How could hurricane damage impact your property taxes?
BY: Shannon Behnken
PUBLISHED - Sep. 08, 2025
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Property tax bills are being prepared and should be in the mail over the next two months.
Many hurricane victims are questioning whether they are paying too much and wondering whether the loss will impact their home value, resulting in lower property taxes?
8 On Your Side Consumer Investigator Shannon Behnken asked Pinellas County Property Appraiser Mike Twitty whether one could expect to pay less in taxes this year if their home is still unrepaired.
“In most cases, yes,” Twitty said. “So I encourage people to look just market value on their trim notice. It’ll show last year’s number and this year’s number, and if that number went up for some reason, and they had a bunch of damage on Jan.1, they definitely need to call our office.”
Twitty said you’ll pay based on the value of the home on Jan. 1, 2025.
“If they were still in disrepair on Jan. 1, we’re trying to reflect a number for the value of the home at that point in time, so there may extra depreciation on that property that would reflect damage to the improvements,” he said. “It’s a little bit of a double-edged sword because that could mean results and lower taxes for them for this year, which they would likely be happy about. But then it also may lower what we show on the FEMA letter on our website for dealing with the 50% rule for future repairs.”
He said if your home was unrepaired on Jan. 1, you should use your 2024 letter for applications with FEMA.
Another point Twitty wants to clarify: just because your property value goes down, that does not always mean your taxes will also go down.
It’s due to a provision in state law called the recapture rule, and this applies to homesteaded properties, with a max increase cap of three percent annually.
“People are benefiting from the Save Our Homes cap.” Twitty said. “Their market value’s up here. Even if your market value starts to fall, your assessed value can continue to rise until those two meet, so people can still experience an assessed value rise, and that can result in a tax increase.”
The information Twitty shared applies to other Tampa Bay counties as well.
A big deadline to keep in mind in Sept. 12. That is the deadline to petition your county value adjustment board if you think your valuation isn’t correct. It’s also the deadline to apply for homestead exemption.