County filing guide
How to appeal your property tax in Monterey County
Regular decline-in-value appeals. Supplemental and escape assessments have different deadlines.
Filing options
A filing-fee waiver may be available. Check with the county to see whether you qualify.
Filing instructions
Informal discussion — contact the Assessor
The Assessor’s website invites discussion about assessed value and directs unresolved disputes to the formal Assessment Appeals Board process. The inspected pages do not provide a separate informal decline-in-value application or online submission form.
Open the Assessor’s review information. Visit the Decline in Market Value page. Contact the Assessor at 831-755-5035 to discuss your assessment; the listed office hours are 8 a.m.–5 p.m.
Open the informal review information. Prepare the value evidence for your discussion. Have your parcel number, assessed value, proposed January 1 market value, and supporting comparable sales available. The Assessor’s page says supplied comparable sales must be no later than March 31 of the lien year. Ask the Assessor how to provide the information for review.
Protect your formal appeal deadline. If the value remains disputed, follow the formal appeal steps below. Monterey’s 2026 regular appeal window is July 2, 2026–November 30, 2026. Do not wait for an informal discussion to finish before protecting that deadline.
Formal appeal — signed paper application
For the 2026-27 regular assessment, file between July 2, 2026 and November 30, 2026. The appeal concerns value as of January 1, 2026. Supplemental and escape assessments have separate deadlines.
Download the application. Open the Clerk’s Assessment Appeals reference and forms page and select Assessment Appeals Application. The download is the county’s BOE-305-AH application with instructions.
Download the assessment appeal application. Complete the application. Enter the applicant and property information, parcel number, values from the assessment notice or tax bill, and your opinion of value. For an annual market-value appeal, select Regular Assessment and Decline in Value. Complete the remaining applicable sections using the included instructions. Do not attach hearing evidence to the application.
Sign and prepare the fee. Print and sign the application. Prepare a $40 check or money order payable to County of Monterey for each parcel. If requesting a fee waiver because of financial circumstances, download the Assessment Appeals Fee Waiver Request Form from the same county page and file it with the application. Keep a copy of what you file.
File by the deadline. Send the signed application and fee or waiver request to Clerk of the Board, 168 West Alisal Street, First Floor, Salinas, CA 93901. For the 2026 regular filing period, a mailed application must be postmarked no later than November 30, 2026. Hand-delivered applications must reach the Clerk by 5 p.m. Pacific time on November 30, 2026. Continue paying property taxes when due while the appeal is pending.
After you file
Informal review
Confirm the informal review process with the county before submitting a request.
Formal appeal
Keep a copy of your application and filing confirmation. Watch for notices from the Clerk of the Board and follow the county’s instructions for any hearing.
Open my appeal plans →Contacts & sources
Clerk of the Board
Runs the formal appeal
831-755-5066 · appeals page ↗
168 West Alisal Street, First Floor, Salinas, CA 93901
This guide covers the regular decline-in-value appeal; supplemental or escape assessment notices follow different deadlines. Every date and fee here was checked against official sources, listed below with the date checked. If the county's page ever differs from this guide, follow the county's page.
Sources
Informal sources
- Decline in Market Value: live page inspected October 8, 2026; verified Assessor contact, office hours, January 1 valuation, comparable-sale cutoff, and route to formal appeal.
- Assessor Assessment Appeals: confirms taxpayer discussion with the Assessor before unresolved differences go to the Board. No separate informal form, submission method, filing window, or receipt workflow was verified. The contact-based instructions do not claim that a dedicated informal application exists. This qualifies the earlier research note that described informal review as folded into formal appeal.
Formal sources
- Clerk reference guide and forms: live page inspected October 8, 2026. It now explicitly states the 2026 July 2–November 30 regular window, November 30 postmark/5 p.m. receipt deadline, $40 fee, payee, filing address, and concurrent fee-waiver option. The page was last modified July 22, 2026. This resolves the earlier stale-2025-cycle verification gap. The Assessor’s separate appeals page still contains a 2024 example; the current Clerk instructions govern this draft’s 2026 dates.
