The 100% Standard and the Assessing Officers

Virginia’s assessment standard is one sentence long and unusually strict: real estate is assessed at 100% of fair market value (§ 58.1-3200(A)) — no fractional ratio, no classification discount, and no cap on year-over-year change. The market moves, the assessment moves with it. What Virginia offers instead is the strongest procedural protection on this site — and a presumption that the assessment is correct until the owner proves otherwise.

Who assesses

Virginia’s assessing officers are local, and the office varies by locality: the Commissioner of the Revenue — an elected constitutional officer — or a professional local assessor appointed under § 58.1-3201. Some localities split the work (the commissioner assessing, a professional assessor handling real estate or supervising reassessments). Either way, the officer is accountable to the locality, and the reassessment schedule is the locality’s — Virginia requires general reassessments on a regular schedule but lets each locality set it.

The presumption of correctness

An assessment is presumed correct, and the burden is on the taxpayer to overcome it (§ 58.1-3379). The presumption is overcome by probative evidence of the value — an appraisal, comparable sales — not by opinion or by the size of the increase. This is the mirror image of Indiana’s 5% burden shift: Virginia never shifts the burden, whatever the percentage change.

What this tells you: a Virginia appeal is an evidence exercise from the first filing. The procedural ladder (notice, board, court) protects when and how you are heard; the evidence protects whether you win.

Worked example (illustrative)

Illustrative arithmetic with made-up figures — not your locality.

1. Inputs: assessments rise with a hot market — $480,000 → $560,000 (+16.7%) in one year, no improvements.
2. Step — the cap question: unlike Arizona (5% LPV limit) or Texas (10% homestead cap), there is no limit the increase could breach. +16.7% is lawful if the market supports it.
3. Step — the notice: because the assessment increased, § 58.1-3330 entitles you to a notice showing $560,000 and the two prior years ($480,000, $470,000), at least 15 days before the hearing — the comparison is on the notice’s face.
4. Step — the argument: the winning case is market evidence that $560,000 exceeds fair market value — with the presumption working against you until that evidence is in.

What this tells you: the two-year comparison on the notice makes Virginia the one state where a year-over-year look at the figures is built into the process — but the comparison is context, not proof. The proof is value evidence as of the assessment date.

What this page does not cover

Land-use (agricultural/forestal) assessment, the elderly and disabled relief programs, and the special assessment districts are outside this page. The Code sections cited above, read on the official law portal, are the authorities for the standard and the officers.