How to Appeal Your Property Tax in Maine: Step-by-Step Guide for 2026

Maine calls a property tax appeal an abatement. You ask your own town’s assessors in writing, within 185 days from the date that town committed its taxes (36 M.R.S. § 841(1)). Every municipality sets its own commitment date. A refusal usually goes to a board of assessment review or the county commissioners; land in a current-use program and nonresidential property valued at $1,000,000 or more, alone or added together, follow State Board routes, described below.

Maine abatement deadlines, step by step

No statewide calendar date exists. The clock starts at your town’s commitment, the day the assessors hand the tax list to the collector. Maine Revenue Services says that “usually occurs about the time that tax bills are first mailed,” so ask the assessing office for the exact commitment date before you count.

What the 185 days in § 841 cover, and what happens after

Inside the 185 days the assessors can correct “any illegality, error or irregularity in assessment,” and that includes an overvaluation. On their own initiative they can still abate for up to one year from commitment, but you cannot make them.

After one year and up to three years from commitment, a written application goes to the municipal officers (a town’s select board; a city’s mayor, councilors and aldermen), not the assessors. That late route has a hard limit written into the same subsection: the officers “may not grant an abatement to correct an error in the valuation of property.” Bulletin No. 10 gives property assessed to the wrong owner as the kind of error that can still be fixed then. A value that is simply too high cannot.

Writing the application to the assessors

Maine Revenue Services Property Tax Bulletin No. 10 (revised May 1, 2026) says every request must be in writing and state “the amount of the abatement requested and the reason for requesting the abatement.” Your town may have its own form, and if it does, Bulletin No. 10 says you must complete it. For land in the unorganized territory the application goes to Maine Revenue Services on its form “Application for Abatement of Property Taxes.”

Check one thing first. If the assessor mailed you a request for a list of your property or answers to written questions under § 706-A, you had 30 days to reply, plus a 30-day extension on written request. Someone who never answered may not apply or appeal unless the list comes with the application and the taxpayer shows they were unable to furnish it in time.

The standard you have to meet

The town’s assessment is presumed valid. Bulletin No. 10, relying on Roque Island Gardner Homestead Corp. v. Town of Jonesport, 2017 ME 152, 167 A.3d 564, says the taxpayer must show the assessment is “manifestly wrong”: substantial overvaluation that caused an injustice, unjust discrimination in valuation, or an assessment that was “fraudulent, dishonest, or illegal.” Saying the value is too high is not evidence.

The bureau points owners to two practical sources: the property record card, where a wrong build year or acreage shows up, and recent sales of similar local properties. Compare against the town’s certified ratio too. Under § 848-A the state’s ratio study is prima facie evidence. The same section makes it a sufficient defense that an assessment is “accurate within reasonable limits of practicality,” except when a deviation of 10% or more from the municipality’s ratio is proven.

Board of assessment review or county commissioners

Which body hears you depends on the town. Where the town or primary assessing area has adopted a board of assessment review, that board takes the appeal (§ 843). Everywhere else it goes to the county commissioners, or to a county board of assessment review if the commissioners created one (§ 844). The assessors’ decision letter must name the body and tell you that you have 60 days (§ 842).

Each of these bodies has 60 days from filing to give written notice of its decision. Silence past that point is a deemed denial, which opens the Superior Court appeal as if you had been refused in writing, unless you agreed in writing to wait.

Two groups skip the local route in part. Nonresidential property with an equalized municipal valuation of $1,000,000 or more goes from a local board to the State Board of Property Tax Review; with no local board, it goes straight there (§§ 843(1-A), 844(2)). The threshold counts “either separately or in the aggregate,” so three nonresidential parcels at $400,000 each, $1.2 million together, take the State Board route. Bulletin No. 10 adds that land enrolled in Tree Growth, Farmland, Open Space or Working Waterfront takes its first appeal to the State Board.

Superior Court under Rule 80B

For a home, the board’s or the commissioners’ decision is reviewed by the Superior Court under Rule 80B. The complaint is due within 30 days after notice of the decision. When the decision has to be in writing and is mailed, Rule 80B(b) treats it as delivered on the earlier of actual receipt or three days after mailing. From there, Bulletin No. 10 notes, an appeal lies to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.

Paying the tax while an appeal is pending

For property with a valuation of $500,000 or more, §§ 843(4) and 844(4) require payment of current taxes equal to the greater of last year’s taxes (capped at this year’s bill) or the part of this year’s tax that is not in dispute. If that amount is not paid by the due date or on a written payment schedule with the municipal officers, the appeal is suspended until the tax, interest and costs are paid. The same subsections say the rule “does not apply to property with a valuation of less than $500,000.”

Hardship and poverty abatements run on a separate track

An owner who cannot pay the tax on a primary residence can ask the municipal officers for a hardship or poverty abatement within three years from commitment (§ 841(2)). That track does not question the value. The officers must answer in writing within 30 days and state the reasons, and the application and hearing are confidential.

Denials of the homestead, veteran and blind exemptions are also challenged by filing an abatement request, according to Bulletin No. 10. Eligibility rules for those exemptions are in our Maine property tax guide.

Related pages

• Property tax calculator
• Appealing an assessment in New Hampshire
• Appealing an assessment in Vermont
• Appealing an assessment in Massachusetts
• Bangor vs Portland

Frequently asked questions

I missed the 185 days. Is anything left?

Only discretion and the narrow late route. Assessors may still abate on their own initiative within one year from commitment, and municipal officers can fix an illegality or error up to three years out, but § 841(1) bars them from correcting a valuation error.

My town has no board of assessment review. Who hears my appeal?

Usually the county commissioners, or a county board of assessment review if your county created one (§ 844(1), (1-A)). The filing window is the same 60 days. Two kinds of property go to the State Board of Property Tax Review instead: nonresidential property with an equalized municipal valuation of $1,000,000 or more, one parcel alone or several added together, which § 844(1) bars from the county commissioners (appeal within 60 days under § 844(2)); and land enrolled in Tree Growth, Farmland, Open Space or Working Waterfront (§§ 583, 1118; Bulletin No. 10).

The assessors never answered my application. What now?

After 60 days without a written decision it is deemed denied under § 842, unless you agreed in writing to a delay. Your 60 days to appeal run from that deemed denial.

My town revalued and my assessment jumped. Is that grounds for an abatement?

Not by itself. Bulletin No. 10 says a higher assessed value “does not necessarily mean” higher taxes, and the request must show the new figure is manifestly wrong, usually through record-card errors or comparable sales.

My homestead exemption was denied. Is that an abatement matter?

Yes. Maine Revenue Services lists homestead, veteran and blind exemption denials among the decisions appealed by filing an abatement request.

Can I go straight to court if the problem is not the value?

Sometimes. Bulletin No. 10 cites Oakes v. Town of Richmond, 2023 ME 65, 303 A.3d 650: claims such as an exemption dispute or being taxed on land you do not own may go through abatement or a declaratory judgment action in Superior Court.