The 10% cap on non-homestead residential property

Florida has a second assessment limitation, and it is the one that applies to most residential property that is not somebody’s homestead. It is 10% rather than 3%, it lives in its own statute — section 193.1554 of the Florida Statutes — and it is written for levies other than school district levies. That last detail is in the statute’s own words and it is the difference most explanations leave out.

Which property it covers

The statute defines the term before it uses it. Nonhomestead residential property is residential real property that contains nine or fewer dwelling units — including vacant property zoned and platted for residential use — and that does not receive the homestead exemption under section 196.031.

So the two limitations divide the residential roll between them by that one test: a property that receives the homestead exemption is governed by Save Our Homes instead, at 3% or the CPI change; a residential property without it, and with nine or fewer dwelling units, is governed by this section.

The cap, and the floor underneath it

The mechanics are two subsections, and the second is what keeps the cap from raising a value that the market has already lowered:

• The property starts at just value as of January 1 of the year it becomes eligible under the section.
• From the following year it is reassessed annually on January 1, and the change may not exceed 10% of the prior year’s assessed value.
• If the figure produced by that 10% step is higher than just value, the assessed value is lowered to just value — the same lower-of-two-figures shape as Save Our Homes.

Unlike the homestead limitation, there is no CPI leg here: the statute says 10%, so a year of high inflation does not narrow the cap the way it can narrow the 3%.

What ends the cap: a change of ownership

After a change of ownership or control, the property is assessed at just value as of January 1 of the following year, and the annual 10% step begins again from there. The statute defines the event broadly — a sale, a foreclosure, a transfer of legal or beneficial title, or the cumulative transfer of control or of more than 50% of the ownership of the legal entity that owned the property — and then lists the cases where there is no change of ownership:

• a transfer of title to correct an error;
• a transfer between legal and equitable title;
• a transfer between husband and wife, including to a surviving spouse or one made by a dissolution of marriage;
• for a publicly traded company, the cumulative transfer of more than 50% of ownership through buying and selling shares on a public exchange — but this exception does not cover a transfer made through a merger with or an acquisition by another company.

Improvements, damage and parcels

• Changes, additions and improvements are assessed at just value as of the first January 1 after they are substantially completed.
• Replacing property damaged or destroyed by misfortune or calamity is treated more gently: where the new square footage is not more than 110% of what was there before, or the total is not more than 1,500 square feet, the assessment is calculated from the assessed value immediately before the damage and stays subject to the 10% step. Only the part above those thresholds is added at just value.
• Improvements to common areas that directly benefit the property are assessed at just value, apportioned among the parcels that benefit.
• Combining or dividing parcels puts the increase attributable to that at just value, apportioned among the parcels created.

What this does not cover

The rule in this section is written for levies other than school district levies, so it is not a promise about the whole of a bill: the school-district portion is assessed outside this limitation. This site does not state what any particular levy is assessed on beyond what the statute says here, and your county property appraiser’s office is the authority for your own notice.

It also does not tell you whether your just value is correct. A limitation on how fast the assessed value may move says nothing about whether the figure it started from was right — that is the question a petition to the Value Adjustment Board answers, and it is argued on the petition page.

Where to go next

• Save Our Homes and the caps — the 3%/CPI limitation for homesteads, and how the two differ.
• The TRIM notice explained — where the just, assessed and taxable figures appear, and which one each limitation moves.
• Florida assessment checker — enter two years of assessed values and see whether the change is larger than the limitation allows.
• Florida property tax deadlines — the TRIM calendar, both petition windows and the day the taxes are due.