PADSProperty Appeal Data Services
2027 appeal window

How to appeal your King County property tax

The whole process, start to finish. What King County wants from you, what to expect when, and where PADS fits in. Reading time: about 4 minutes.

At a glance

The whole appeal timeline on one page.

  1. June–November 2026
    King County mails your 2027 revaluation notice.
  2. 60 days from the postmark
    Hard deadline to file your petition with the Board of Equalization.
  3. 2–4 weeks after you file
    The Assessor sends a written response defending their valuation (or agrees to a reduction).
  4. 3–12 months after filing
    Board of Equalization hearing (if not resolved informally).
  5. Tax bill the following February
    If you win, the reduced valuation is reflected in your 2027 tax bill.

Step by step

Seven steps. Most people spend 1–2 hours total with PADS, significantly longer without, and homes we recommend with a 10%+ percentage gap win 42% more often than the typical appeal.

1

Watch the mail (June–November)

Your 2027 revaluation notice arrives by USPS from the King County Assessor. It shows your new assessed value (broken into land + improvements), your prior year's value, and the deadline to appeal. The deadline is 60 calendar days from the notice's postmark. Don't throw away the envelope. The postmark starts the clock.
2

Check your home on PADS (free, 10 seconds)

This is where PADS helps
Enter your address at pads.tax. We score every arms-length sale within a mile of your home from the last two years against yours on seven similarity dimensions, then show you our fair-value estimate, the ten closest comparable sales on a map, and the difference versus King County's number.
Don't need an appeal? If PADS shows your KC appraisal is fair or under-valued, you're done. Don't file. Attracting attention to an under-valued appraisal is a common own-goal.
3

Gather your evidence

This is where PADS helps
If PADS recommends an appeal, order the $59 packet. Within 24 hours you get:
  • A professional PDF analyst report, signed and timestamped
  • A plain-language narrative you can paste into the appeal form verbatim
  • The raw data CSV of every comparable sale we used
  • A pre-filled Board of Equalization petition draft
You can file without the packet if you want to write your own narrative from our free data. But the packet is what the Board of Equalization actually responds to, and it's the same format practitioners charging $500 to $2,000 produce.
4

File your petition with King County

This is where PADS helps
Go to kingcounty.gov eAppeals. Log in with your taxpayer account (link in your notice), start a new appeal, and follow the form. The form asks for:
  • The parcel number (already printed on your notice)
  • Your opinion of the correct value (copy from the PADS packet)
  • Your supporting argument (this is the narrative from the PADS packet)
  • Your evidence (upload the PADS PDF; optionally also the CSV)
Average time on the form with a packet in hand: 15–20 minutes. Without a packet, expect 1–2 hours of writing your own narrative.
5

Wait for the Assessor's response (2–4 weeks)

Within a few weeks of filing, the Assessor will send you a written response. This is where the game starts:
  • Good outcome: they agree to reduce your valuation informally. Done.
  • More likely outcome: they defend their valuation and cite 3–5 of their own comparable sales to justify the number. Now you need to rebut those comps.
6

Rebut the Assessor's cited comps

This is where PADS helps
Included free with your packet: the PADS Appeal Response Audit. Upload the Assessor's response, or type in the cited parcel IDs, and the tool produces a filing-ready teardown: each cited comp scored against your home on distance, grade, size, age, renovation status (catches flips), sale-warning flags, and arms-length status. Upload the rebuttal PDF as your response to the Assessor.
Boutique tax counsel charges $300–$500/hour for this step. For PADS packet buyers it's included.
7

Hearing, or settle

Most appeals resolve informally in the 2–4 weeks after the rebuttal goes in. If not, the Board of Equalization schedules a hearing (usually 3–12 months out). You can attend in person, on Zoom, or submit in writing. The packet + rebuttal are your complete evidence file. You don't need to bring anything new. If you'd rather not show up, a professional firm can represent you at the hearing for a fee, but most residential cases resolve well before this stage.
Step 6 in depth

You've filed your appeal. The Assessor pushed back with their own comps. Now what?

This is the phase where most homeowners freeze, and where boutique tax firms earn their 25–40% contingency. The PADS Appeal Response Audit handles it for you, included free with your packet. See exactly how the tool works and what the output looks like.

See the rebuttal audit tool →

Official King County resources

PADS isn't affiliated with King County. For the official process: