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

North Dakota sets no filing window for a value appeal. The deadline is a meeting. You make your case to the city board of equalization in the first fifteen days of April or the township board in April (N.D.C.C. 57-11-01, 57-09-01), then to the county board in the first ten days of June (57-12-01).

The North Dakota ladder and its dates

Each city and township picks its own day inside the statutory window, so the exact date and hour differ across the state. You find yours on your notice: since HB 1176 (2025), 57-02-53(3) requires every assessment notice to give “the date, time, and location” of the local board meeting and of the county board meeting. The county auditor also publishes both meetings in the official county newspaper (57-02-51, 57-02-52).

What changed in 2025: a notice for every parcel

Before HB 1176, an assessor had to deliver a notice only when a value went up by at least $3,000 and at least 10 percent. HB 1176 (Session Laws 2025, chapter 555, filed May 5, 2025) rewrote 57-02-53. Now “an assessor shall deliver written notice of the amount of the true and full value of each parcel of taxable property for the current and previous year,” at least fifteen days before the local board meets. Delivery can be in person, by mail to your last-known address, or by email if you have consented to email notice. Those changes took effect July 1, 2025, not August 1. HB 1176 includes an appropriation, and under N.D.C.C. 1-02-42 a measure with an appropriation in any portion “takes effect on July first after its filing” unless it names another date. The Legislative Council’s list of 2025 effective dates shows “1176 – July 1, 2025.” The act’s own later dates cover other sections (7 to 16, 22 and 23), not the notice and board sections (17 to 20).

The same act deleted the 15 percent rule. Township, city and county boards used to need to give the owner notice and a chance to be heard before raising a value more than 15 percent over the prior year. That sentence is gone from 57-09-04, 57-11-03 and 57-12-06. The county board can still raise a parcel after notice to the local board (57-12-06(2)(b)).

Step one: the city or township board

“During the session of the board, any person, or the attorney or agent of any person feeling aggrieved by anything in the assessment roll, may apply to the board for the correction of alleged errors in the listing or valuation of real property” (57-11-04). For townships, 57-09-04 says complaints of residents “must be heard and decided by the board.”

Not everyone starts here. Complaints by nonresidents, and complaints about an assessment made after the local meeting, “must be heard and determined by the county board of equalization” (57-11-03, 57-09-04). In unorganized territory, the county commissioners sit as the local board (57-12-02).

Step two: the county board of equalization in June

The county board can reduce a parcel inside a city or township only if the owner “first appeals to the county board of equalization, either by appearing personally or by a representative before the board or by mail or other communication to the board” and gives reasons (57-12-06(2)(a)). A letter counts. The board sits day to day, excluding weekends and legal holidays, until it finishes (57-12-01).

Step three: the State Board of Equalization in August

The state board is the governor, state treasurer, state auditor, agriculture commissioner and tax commissioner (57-13-01). It can cut an individual assessment only after the owner “has established to the satisfaction of the board” that the owner “had first appealed the assessment to the local equalization board” and “to the county board of equalization” (57-13-04(3)(a)(1)). Skip either earlier board and the state board has no power to reduce your value. Section 57-13-04(9) makes an exception. It lets you appeal to the state board if you were “foreclosed from attending assessment proceedings” because the notice rules were not substantially followed or because of an irregularity in the proceedings.

The Office of State Tax Commissioner’s filing instruction reads: “To file a property tax appeal, please contact our Property Tax division by email at propertytax@nd.gov or call 701-328-3127. When you file an appeal, you will need to complete a questionnaire and submit other evidence.” In 2026 the board’s locally assessed meeting was Tuesday, August 11, 2026. The Tax Commissioner’s Property Tax Assessment Process handout describes that decision as final.

