from, so you can check us.
Fairfax County only. The City of Fairfax and the City of Falls Church assess separately and set their own deadlines. If your bill comes from one of those, these dates do not apply to you.
Start here
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I just received my notice
Work out what the notice is telling you
Which number an appeal actually disputes, what the county-wide percentage does and does not say about your property, and the dates printed on the page.
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I’m deciding whether to appeal
Decide whether it is worth filing
What an appeal can and cannot change, the three legal grounds, and the fact that filing reopens the whole assessment — in both directions.
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I’m preparing my evidence
Build the evidence the county accepts
The county’s own definition of a valid sale, which comparables it will and will not look at, and what each route expects you to hand over.
Not sure which of these you are? All eleven guides are listed below.
The guides
- Reading your Fairfax County assessment notice
- How to appeal your Fairfax County assessment
- Every appeal deadline, and the rules behind them
- Administrative review vs. the BOE vs. Circuit Court
- Can your assessment go up if you appeal?
- Why a big increase is not a legal ground
- How to check your property record for errors
- Which comparable sales the county will accept
- Is appealing worth it?
- Exemptions and relief you may already qualify for
- Your right to see the county's own numbers
Who writes this
One person, in Northern Virginia, who reads the primary sources.
I started writing this because I went looking for a plain account of how a Fairfax assessment appeal works, and found marketing pages instead.
So these guides are built the slow way. Every claim is traced to the county's own form, the county's own page, or the Virginia Code — and where two county pages disagree, which happens more than you would think, the guide says so and tells you which one to trust.
What I am not
Not a lawyer, and not a licensed appraiser. Nothing here is legal advice, and nothing here tells you what your property is worth.
I am not filing anything on your behalf and not taking a share of anything you save. If you want representation, hire a Virginia attorney or an agent.