Highlands County Property Appraiser

The duty of the Highlands County Property Appraiser is to value all properties within Highlands County. The appraisers are required by State law to make physical inspections on the properties at least once every three years to know the actual condition of the properties. In August every year, the Notice of Proposed Property Taxes (TRIM notice) is mailed out by the Property Appraiser to all property owners, which enables owners to check the appraised values and taxes of their properties.

There are three methods that the Property Appraiser uses to value the properties. The first one is to study the sales prices of similar properties in recent periods of time. The second is to analyze the cost of building an equivalent property with the current labor force and materials. The last one is to be normally used for commercial properties. The rental income of an apartment, a store, or a complex should be considered by this method.

There are a great number of factors that may affect the appraised value of your property. The Property Appraiser values the property based on its market value. The change of market value will surely lead to a change of appraised value. If you make some improvements to your property or it suffers from some damage, the market value of your property will increase or decrease accordingly, and so will the appraised value. Besides, the appraised value of your property is also affected by the economy of your community or county. That is why the appraised value is different from year to year. Please remember that the value is not created by the Property Appraiser. He just assesses the property as it actually exists.

The Highlands County Property Appraiser is only responsible for valuing properties for tax purposes. If you need the property value appraisal for individual purposes, you may need to look for a certificated real estate appraiser from the local telephone book under the section of Real Estate Appraisers or Appraisers.

You can find the appraised values of properties on the website by using the Property Search Page (further introduced in the following). Please notice that the values presented on the website are not the certified values. The values change as the Property Appraiser analyzes and amend the appraisal all year round. You can use the Property Record Page to see the most updated information of the appraised value.

Highlands County Property Search

A Property Search Page is available on the website.

Property Search

The search system has two functions - real estate search and tangible property search.
You can search for information about the property by entering the account number, location code, name, or address.
Enter the items in the search fields, and click the Search button, and you will get details of the properties, such as owners, mailing address, equipment, value summary, account summary, etc.
If you want to see the tax bills of this property, you just need to open the link to the Tax Collector Page for this account on this page.

Contact the Highlands County Property Appraiser

Address: 560 S. Commerce Avenue, Sebring, Florida 33870-3899
Phone:
Receptionist 863-402-6659
Commercial Real Estate Department 863-402-6679
Exemptions Department 863-402-6678
Tangible Business Personal Property 863-402-6668
Tax Roll Department 863-402-6680
Hours: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Monday - Friday
Website: hcpao.org

County Property Appraiser