Abatement: the route if you missed the boards

Chapter 57-23 is a separate remedy with a longer clock. Under 57-23-04(1), the board of county commissioners may abate or refund tax on real property, including “when the assessment on the complainant’s property is invalid, inequitable, or unjust.” The application must be filed with the county auditor “on or before November first of the year following the year in which the tax becomes delinquent.” The Tax Commissioner’s abatement guideline gives an example: the application for abatement of a 2021 tax “must be filed on or before November 1, 2023.” The Tax Commissioner’s abatement guideline adds that an application against the current year’s assessment “may be filed anytime after completion of equalization by the State Board of Equalization.”

• File the application in writing, in duplicate, with the county auditor. It must state your grounds and your post-office address (57-23-05).
• If the property is in a city or organized township, the county auditor sends a copy there, and the city or township holds a hearing and sends its recommendation to the county. That hearing must be set no more than sixty days after its notice, and you may waive it in writing (57-23-05, 57-23-06(1)).
• At the county hearing you are “limited to the relief claimed in the application” and cannot argue for a lower valuation than you asked for (57-23-06(3)). Put your number in the application.
• Filing the application counts as consent to an inspection of the premises for an appraisal (57-23-05.1).
• If the commissioners deny it, 11-11-39 allows an appeal to district court, and the appellant “shall file an undertaking”: a bond in a reasonable sum, with sureties the county auditor approves, promising to prosecute the appeal without delay and pay any costs adjudged against you. The notice of appeal “must be filed with the clerk of the court within thirty days after the decision,” and a copy must be served on the local governing body, here the board of county commissioners, as rule 4 of the North Dakota Rules of Civil Procedure provides (28-34-01(1)). For a tax matter, 11-11-41 requires that notice also be served by registered mail on the state tax commissioner.

If you pay under protest, by giving the county treasurer written notice at the time of payment that states your reasons, 57-20-20 gives you sixty days after that to apply in writing to the county commissioners for an abatement, adjustment or refund. A refund of tax on an abated assessment “must be granted, regardless of whether or not such taxes were paid under protest” (57-23-04(2)).

Related North Dakota pages

• North Dakota property tax explained: how value becomes a tax bill, credits and payment dates
• North Dakota homestead credit
• Property tax calculator
• North Dakota overview
• Neighbouring states: South Dakota, Minnesota, Montana

Statute text: chapter 57-11, 57-12, 57-13, 57-23; State Board of Equalization.

Questions North Dakota owners ask

I missed my city’s April meeting. Is the year lost?

Not entirely. Section 57-12-06(2)(a) lets the county board reduce a parcel in a city or township if you appeal to it directly. The state board, however, cannot reduce it later if you skipped the local board (57-13-04(3)(a)(1)). The exception is an owner who was “foreclosed from attending assessment proceedings” because the notice requirements of chapters 57-02 or 57-12 were not substantially followed, or because of an irregularity in the township, city or county proceedings (57-13-04(9)). An abatement under 57-23-04 remains open until November 1 of the year after the year the tax becomes delinquent (for a 2021 tax, that was November 1, 2023).

Do I have to show up in person?

At the county and state levels, no. Both 57-12-06(2)(a) and 57-13-04(3)(a) accept an appeal made “by mail or other communication to the board” or through a representative. For the city board, 57-11-04 lets “the attorney or agent” apply for you.

Can the board raise my value when I appeal?

Yes. City boards may change a value “by increasing or diminishing the true and full valuation” (57-11-03). The county board may increase a parcel after notice to the local board (57-12-06(2)(b)). The state board may increase one it believes is too low and must notify the owner by mail (57-13-04(3)(b)).

I live in a rural area with no township government. Where do I go?

To the county board of equalization, which “must be regarded as the local board of equalization” for unorganized territory (57-12-02).

My house was damaged by a flood after the assessment date. Is that an appeal?

It is an abatement ground. Section 57-23-04(1)(g) covers improvements “destroyed or damaged by fire, flood, tornado, or other natural disaster,” and the abatement or refund covers only “that part of the year remaining after the property was damaged or destroyed.”