Practical Valuation Safeguards for Tax Appeal Board (PTAB) Hearings | David Barros, MAI

Use this interactive checklist to vet your appraisal report metrics for hidden structural or methodology vulnerabilities before submitting final briefs to Cook County or state appellate boards.

I. General Mandates & Jurisdictional Framework

Retrospective Target Alignment: Is the appraisal's effective valuation date pinned exactly to January 1 of the specific contested assessment year?

Jurisdictional Intended User Requirements: Does the report explicitly name the legal counsel/client and state that it is formulated solely for equitable ad valorem tax assessment purposes?

Federally Exempt Statement: Does the document clear USPAP compliance hurdles by explicitly stating that it is not intended for federally related financing purposes?

II. Market Data & Comparables (Sales Comparison Approach)

True Micro-Market Proximity: Are the selected sales comparables strictly restricted to the immediate local submarket corridor or neighborhood codes rather than relying on unadjusted, broad county-wide averages?

Arm's-Length Verification Loop: Has every short sale, compulsory transfer, or REO transaction used as a comparative baseline been thoroughly verified through secondary databases to prove normalized market exposure duration?

Temporal Proximity Boundaries: Are the execution closing dates of your submarket comparables tightly clustered around the statutory tax lien valuation target date?

III. Income Approach & Underwriting Standards

Submarket Rent Benchmarking: Are operational property performance variables cleanly cross-referenced with local submarket property tiers (e.g., separating 1-Star/2-Star assets from premium 4-Star spaces)?

Survey Disconnection Audit: Is the applied capitalization rate extracted cleanly from local sales transactions instead of utilizing broad, non-localized national investor data aggregates?

Actual vs. Stabilized Performance Discrepancy: Does the report layout contrast structural, localized high vacancy realities directly against the generic stabilized benchmarks used in standard mass appraisal baseline models?

IV. Condition & Physical Deficiencies

Unstabilized Unit Verification: If the asset suffers from physical vacancies or severe deferred maintenance, does the report provide undeniable photo verification to block county "stabilized class" assumptions?

Extraordinary Assumptions Disclosures: Are all uninspected spaces or unavailable property details (such as specialized mechanical frameworks or unreachable roof areas) legally insulated via transparent USPAP extraordinary assumption declarations?

The Attorney's Pre-Hearing Appraisal Evidence Checklist

I. General Mandates & Jurisdictional Framework

II. Market Data & Comparables (Sales Comparison Approach)

III. Income Approach & Underwriting Standards

IV. Condition & Physical Deficiencies