Charlottesville Board of Equalization has met this week to hear 14 assessment appeals

When localities in Virginia conduct real estate assessments, state code allows for a process for property owners to appeal their case to local officials.

This year in Charlottesville, the average assessment was up 7.74 percent.

In Charlottesville, there were 128 appeals this year that were handled administratively according to Assessor Jeffrey Davis. Of those, fourteen made it to this year’s meeting of the Charlottesville Board of Equalization.

“The Board of Equalization is an independent panel of citizens, appointed to mediate when the property owner does not agree with the assessor’s decision in the first part of the appeals process,” reads one answer to a list of frequently asked questions about the city’s assessment process.

The meetings were held on May 13 and May 14 and were noticed in two separate advertisements in the Charlottesville Daily Progress. Twelve of the appeals were upheld according to information shared by City Assessor Jeffrey Davis.

“In all cases brought before the board, there shall be a presumption that the valuation determined by the assessor is correct,” reads §58.1-3379 of Virginia Code. “The burden of proof on appeal to the board shall be on the taxpayer to rebut the presumption.”

Anyone not satisfied with the process can also appeal to Charlottesville Circuit Court.

There’s a similar message on the city assessor’s website. However, more information about the meetings and previous ones is hard to come by on the city’s website.

The city has two calendars listing upcoming meetings and neither includes this week’s meetings. Charlottesville uses CivicAccess to store agendas and minutes for most meetings but there are no entries for the Board of Equalization.

Additionally, one list of Charlottesville boards and commissions does not include the Board of Equalization. Neither does the other.

The minutes will be available sometime in early June, according to City Assessor Jeffrey Davis.

Before you go: This is a story that was originally published in the May 14, 2025 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement. This features an attempt at making a graphic to visualize information for the reader. To support all of these attempts to document local and regional government, please take a look at this link on how to do so!