If your opinion of the value of your personal or real property differs from the assessor’s, you may file an appeal through the Board of Equalization and Review during the month of February. You may make an appointment through the Harrison County Commission (phone 304-624-8500) in the month of January. The Board will ask you to state the value of your property and support that value with either a certified appraisal, your real estate insurance papers, examples of recent comparable sales in your area, or, in the case of a commercial building, an income approach. You may appeal market values only for future years.

Property values are not static. They change dramatically with depreciation, land value, inflation, and market changes due to desirability or lack of desirability of a property. Therefore, the State of West Virginia mandatorily requires that each assessor in West Virginia analyze properties and make changes to the Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal System (CAMA) on a yearly basis. This means that your value may go up or down slightly in any given year. If your value increases over 10% in any given year, you will receive a written notice of increase of assessment.

The Assessor’s Office will only handle appeals regarding clerical error or classification; the Board of Equalization and Review will handle appeals for future years’ values.