AppealHarbor Jurisdiction Fairfax County, VA Tax year 2026 Reviewed 2026-08-02

How to check your Fairfax County property record for errors

Last reviewed 2026-08-02, against the county's 2026 appeal forms and the current Virginia Code. The 2027 forms and dates have not been published yet.

Every assessment starts from a file. Fairfax County keeps a record of your house — how big it is, when it was built, how many bathrooms it has, what is finished in the basement — and its estimate of value is built on top of that description.

If the description is wrong, the value sitting on top of it may be wrong too.

This page shows you how to read that file, what the county itself asks owners to verify, and what Virginia law says about a factual mistake in an assessment.

In 30 seconds:

  • "Errors in property description" is one of the three grounds on both county appeal forms. It has its own checkbox.
  • Virginia law treats a mistake of fact as failing part of the county's own burden test. That part is handled for you.
  • You still have to show the error pushed your value too high. A wrong number alone is not the whole case.
  • You can read the county's file on your house for free, online, right now.
  • Check the record before you decide anything else. It is the cheapest step and it changes what the rest of your case looks like.
  • The check runs both ways. If the file understates your house, an appeal can raise your assessment.

If your tax bill comes from the City of Fairfax or the City of Falls Church, this page is not for you. Those cities assess separately, keep their own records, and set their own deadlines.

A wrong number is a ground of its own

Both of the county's 2026 appeal forms list three grounds, and you have to pick at least one. The third is errors in property description.

The form describes it this way: the assessment "is based upon inaccurate information concerning this property, such as lot size, square footage, condition of property, flood plain, topography, zoning."

That is a ground standing on its own. It is not a footnote to the other two.

Why a factual error is the strongest kind of case

To win at the Board of Equalization (the independent county board that hears assessment appeals), Virginia law asks you to show two separate things. First, that your property is valued above fair market value (what the property would sell for on the open market), or that the assessment is not uniform. Second, that the assessment was not arrived at in accordance with generally accepted appraisal practice.

That second part sounds like something only a professional could argue. For a factual error, the statute settles it for you:

"Mistakes of fact, including computation, that affect the assessment shall be deemed not to be in accordance with generally accepted appraisal practice." (Va. Code §58.1-3379(B))

"Deemed" is the important word. It does not mean a board might agree with you. It means the law treats that part as settled once the mistake is established.

One qualification, and it matters. That sentence covers the second part only. You still have to show the first part — that the error actually pushes your assessment above what your property is worth, or makes it uneven against similar properties.

A documented error opens the door. Your value evidence still has to walk through it.

So a wrong bathroom count on its own is not a case. A wrong bathroom count, plus evidence that the corrected description supports a lower value, is.

What the county asks owners to check

You do not have to invent a list. The county's own administrative appeal form has a block of physical characteristics it asks the owner to verify. That is the county's own verification list, and it is as good a starting point as exists.

The 2026 form asks about:

  • Year built
  • Year the house, kitchen or bathrooms were remodeled, and what it cost
  • Total rooms, for condominiums
  • Bedrooms
  • Full bathrooms
  • Half bathrooms
  • Fireplaces, including any in the basement
  • Central air conditioning, yes or no
  • Bedrooms in the basement
  • Dens in the basement
  • Size of the basement rec room, in square feet
  • A second kitchen, yes or no
  • An elevator, yes or no
  • Utilities — water, sewer, gas, septic, well

Two things worth knowing about that list.

Above-grade square footage is not on it. The form has no field for it, even though "square footage" is named in the errors ground. If your living area is recorded wrong, it goes in the comments section rather than a box.

The county tracks the rec room, not the finished basement. The field is "size of basement rec room," not finished basement area. Those are different measurements, and a difference between them is not automatically an error.

One category to be careful with. The county also records judgments — construction grade and physical condition. Those are opinions formed by an assessor, not data points with a right answer. Disagreeing with a condition rating is a different kind of argument than showing a bathroom that does not exist, and it does not get the benefit of the deeming clause above.

A worked example

Suppose the county's file says your basement rec room is 900 square feet. You go downstairs and measure, and the finished area is 400 square feet — the rest is unfinished storage and a utility room.

That is a factual difference, and it is one you can document with a tape measure and photographs. Under the statute above, establishing it settles the appraisal-practice half of the county's test.

It does not finish the job. You would still need to show that the corrected description supports a lower value than the one you were assessed at — which is a question about what comparable homes sold for, not about the measurement.

Now suppose you measure and the finished area is 1,400 square feet. The file understates your house. That is worth knowing before you file rather than after.

Where to read your record, free

Fairfax County publishes property records online through iCare. There is no charge and no account. You can search by address or by tax map reference number.

Characteristics, ownership, sale dates and sale prices are updated twice a week, so what you see is close to current.

Virginia law is what puts it there. §58.1-3122.2 permits local tax offices to provide remote access, including internet access, to nonconfidential public records.

That statute is about publishing. A different one gives you the right to ask for more. Under §58.1-3331, you can examine the records behind your assessment — the property appraisal card, the working papers, and available information about the method used, including the list of comparable properties or sales figures considered. That right is printed on the county's own appeal form. Your right to see the county's own numbers covers how to use it.

How to read what you find. Take the record next to the house. Walk the rooms and count. Measure the finished part of the basement. Check the year built against your settlement papers, and any remodel against your permit or your invoice. Where the file and the house disagree, write down which is which, and how you know.

The check runs in both directions

This is the part to be blunt about.

An appeal reopens your assessment. It does not only go down. If the county's file understates your house — a finished basement recorded as unfinished, a bathroom that was added and never recorded, an addition that never made it into the file — then correcting the record can support a higher value, not a lower one.

Reading your record is how you find that out privately, before you file anything, at no cost and with nothing on the table.

Can my assessment go up if I appeal? covers how the reopening works at each route.

What to do when you find something

Say the file lists three full bathrooms and your house has two. That is a fact, it is checkable, and you can show it.

Here is what happens next.

The written statement is yours to make. The county asks the owner to describe the error and why the assessment is wrong. That statement is the owner's, in the owner's words. Evidence attaches to it — photographs, a floor plan, permit records, a settlement statement.

Your signature covers the attachments. The Board of Equalization application certifies that the facts in the application and attached to it are true, accurate and correct. Whatever you attach, you are vouching for. That is a reason to check twice rather than to attach more.

Talk to the county first if you want to. The Department of Tax Administration invites owners to discuss an assessment with its staff appraisers before filing anything. A plain factual correction is the kind of thing that conversation exists for. You can reach DTA at 703-222-8234.

Expect them to look. When an appeal is filed, county staff verify the property's physical description, which ordinarily means an inspection. You can decline, and the review proceeds on the information available.

Mind the deadline. The administrative appeal closes April 1 and the Board of Equalization closes June 1. Every appeal deadline, and the rules behind them has the detail, including how the filing channel decides whether you made it.

If this year's deadlines have gone. Reading your record is still worth doing. The file carries forward, so an error you find in September is an error the county is still working from in February — and the deadlines page sets out which routes remain open once the county ones have closed.

Start here

Read your record. It costs nothing, it takes twenty minutes, and it is the one step that tells you whether you have a factual case, a value case, or no case at all.

How to appeal your Fairfax County assessment covers what comes after.

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