Travis Bunn

Founder, AppealDesk · Published March 27, 2026 · Updated August 25, 2026

Arkansas's Appeal Deadline Is the Same Every Year. Your County's Reappraisal Cycle Isn't.

Updated August 2026

Arkansas gives every homeowner in every one of its 75 counties the same appeal deadline, every single year: the third Monday in August, filed with your county's Equalization Board under Ark. Code Ann. Section 26-27-317. That part never changes. What does change, county by county, is whether anything shows up in your mailbox to remind you the window is open. Arkansas counties reappraise real property on staggered cycles under Ark. Code Ann. Section 26-26-1902, a statewide baseline of four years, with the Assessment Coordination Division authorized to keep individual counties on a three-year or five-year cycle instead, so the workload doesn't hit all 75 counties in the same year. A notice only goes out when your assessed value actually changes, whether that's because your county's cycle landed on your parcel this year or because something else triggered a reassessment. If your county isn't due, you can go a year, two years, sometimes longer with no notice at all, while the August deadline keeps arriving on schedule regardless.

That mismatch matters most for Arkansas homeowners who pay property taxes through a mortgage escrow account, because escrow runs on a completely separate calendar. If you do get a notice and decide to fight it, Arkansas's appeal ladder has an unusual middle rung most states skip entirely: County Equalization Board, then County Court, an actual trial-level court most other states don't insert between an administrative board and a full civil appeal, and finally Circuit Court. Meanwhile your mortgage servicer's escrow analysis, governed by federal Regulation X, runs on its own twelve-month clock and pays whatever the county bills, appeal pending or not. Here is how the two systems interact, and where the money actually lands once a case resolves.

What "Over-Assessed" Actually Means in Arkansas

Arkansas assesses residential property at 20% of true market value under Ark. Code Ann. Section 26-26-303. There is no separate capped shadow value sitting between market value and your tax bill the way some states structure it. But there is a limit on how fast your assessed value can climb in any given year: under Arkansas Constitution Amendment 79, a homestead's assessed value generally cannot increase more than 5% in a single year (10% for non-homestead real property), even after a reappraisal shows your home is worth substantially more. Homeowners 65 or older, or who qualify as disabled, can have their assessment frozen entirely, aside from new construction or additions. That cap resets to full, uncapped market value the moment the property is sold to a new owner, under Ark. Code Ann. Section 26-26-1120.

Put the two mechanics together and "over-assessed" can mean two different things in Arkansas. If your county just reappraised and the new market-value estimate is wrong, that is the straightforward case: you will likely get a notice, and the fix flows through once your appeal succeeds, subject to the same 5%/10% phase-in cap working in reverse as your assessment steps down. If your county has not reappraised in years, the number sitting on the rolls today may reflect market conditions from your county's last cycle, not the present, and nothing will prompt you to check it. Either way, the appeal itself is about your home's true market value, so the strongest evidence is always current comparable sales, regardless of when your county last looked.

Three Levels, and Arkansas's Middle Rung Is an Actual Court

Arkansas's appeal path has three possible stops. Many homeowners never need more than the first:

1. County Equalization Board. File your application on or before the third Monday in August under Ark. Code Ann. Section 26-27-317. The board must begin hearing appeals no later than the second Monday in August, and must notify you in writing of its decision within roughly ten business days of your hearing. Most cases end here.
2. County Court. If you disagree with the board's decision, you have until the second Monday in October to appeal to County Court under Ark. Code Ann. Section 26-27-318. The county court must hear and decide your case by November 15, and must notify you of its decision within 20 working days of the hearing. This is the level most other states don't have: rather than a second citizen board, Arkansas routes you into an actual court proceeding, though a relatively fast and informal one compared to what comes next.
3. Circuit Court. From County Court, you can appeal further to Circuit Court, where the case becomes a full civil lawsuit and you carry the burden of proving your home's true value. Under Ark. Code Ann. Section 26-35-802, you must keep paying property tax during a Circuit Court appeal, but only the least of three amounts: tax on the undisputed portion of your value, tax under the order you're appealing, or tax based on last year's assessment, so you are not forced to fund the full disputed bill while the case is pending. Circuit Court litigation can run months to well over a year.

