Goochland property owners must contact Assessor's Office for appeals by Feb 17

Goochland property owners have until Feb. 17 to contact the Assessor’s Office at 804-556-5853 to request informal appeals on 2026 real estate notices, a local notice advises; with today Feb. 15, property owners have two days to make that call. The notice frames the contact as the immediate step for anyone who wants an informal review before filing any formal appeal.

Any taxpayer wishing to challenge an assessment should be prepared to take the matter first to the municipal Board of Assessment Appeals, the standard municipal route for assessment disputes. A legal bulletin notes, "Any taxpayer claiming to be aggrieved by the property assessment must first bring an appeal to the Board of Assessment Appeals (the 'BAA') in the municipality where the property is located," and adds that the appeal is filed by submitting a form to the Assessor that is ordinarily available from the Assessor’s office or the municipal website; property owners may submit documents or other evidence with that form. The bulletin also advised that, in prior years when statutory deadlines fell on holidays, "we encourage taxpayers to ensure that their appeals are filed by Friday, February 17, 2023," illustrating how statutory calendars can shift practical filing guidance.

Deadlines differ markedly by state and county. A county appeals portal shows Monmouth County’s 2026 Regular Assessment Appeals window running 11/15/2025 to 1/15/2026 and explicitly lists Monmouth’s filing deadline as January 15, 2026, while Hudson County’s 2026 window is shown as 02/05/2026 to 04/01/2026 and Union County’s window begins 02/17/2026 and ends 04/01/2026; the portal carries the system note that "Start date is subject to Change" and that for all other counties the general filing deadline for 2026 Regular Assessment Appeals is April 1, 2026, with a May 1, 2026 cutoff for revaluation and reassessment towns. The portal metadata records a last updated date of October 6, 2025, underscoring the need to confirm county-specific windows.

County practices can also change by resolution. Centre County commissioners approved moving the annual filing cutoff from Sept. 1 to Aug. 1 starting this year, and under the change this year’s filing deadline is Aug. 1, 2026 with a one-time grace period through Sept. 1, 2026; the county also raised the residential filing fee from $25 to $35. Chief Assessor Mark Kellerman, who brought the resolution forward, said, "Our timeframe in there is very short to get the board lined up, and that board may have to meet three to four times in that time frame." Centre County requires that all submissions be received in the office by the deadline and that appeals be heard and decided by the end of October, with at least 20 days’ notice of a hearing.

Goochland property owners who plan to contest a 2026 assessment should call 804-556-5853 before Feb. 17 to request an informal review, obtain the required appeal form from the Assessor’s Office or the municipal website, and assemble any supporting documents for submission. Procedures vary across jurisdictions; as the county portal advises, "Check with your County Tax Board to confirm" whether deadlines, filing windows, fees, electronic filing options, or postmark rules apply to your parcel.