Property owners filed about 2,000 appeals disputing their new assessment valuations the City and County issued in December.

The figure, finalized after the mid-January deadline, marks an 18% increase from the year before, according to city spokesperson Ian Scheuring. Scheuring said that according to the Real Property Assessment Division, appellants win “roughly 30% of the time.”

Exactly when those appeals will conclude remains unclear. “The budget process moves forward based on revenue projections,” Scheuring said. “So the Department of Budget and Fiscal Services does not wait for an exact figure before moving forward with the budget.”

Filing an appeal requires a $50 deposit, so about $100,000 will hit the city’s general fund to cover postage and administrative costs for the Department of Budget and Fiscal Services, Scheuring said. If an appeal succeeds or is compromised, the person who filed the appeal recoups the cost.

Appeals are heard by one of three Real Property Tax Assessment Boards of Review, appointees to which are unpaid volunteers. Most of the volunteers work in real estate and development.

“I don’t even have a meeting until March,” said Patrick Chandler, a Realtor with Corcoran Pacific Properties who sits on the first Board of Review.

The process starts with the property owner submitting their appeal well in advance with supporting documents. If there is a discrepancy, the owner might not make it to a review. If it moves forward, it gets a date to go before a board, and the board members receive the documents and then hear from both the city and county and the appellant.

“They have to come with a physical number” that they want their property value set at, Chandler said. “It has to be off by more than 10%,” he said.

Chandler finds that his expertise in real estate helps guide his review.

“We do have to take into account the appraisal method the city and county uses,” Chandler said. The appellant must support the value they’re seeking with comparable property sales.

“We evaluate them side by side and see if there’s any middle ground there or if one or the other is out of line,” Chandler said.

After a recess the board decides, mailing its decision to the appellant with either the appellant’s number, something between that and the county’s number, or a rejection.