Questions owners ask

File a petition with the Property Value Appeals Board after your 2026-27 tax statement arrives and no later than December 31, 2026. Each account needs its own petition and a $30 filing fee payable to Multnomah County. Petitions are accepted by mail or in person only. The county does not accept email or fax.

Only in some cases. Most Oregon commercial property is taxed on assessed value, which Measure 50 limits to 3% growth a year, and for most buildings that number sits well below real market value. A lower real market value then changes nothing. The county says so itself: a reduction in real market value may not result in tax savings. It does save money when the property is in Measure 5 compression, or when the new value falls below the assessed value. We check that first.

Measure 5 caps operating property taxes at $5 per $1,000 of real market value for schools and $10 per $1,000 for general government. When a property's taxes would exceed those caps, they are reduced to the cap, and the tax then follows real market value. In that case every $1,000 of value reduction can save up to about $15 a year in those taxes. Bond levies are outside the caps.

Evidence of market value as of January 1 of the assessment year: an arm's length sale of the property, a recent appraisal, comparable sales, a listing below the roll value, written repair estimates, and for commercial property, income and expense information. We also bring current leasing and listing data for the building and its submarket.

You can appear yourself or authorize a representative. Oregon allows certain representatives, including an Oregon licensed CPA. You sign an Authorization to Represent form and we handle the filing and the hearing.

Hearings run from the first Monday in February through April 15. Each hearing is scheduled in a 10 minute slot, and the Board reviews a large number of petitions, so the package has to make its case quickly. That is how we build it.

40% of the first-year tax savings that result from the Board's order. If the order does not lower your 2026-27 tax, you owe us nothing. The county's $30 filing fee per account is separate.

Yes. Business personal property values can be appealed to the same Board on a separate petition, also by December 31.

The Board can only hear the current year's values. If you miss the deadline, we can screen your account for next year when the 2027-28 statements mail in the fall.