Brookfield is revaluing on the October 1, 2026 grand list. Every other Candlewood town has a revaluation coming on a schedule the state publishes. When the notice lands in your mailbox, you get a short window to do something about it, and Connecticut does not use the same deadline in every town in the same year.
There are two deadlines. Which one applies to you is decided by your own town's chief executive officer, and most owners never learn which one they were on until it has passed.
The default deadline is February 20
Section 12-112 of the General Statutes is blunt about it. No appeal from the doings of the assessors shall be heard or entertained by the board of assessment appeals "unless written appeal is made on or before February twentieth in accordance with the provisions of section 12-111."
Section 12-111(a)(1) says the appeal "shall be filed in writing or by electronic mail in a manner prescribed by such board on or before February twentieth." Email has been an allowed filing method since a 2021 amendment.
Section 12-110(b) then puts the hearings in March: the board "shall meet in the month of March to hear appeals related to the assessment of property," with the last meeting no later than the last business day in March.
The other deadline is March 20, and it exists because of an extension you never see
Section 12-117(a) names three separate actors whose deadlines the chief executive officer of the town may extend for due cause: "any assessor, board of assessors or board of assessment appeals." The ordinary extension is up to one month. In a revaluation year the board of assessment appeals period "shall be extended" by up to two months. The chief executive officer must notify the Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management within two weeks of granting it.
Keep those three actors apart, because only two of them move your deadline.
Section 12-111(b) opens with the condition, and the condition is the whole point: "If an extension is granted to any assessor or board of assessors pursuant to section 12-117, the date by which a taxpayer shall be required to submit a request for appeal to the board of assessment appeals shall be extended to March twentieth and said board shall conduct hearings regarding such requests during the month of April."
Read the actor. It is an assessor or a board of assessors, the officials who complete the grand list. It is not the board of assessment appeals. So the two month revaluation year extension in the paragraph above, which by its terms goes to the board of assessment appeals, does not by itself move your filing date to March 20.
Where an assessor extension has been granted, notice of your hearing comes at least seven calendar days before the date and no later than April 1.
So the practical question in any given year is not "what is the deadline in Connecticut." It is whether your town granted the assessor an extension under 12-117. Ask that question in those words, because an extension to the appeals board is a different thing and does not move your filing date. December is a better time to ask than February.
What the written appeal has to contain
Section 12-111(a)(1) lists it, and the list is short enough that there is no excuse for an incomplete filing. The appeal shall include, but is not limited to:
- the property owner's name
- the name and position of the signer
- a description of the property which is the subject of the appeal
- the name, mailing address and electronic mail address of the party to be sent all correspondence by the board
- the reason for the appeal
- the appellant's estimate of value
- the signature of the property owner, or a duly authorized agent
- the date of signature
The estimate of value is the one people leave blank. The statute asks for a number, not a complaint.
Who can file, beyond the owner
Two categories that surprise people are named right in the statute. A lessee of real property "whose lease has been recorded as provided in section 47-19 and who is bound under the terms of a lease to pay real property taxes" may appeal. So may "any person to whom title to such property has been transferred since the assessment date."
That second one matters here. If you bought between the October 1 assessment date and the following February, the statute names you as a person who may appeal. It also does not turn your purchase price into your new assessment, which is a separate and very common misunderstanding.
The board can decline to hear some appeals, and that is not the end
Under 12-111(a)(1), the board "may elect not to conduct an appeal hearing for any commercial, industrial, utility or apartment property with an assessed value greater than one million dollars." That threshold moved from 500,000 dollars to 1,000,000 dollars in 2009.
If the board makes that election it must notify the appellant no later than March 1, or no later than April 1 where an assessor extension under 12-117 has moved the calendar. Section 12-111(a)(2) says an appellant whose appeal will not be heard "may appeal directly to the Superior Court pursuant to section 12-117a."
Note the shape of that. Ordinary residential property is not in the list. A single family lake house is not commercial, industrial, utility or apartment property, whatever it is assessed at.
What the board owes you after the hearing
Section 12-111(a)(3): the board shall determine all appeals for which it conducts a hearing and "send written notification of the final determination of such appeals to each such person within one week after such determination has been made." That written notification "shall include information describing the property owner's right to appeal the determination of such board."
Keep the envelope. The next deadline runs from the mailing date of that notice.
The Superior Court appeal, and its two month clock
Section 12-117a(a)(1) allows a person aggrieved by the action of the board to apply to the superior court for the judicial district in which the town is situated, "not later than two months after the date of the mailing of notice of such action." Not two months after you read it. Two months after it was mailed.
Three other features of that section are worth knowing before you decide whether to go.
- It is a preferred case. The statute says such an application "shall be a preferred case, to be heard, unless good cause appears to the contrary, at the first session."
- The tax bill does not pause. The pendency of the application does not suspend the town's action to collect "not more than seventy-five per cent of the tax so assessed," or not more than ninety per cent where the assessed value of the real property is five hundred thousand dollars or more.
- A new assessment year does not restart you. If a new assessment year begins while the appeal is pending, the applicant may amend the application to cover it "and such applicant need not appear before the board of tax review or board of assessment appeals, as the case may be, to make such amendment effective."
