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

· ✓ Last verified Oct 3, 2026 · January 14, 2026 · by AskDoss Editorial Team ·Home Services · 7 min read

In most Vermont towns, appeals start with a written grievance to your town’s listers, filed on or before the grievance day your town sets (32 V.S.A. § 4111(g)). You can take the listers’ decision to the Board of Civil Authority within 14 days (§ 4404). The board’s decision can go to a state hearing officer or superior court within 30 days (§ 4461). Burlington’s city charter sets a different route, covered below.

Grievance day is set by your town

The first deadline is the town’s grievance meeting, not your tax bill. When the listers lodge the abstract of the grand list, they must mail a notice to every owner whose appraisal changed, unless the change only reflects a new current-use value or its adjustment by the common level of appraisal. It gives the amount of the change and “the time and place” when “persons aggrieved may be heard,” and it must go out at least 14 days before that hearing (§ 4111(e)). To be heard, you “shall, on or before the day of the grievance meeting, file with them his or her objections in writing” (§ 4111(g)). A tax bill arrives after the grand list is set, so waiting for it to object is too late.

The statute’s base dates, May 5 to lodge the abstract (§ 4111(d)) and May 20 for grievances (§ 4221), are pushed back by § 4341: 30 days in towns under 5,000 people and 50 days in larger towns. The Director of Property Valuation and Review can grant a further extension (§ 4342), and § 4341 does not change “the date fixed in a municipal charter.” The Department of Taxes’ 2026 lister calendar put the statewide dates at June 19 for grievance hearings to begin in towns under 5,000 and July 9 in larger towns. Your town’s posted notice can differ, and a city charter can fix its own dates. That notice, and the change-of-appraisal letter, is the date to use.

The Vermont appeal ladder

Step Body Deadline Statute
Grievance Town listers (or assessor) Written objections on or before the grievance day in the town’s notice 32 V.S.A. §§ 4111(g), 4221, 4222
Listers’ decision Listers mail a written result Statute says by June 9, subject to the § 4341 extensions; the notice must state your right to appeal § 4224
First appeal Board of Civil Authority (BCA), lodged with the town clerk. In Burlington: the Board of Tax Appeals, filed with the Chief Administrative Officer Within 14 days after the listers’ notice is mailed. In Burlington: “on or before the 19th day of June or within 14 days after the date of mailing of notice” §§ 4224, 4404(a); 24 App. V.S.A. ch. 3, § 91
Second appeal Director of Property Valuation and Review (a hearing officer) or the Superior Court of the county Notice of appeal within 30 days after the town clerk mails the BCA decision § 4461(a)
Further review Vermont Supreme Court Written notice of appeal sent to the PVR docket clerk after the hearing officer’s final decision. A motion for reconsideration filed within 28 days of the decision’s date of entry stops the appeal clock; once the hearing officer rules on it, the full time for appeal starts again 3 V.S.A. § 815, per Department of Taxes guide GB-1241

Burlington follows its city charter

Burlington doesn’t use listers or a BCA for this. Under the city charter, the assessors’ abstracts are open for inspection “from the 20th day to the 25th day of May, inclusive,” and that is when the assessors hear grievances (24 App. V.S.A. ch. 3, § 89). The § 4341 extensions don’t move a charter date, though the Director can extend one on written application (§ 4342), so go by the city’s posted notice. The assessors mail you the result. Your appeal goes to the Board of Tax Appeals: file a written notice of appeal with the Chief Administrative Officer “on or before the 19th day of June or within 14 days after the date of mailing of notice,” briefly state your grounds, and notify the assessors in writing (§§ 90–91). Refuse an inspection, or ignore a subpoena for your records, and “the appeal shall be deemed withdrawn or dismissed and no further appeal shall be available” (§ 92(b)(3)). Either you or the City Assessor can take the Board’s decision to the Director or superior court under § 4461 “within 30 days of the mailing of the Board of Tax Appeals’ decision” (§ 92(d)). If nobody appeals, that decision sets your grand list value for the year “plus the next two years,” unless material new information turns up, the property changes materially, or the city reappraises it (§ 92(e)).

Burlington isn’t the only chartered municipality. If you live in another city or town with a charter, read its tax appeal sections and the local notice before relying on the statewide dates above.

At the grievance and before the BCA

Listers must decide every written objection filed on time, even if you don’t show up (§ 4222). You may bring “evidence under oath or in documentary form” (§ 4223). Two changes cannot be grieved at all: a change that only reflects a new use value set by the Current Use Advisory Board, and the adjustment of that value by the common level of appraisal (§ 4111(g)).