- Assessment Appeals Application: county-hosted four-page BOE-305-AH PDF opened in Chrome; applicant/property/value fields and instructions inspected. PDF instructions state not to attach hearing evidence and to continue paying taxes. Signed-paper and delivery steps are document-backed; no filing, fee payment, acknowledgment, or hearing workflow was executed.
- No formal online-submission portal was identified in the inspected county sources. The download is a PDF application, not an e-filing service. No authenticated screens are represented.
Formal appeal window
- https://www.boe.ca.gov/proptaxes/pdf/lta26023.pdf · “The regular appeals filing period in each county will begin on July 2, 2026, and will end on September 15, 2026, for those counties where the Assessor mails assessment notices to all taxpayers with property on the secured roll by August 1, 2026. For counties where assessment notices are not mailed by August 1, 2026, the filing period is extended to November 30, 2026.” (checked July 10, 2026)
Filing fee
- https://www.countyofmonterey.gov/government/departments-a-h/clerk-of-the-board/assessment-appeals-agendas-applications-forms-documents · “Effective July 1, 2011, there is a $40.00 non-refundable processing fee for each Application for Changed Assessment (one application is required for each parcel) filed with the Clerk of the Board.” (checked July 11, 2026)
Filing address
- https://www.countyofmonterey.gov/government/departments-a-h/clerk-of-the-board/assessment-appeals-agendas-applications-forms-documents · “Applications must be postmarked no later than November 30, 2026, or received by the Clerk of the Board at 168 West Alisal Street, First Floor, Salinas, CA 93901 no later than 5:00 PM Pacific Standard Time (PST) on November 30, 2026.” (checked October 8, 2026)
Filing channels
- https://www.countyofmonterey.gov/government/departments-a-h/clerk-of-the-board/assessment-appeals-agendas-applications-forms-documents · “For mailed applications, payment can be made by check or money order payable to County of Monterey. Cash, check or money order will be accepted for hand-delivered applications received at the Clerk of the Board’s office during regular business hours at 168 West Alisal Street, First Floor, Salinas, CA 93901.” (checked October 8, 2026)
Fee waiver
- https://www.countyofmonterey.gov/government/departments-a-h/clerk-of-the-board/assessment-appeals-agendas-applications-forms-documents · “Applicants who would qualify for a waiver of court fees and costs pursuant to California Government Code section 68632 because of their financial condition may request a fee waiver for the processing fee by submitting a Fee Waiver Request Form.” (checked July 11, 2026)
Common questions about appealing in Monterey County
When is the deadline to appeal in Monterey County?
The deadline to file a formal appeal in Monterey County for the 2026-27 tax year is November 30, 2026. Filing opened July 2, 2026.
What does it cost to file an appeal in Monterey County?
The county filing fee for a formal appeal is $40.
A filing-fee waiver may be available. Check with the county to see whether you qualify.
Informal review or formal appeal: which one first?
We have not established whether Monterey County offers a separate informal review. The formal appeal is an application to the Clerk of the Board, due November 30, 2026. See the Assessor's review request page ↗.
Which form do I file, and where?
The formal appeal uses the state's application form, BOE-305-AH ↗.
Monterey County accepts the formal appeal by mail or in person.
Mail it to the Clerk of the Board at 168 West Alisal Street, First Floor, Salinas, CA 93901.
Check the Clerk of the Board's appeals page ↗ or call 831-755-5066 before you file.
How long does an appeal take?
You get written notice at least 45 days ahead, hearings are open to the public (you can watch one first), and boards are expected to decide within two years of filing. You can still settle at any point before your date.
Do homeowners actually get their assessments lowered?
1,140 homes in Monterey County had temporarily reduced assessments in tax year 2025-26.