Over the last couple of years, South Floridians have watched helplessly while their property values plummeted. The historical loss of values has led to a sharp increase in property tax assessments disputes for residential and commercial properties in South Florida.

Palm Beach County

During the month of September, the residents of Palm Beach County filed nearly 20,000 petitions disputing their property tax assessments. In 2008, there were approximately 13,000 petitions filed; 25% of which were filed by commercial property owners, and much of the remainder by residential and land owners.

Broward County

By its September 18th deadline, Broward County received more than 30,000 property tax disputes, significantly more than Palm Beach County. Of the petitions, approximately 10,000 were filed for commercial properties, 3,000 for vacant lots, and 6,400 were for condo units.

Miami-Dade County

Although Miami-Dade County has yet to enter all petitions into its system, it has been estimated there are more than 60,000 petitions so far, and county officials expect they will exceed the 70,000 petitions filed by property owners in 2008.

Source: South Florida Business Journal