A BCA appeal is filed with the town clerk. It must “briefly set forth” your grounds (§ 4404(a)). Section 4404(b) has the clerk call a meeting no later than 14 days after the last day to appeal, but § 4341 also extends the dates for board meetings. The Department’s 2026 lister calendar reflects both: one entry says “Hearings begin 14 Calendar days after appeal deadline,” and the later one says “Start BCA hearings 44-46 calendar days (depending on population) after deadline to file an appeal.” Go by the hearing date in the clerk’s notice. Then the rules turn practical:

  • A committee of at least three board members inspects the property, inside and outside, and reports within 30 days of the hearing. If you refuse the inspection after notice, “the appeal shall be deemed withdrawn” (§ 4404(c)(1)).
  • The board certifies its decision, with reasons, within 15 days of that report, and the clerk notifies you by certified mail.
  • If the board fails to substantially comply with those steps, your listed value for the year stays at the amount set before the appealed change. After a complete reappraisal, it is set at a value that produces the prior year’s tax (§ 4404(c)(1)).
  • Listers can’t sit on the board for these appeals, but they may defend the appraisal (§ 4404(d)).

Hearing officer or superior court

File a notice of appeal with the town clerk within 30 days of the BCA decision’s mailing date. That date is treated as the date of entry. For an appeal to the Director, the Department’s guide quotes PVR Rule 84-1: the notice of appeal and the $70 fee “must be received” by the close of business on the 30th day after the clerk mails the BCA decision, and the day of mailing is not counted. If the 30th day falls on a weekend or legal holiday, the next business day is enough (GB-1241). The Department of Taxes’ decision form (PVR-4404-ON, revised June 2026) tells owners to name the forum and include the fee: “$295 fee for each parcel” for superior court and “$70 per parcel” for the Director. Under § 4461(a), the Director may waive or reduce the $70 for hardship. The Director may also send a complex property to superior court, and it is then treated as timely filed there. Appeals over an exemption decided by a BCA go to superior court, not the Director (GB-1241, citing Subud v. Town of Barnard, 169 Vt. 582 (1999)).

Both forums hear the case fresh. The hearing officer or court “shall proceed de novo and determine the correct valuation” (§ 4467(a)). If your listed value “does not correspond to the listed value of comparable properties within the town,” it is reset to a corresponding value (§ 4467(b)). The Department’s August 2026 guide sums up the burden this way: “There is a presumption of validity attached to the value set by the BCA,” the owner must present evidence to overcome it, and “The taxpayer retains the burden of persuasion for all contested issues” (GB-1241, citing New England Power Co. v. Town of Barnet, 134 Vt. 507–08 (1976)).

Changes already enacted for 2031

Act 170 of 2026 (H.955, signed June 18, 2026) repeals 32 V.S.A. chapter 131 as of January 1, 2031. It gives valuation appeals to new regional assessment district appeals boards starting July 1, 2031, with a 30-day appeal window (new § 3419). Until January 1, 2031, the lister, BCA (or Burlington Board of Tax Appeals) and § 4461 route above is the one that applies. A separate 2026 law, Act 164 (H.933), also moves the grand list assessment date, including the § 3651 ownership date, from April 1 to January 1 for grand lists lodged after July 1, 2031.

Vermont grievance questions

I didn’t get a change-of-appraisal notice. Can I still grieve?

Yes. Section 4111(g) lets any person “who feels aggrieved by the action of the listers” file written objections by the grievance day. The mailed notice goes only to owners whose appraisal or homestead allocation changed (§ 4111(e)), so watch for the town’s posted grievance notice.

I bought the house after April 1. Whose appeal is it?

Section 3651 of Title 32 lists property to its owner on April 1, and the Department’s guide calls April 1 “the statutory date for determining ownership and value of parcels.” The same guide says the owner on April 1 holds the right to appeal that year’s appraisal. That owner may assign it to a buyer.

What happens to taxes I already paid if the value comes down?

If you paid tax on the appraisal you appealed and it is reduced, you get a credit against the next year’s tax, and later years if needed, for the excess (§ 4469). The Department notes that many towns refund instead, to avoid interest under § 5136(b).

Can my town appeal a BCA decision that lowered my value?

Yes. Section 4461(a) gives “the selectboard members of a town” the same right to appeal to the Director or superior court.

My town just finished a reappraisal. Does anything change?

The route and deadlines are the same, and a change in appraised value (or in the homestead or housesite allocation) triggers a mailed notice under § 4111(e). No notice is required for a change made only to reflect a new current-use value or its adjustment by the common level of appraisal. One rule applies only after a complete reappraisal: if the BCA misses its own steps, your value is set to produce last year’s tax (§ 4404(c)(1)).

More Vermont and New England pages

Primary sources: 32 V.S.A. § 4111, § 4404, § 4461; GB-1241, Appeals to the Director of PVR (August 2026); 2026 lister calendar.

how-toproperty-taxvermont