How to Appeal Your Property Tax in Ohio: Step-by-Step Guide

Ohio owners contest a value by filing a complaint with the county auditor for the county board of revision. It is due by March 31 of the year after the tax year, or by the close of first-half tax collection if that date falls later (R.C. 5715.19(A)(1)).

Ohio filing dates by stage

The “whichever is later” clause matters. The deadline moves past March 31 in a county whose first-half collection closes after that date, so check your own tax bill and the auditor’s site rather than assuming March 31. If you mail the complaint, “the date of the United States postmark placed on the envelope or sender’s receipt by the postal service shall be treated as the date of filing,” but “a private meter postmark on an envelope is not a valid postmark.” The state form’s instructions say a complaint “must be received by the county auditor” by the deadline, so a mailed complaint sent at the last minute invites an argument. That deadline sentence reads the same in every version of section 5715.19 since July 21, 2022; the current text took effect March 20, 2026 under House Bill 186.

Board of revision: who sits and what it can change

Each county’s board of revision is “the county treasurer, county auditor, and a member of the board of county commissioners,” and each may name one qualified employee to sit on hearing boards for value complaints (R.C. 5715.02). The complaint can attack the total value of a parcel on the tax list or the agricultural land tax list, a classification, a recoupment charge, and the other determinations listed in R.C. 5715.19(A)(1)(a)–(f).

The board can go in both directions. The Department of Taxation’s form instructions state: “The Board of Revision may increase or decrease the total value of any parcel included in a complaint.” The board must notify the parties “not less than ten days prior to the hearing” (R.C. 5715.19(C)), and its decision goes out by certified mail, or by ordinary mail plus email where it has your address on record (R.C. 5715.20(A)).

DTE 1 or DTE 2, sworn and signed

• DTE 1 (Rev. 12/22), Complaint Against the Valuation of Real Property. “This form is for full market value complaints only. All other complaints should use DTE Form 2.”
• Your number is full market value. Column A asks for your opinion “before the application of the 35% percent listing percentage”; Column B is the taxable value on the bill “divided by 0.35.”
• The form asks about the last three years: any sale (attach the purchase agreement or closing statement), any listing for sale, and any improvements and their cost.
• It is sworn. A board of revision may not lower a value without “a written application therefor, verified by oath and signature” (R.C. 5715.13(A)). A board may adopt an electronic filing policy with the tax commissioner’s approval; an e-filed complaint carries a perjury declaration instead of a notary (R.C. 5715.13(B)).

Put everything in front of the board. R.C. 5715.19(G) says a complainant who does not provide “all information or evidence within the complainant’s knowledge or possession” is barred from using it on appeal, unless the higher tribunal finds good cause.

One complaint per interim period

Ohio counties reappraise every parcel “at least once in each six-year period” (R.C. 5713.01(B)) and get a state-reviewed update in the third year after (R.C. 5715.24(B)). The span from one of those years to the next is the “interim period,” and R.C. 5715.19(A)(2) bars a second complaint on the same parcel within it. A second filing is allowed only if, after the lien date of the earlier complaint’s year, one of these happened and was not considered before:

• the property sold in an arm’s length transaction;
• it lost value to a casualty;
• a substantial improvement was added;
• occupancy rose or fell by at least fifteen percent with a substantial economic impact.

A complaint withdrawn before the board heard it does not count against you (R.C. 5715.19(A)(5)). Line 14 of DTE 1 asks you to check which of these reasons applies.

School boards and other challengers after House Bills 126 and 96

House Bill 126 (effective July 21, 2022) narrowed complaints by school districts and other local governments. The current R.C. 5715.19(A)(6) reaches three kinds of filers on property they do not own or lease: the legislative authority of a subdivision (a county, township, school board or city), the mayor of a city or village, and any “third party complainant.” That last term covers a county prosecutor or treasurer and “any person acting on behalf of a legislative authority or mayor.” A local government, its mayor, or someone filing for either may go ahead only after the legislative authority adopts a resolution at a public meeting and notifies the owner. The sale rule is narrower. It applies when the complaint attacks the parcel’s value under divisions (A)(1)(d) or (e): the complaint must rest on an arm’s length sale, and the price must exceed the tax-list value by ten percent and by an inflation-adjusted threshold, set at $500,000 for tax year 2022. House Bill 96 (effective September 30, 2025) added that such a value complaint must seek an increase, brought people acting on the government’s behalf under the limits, and required that the sale be documented within the two years before the lien date.