There is also a filing requirement that catches people with larger properties. Under 12-117a(a)(2), for applications made on or after July 1, 2022, if the assessed value of the real property is one million dollars or more and the application concerns valuation, the applicant "shall file with the court, not later than one hundred twenty days after making such application, an appraisal of the real property." It must be completed by an individual or company licensed to perform real estate appraisals in the state, the court may extend the period for good cause, and if the appraisal is not timely filed "the court may dismiss the application."
An assessed value of one million dollars is not a market value of one million dollars. Section 12-62a(b) requires each municipality to assess all property "at a uniform rate of seventy per cent of present true and actual value," so a one million dollar assessment corresponds to roughly 1,428,571 dollars of value. Check the assessment on the field card, not the asking price.
The separate remedy almost nobody mentions
Section 12-119 is not an appeal from the board at all. It is a direct application to the superior court where it is claimed that a tax was laid on property not taxable in that town, or that a tax "was computed on an assessment which, under all the circumstances, was manifestly excessive and could not have been arrived at except by disregarding the provisions of the statutes for determining the valuation of such property."
Its clock is different too. The application "may be made within one year from the date as of which the property was last evaluated for purposes of taxation."
That is a demanding standard on its face, and whether any particular assessment meets it is a question for a lawyer, not for me. It is here because owners are routinely told the February deadline is the only door, and the statute book says otherwise.
One more thing that can happen in a revaluation year
Section 12-117(b) says that in a revaluation year, if the Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management determines, on information from the board and the chief executive officer, that the number of pending appeals "is such as to preclude fair and equitable consideration of such appeals within the extended period," the secretary may authorize a postponement of the implementation of the revaluation until the next assessment day.
If that happens, the assessor revises the real property grand list to reflect the prior year's assessments, and the list the appeals came from becomes the grand list for the following assessment day, subject to transfers, new construction and demolitions.
It is rare. It is also the reason that "the revaluation is final" is not a safe assumption in a year when a town is overwhelmed.
What to do with this in the five towns
- Find out now which deadline your town is on. Ask the assessor specifically whether the assessor or board of assessors has been granted a 12-117 extension, since that is the one that moves your filing date. February 20 and March 20 are a month apart and only one of them is yours.
- Read the notice for the mailing date. The two month Superior Court clock in 12-117a runs from mailing, not receipt.
- Bring a number. The statute asks for the appellant's estimate of value. Comparable sales around the October 1 assessment date are the evidence that supports it, and on this lake that is its own problem, because waterfront does not price by square foot.
- Check the assessment on your field card, not your asking price, before assuming the 12-117a(a)(2) appraisal filing requirement does not apply to you.
- Know your town's cycle. Which year each Candlewood town revalues next is laid out in the revaluation schedule through 2037, and Brookfield's current one is covered in what owners should expect.
The mill rate is the other half of the bill, and it is set separately from your assessment. The five town comparison, plus the second rate that lake tax district owners pay on top, is in the 2026 mill rate piece and the tax district list.
Everything on this site is indexed by question in the full map of these guides.
Common questions
When is the deadline to appeal my Connecticut assessment? On or before February 20, under sections 12-111 and 12-112. Section 12-111(b) moves it to March 20, with hearings in April, only where an extension under section 12-117 was granted to an assessor or board of assessors. An extension to the board of assessment appeals, including the longer one available in a revaluation year, does not move your filing date. Ask your assessor which extension, if any, was granted this year.
Can I file the appeal by email? Section 12-111(a)(1) says the appeal shall be filed "in writing or by electronic mail in a manner prescribed by such board." The board sets the manner, so confirm the address and format with the assessor's office.
What has to be in the appeal? Owner name, name and position of the signer, description of the property, name and mailing and email address for correspondence, the reason for the appeal, the appellant's estimate of value, the signature, and the date.
I just bought the house. Can I appeal an assessment set before I owned it? Section 12-111(a)(1) names "any person to whom title to such property has been transferred since the assessment date" among those who may appeal.
How long do I have to appeal the board's decision to court? Section 12-117a gives you not later than two months after the date the notice of the board's action was mailed.
Do I have to keep paying while I appeal? Section 12-117a says the pendency of the application does not suspend collection of up to seventy five per cent of the tax, or up to ninety per cent where the assessed value is five hundred thousand dollars or more.
Is there any route if I missed February 20? Section 12-119 is a separate application to the superior court, on different grounds and within one year from the date as of which the property was last evaluated. Whether it fits a given situation is a question for an attorney.
If you want help pulling the comparable sales that support an estimate of value on a Candlewood Lake property, reach me through ConnorCTHomes.com.
Connor Kostyra, Licensed Real Estate Salesperson, CT Lic. RES.0836348.
Connor CT Homes is a marketing brand. Real estate services are provided through RE/MAX Rise, 1297 Main Street, Watertown, CT 06795.
This article is general information and is not legal or tax advice. I am a real estate salesperson, not an attorney. Statutory language quoted here is taken from chapter 203 of the Connecticut General Statutes, sections 12-62a, 12-110, 12-111, 12-112, 12-117, 12-117a and 12-119, as published by the Connecticut General Assembly and read on September 5, 2026. Statutes are amended and local practice varies; confirm your town's current deadline with its assessor and your own position with a Connecticut attorney.