Each level compounds the delay. A case that starts with an August hearing before the County Equalization Board can already be in County Court by October of that same year, and if it goes further, in Circuit Court well into the following year or two. Your escrow account does not pause for any of it.

Meanwhile: The RESPA Clock That Doesn't Care Where Your Appeal Stands

Federal law, not Arkansas law, governs your escrow account. Under Regulation X, 12 CFR 1024.17(c)(3), your mortgage servicer must analyze your escrow account once per computation year, a twelve-month cycle set by your loan, not by your county's reappraisal schedule. That analysis looks at what the servicer actually paid the county and projects what it expects to pay next. It does not ask whether a County Court appeal is pending or a Circuit Court trial date has been set. It simply pays whatever bill the county sends, built off whatever value is currently on the assessment roll.

So if you filed with the County Equalization Board in August, got bumped to County Court in October, lost again by the November 15 hearing deadline, and appealed to Circuit Court in December, your escrow account has already funded at least one full tax cycle at the old, disputed number, and quite possibly a second one is coming due before Circuit Court even sets a trial date.

A worked example (hypothetical, not a real case)

Say a homeowner in Saline County gets a July notice the year her county's reappraisal cycle comes due, on a home the assessor lists at Arkansas's median, $142,000. At the 20% assessment ratio, that is a $28,400 assessed value; at Arkansas's 0.62% effective rate, that is roughly $880 in annual property tax, or about $73 a month if it were spread evenly through escrow. (Rates vary by taxing district, so treat this as illustration, not a quote.) She files with the County Equalization Board before the third Monday in August, is denied in September, appeals to County Court by the second Monday in October, loses again at the November 15 hearing, and appeals further to Circuit Court in December. Circuit Court does not set a trial date until the following year.

• Year one, tax bill: Escrow pays the full $880 based on the original noticed value. Appeal still pending.
• Year one, escrow analysis: No change. The analysis simply confirms the servicer paid what the county billed.
• Year two, tax bill: If the case is still unresolved, escrow pays again at the same disputed value, since her county isn't due to reappraise again for years.
• Circuit Court decision, say a 10% reduction: New assessed value roughly $25,560, new annual tax roughly $792, a savings of about $88 a year.
• Refund and go-forward adjustment: Only happens at the next escrow analysis after the county actually updates the roll and issues a corrected bill.

Two full years of escrow disbursements at the disputed value, for a case that started with a deadline she hit in a single day in August. And because her county's next scheduled reappraisal is still years away, that corrected value should hold steady for a while once it finally lands, rather than being immediately revisited.

When the Win Finally Reaches Your Escrow Account

Whichever level finally rules in your favor, the mechanics from there are the same. The county updates the assessment roll with the corrected value, the county collector issues a corrected tax bill (or a refund, if the disputed amount was already paid), and none of that touches your monthly payment on its own. Your servicer has to see it. Three federal rules in 12 CFR 1024.17 control what happens next:

• The surplus rule. If your next analysis shows a surplus of $50 or more, the servicer must refund it within 30 days, provided you are current on the loan (Section 1024.17(f)(2)(i) and (f)(2)(ii)).
• The cushion cap. Servicers can hold a cushion of no more than one-sixth of estimated annual disbursements, roughly two months' worth (Section 1024.17(c)(5)). A lower tax bill shrinks the allowed cushion too, which is why a post-appeal refund is often bigger than the tax savings alone.
• The off-cycle option. A servicer is permitted, not required, to run an analysis outside the normal annual cycle (Section 1024.17(f)(1)(ii)). Send them the county's corrected notice and the new tax bill and ask; you have nothing to lose by asking, and the annual analysis will catch it either way.

If your fight went all the way through County Court and into Circuit Court and took a year or more, do not assume your servicer is tracking the case. Nobody at the escrow department is watching your county's circuit docket for you. The corrected bill from the county is the only document that moves your payment, so keep a copy of the judgment and the revised assessment, and send both the moment they arrive.

Key Counties

The highest-volume appeal jurisdictions in Arkansas are Pulaski, Benton, Washington, Faulkner, and Saline counties. Each county sits on its own point in the statewide reappraisal cycle, so whether you receive a notice this year, and what your county's local filing procedure looks like, can differ from the county next door even though the statewide third-Monday-in-August deadline and the federal RESPA rules apply everywhere. Confirm procedure with your specific county equalization board before you file.

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