A board of education may still counter-complain, but only against an original complaint filed by the owner, a tenant or someone acting for them that claims at least $17,500 in taxable value (the owner-filed condition dates from House Bill 96), and it must file within 30 days after that complaint is filed or after the last filing day, whichever is later (R.C. 5715.19(B)(2)). On appeal, a subdivision may go to the Board of Tax Appeals only on property it owns or leases, and “no such appeal may be taken by a third party complainant” (R.C. 5717.01).

Taxes while the complaint is pending

You may pay on your own number. “The treasurer shall accept any amount tendered as taxes or recoupment charge upon property concerning which a complaint is then pending, computed upon the claimed valuation as set forth in the complaint” (R.C. 5715.19(D)). If the final figure lands above what you tendered, interest runs on the difference from the original due date, and if it equals or exceeds the amount first billed, the late-payment penalty applies on top (R.C. 5715.19(E)).

After the board rules: Board of Tax Appeals or common pleas

The owner may appeal to the Board of Tax Appeals under R.C. 5717.01 or, “as an alternative,” to the county court of common pleas under R.C. 5717.05. If both are filed, “the forum in which the first notice of appeal is filed shall have exclusive jurisdiction.” A Board of Tax Appeals notice may be filed in person, by certified or express mail, by authorized delivery service, by fax or electronically. It has to be filed with both the Board of Tax Appeals and the county board of revision.

Homes can use the Board of Tax Appeals small claims docket. It is open to appeals under R.C. 5717.01 when the property qualifies for the partial exemption in R.C. 319.302 (R.C. 5703.021(B)(1)) and the taxpayer filing the appeal asks for the small claims docket (R.C. 5703.021(C)(1)(a)). That exemption covers property “intended primarily for use in farming activity or residential activity” (R.C. 319.302(B)(1)). The trade-off: a small claims decision “shall be conclusive as to all parties and may not be appealed” (R.C. 5703.021(F)).

A county example: Cuyahoga

Cuyahoga County’s Board of Revision, on its page read September 24, 2026, says “The filing period tax year 2025 is now closed. The next opportunity to file a complaint against the valuation of real property will be January 1, 2027- March 31, 2027.” Its FAQ adds that if March 31 falls on a weekend, the deadline is the next business day, and that the board “will determine the property’s fair-market value based on the evidence.” Those are Cuyahoga’s statements; other counties publish their own windows under the same statute.

Related Ohio and neighboring-state guides

• Ohio property tax system: HB 920, reappraisals and rates
• Property tax calculator
• Pennsylvania property tax appeals
• Michigan property tax appeals
• Indiana property tax appeals
• Kentucky property tax appeals
• West Virginia property tax appeals

Ohio board of revision FAQ

Can filing a complaint raise my value?

Yes. The DTE 1 instructions say the board “may increase or decrease the total value of any parcel included in a complaint,” and a school board that qualifies under R.C. 5715.19(B)(2) may counter-complain to argue the value should stay or rise.

I filed two years ago. Can I file again this year?

Only if you are in a new interim period, or can point to a sale, casualty loss, substantial improvement or a 15 percent occupancy change that happened after the lien date of the earlier complaint’s year and was not considered in that complaint (R.C. 5715.19(A)(2)). A complaint you withdrew before the hearing does not block a new one.

Do I have to pay the full bill to keep my complaint alive?

R.C. 5715.19(D) lets you tender tax computed on the value claimed in your complaint, and the treasurer must accept it. Interest, and in some cases the penalty, applies to any shortfall once the value is final.

What if the board does not decide within 180 days?

Your complaint carries forward. R.C. 5715.19(D) says an undecided complaint “shall be continued by the board as a valid complaint for any ensuing year” until it is decided or appealed, without a new filing.

Board of Tax Appeals or common pleas: which one?

Either, within 30 days of the decision notice, and whichever you file first keeps the case (R.C. 5717.05). The Board of Tax Appeals has a small claims docket for residential property if you ask for it; its small claims decisions cannot be appealed.