Over the years some Counties have enacted county tax assessment appeal rules that are designed to chill the rights of the taxpayers.  The County officials put roadblocks in the way to discourage the taxpayer from appealing an unfair assessment which means the County does not have to deal with illegal and incorrect assessed values.  We represented a client in Crawford County, Pa last year.  Our client owned several small rental properties and based on the income and sales comparison approaches  to value, were overvalued and over-assessed...

It looks like the preliminary numbers for the Allegheny County tax assessment are coming soon for the city of Pittsburgh and Mt. Oliver. This may give taxpayers an opportunity for an "informal appeal."  An informal appeal is an unofficial meeting whereby the taxpayer can correct errors or data imputed to their property by the county data collectors.  This meeting will be run by a county official; either an assessor, an appointed hearing officer, or an employee of the reassessment vendor. All of these people are schooled in the real...