Travis Bunn

Founder, AppealDesk · Published March 27, 2026 · Updated August 19, 2026

Arizona Doesn't Reset Your Home's Capped Value When You Inherit It

Updated August 2026

Arizona runs a dual-value system: Full Cash Value, which tracks the market, and Limited Property Value, the capped number your tax bill is actually based on. Inheriting a home in most states means bracing for the taxable value to catch up to the market. In Arizona, it usually doesn't. The list of events that reset Limited Property Value to Full Cash Value is short, specific, and does not include a change of ownership.

The Six Triggers, and Inheritance Isn't One of Them

Arizona Revised Statutes 42-13302 lists the complete, exclusive set of circumstances that require Limited Property Value to be re-established at Full Cash Value: property erroneously omitted from the prior roll, a change in the property's objectively verifiable use, construction or demolition worth 15% or more of the property's value, a split or consolidation of parcels, loss of eligibility for the senior valuation freeze, or loss of a statutory valuation classification. Change of ownership, sale, transfer, and inheritance appear nowhere on that list. Chapter 13, Article 7 of Title 42 contains exactly three sections total, and none of the other two touches ownership either.

Limited Property Value itself is capped at the prior year's value plus 5%, and it can never exceed current Full Cash Value. Because inheritance isn't a reset trigger, an heir keeps the decedent's capped, generally lower Limited Property Value rather than starting over at full market value. This runs the opposite direction from states that reassess on transfer: nothing resets, whether the new owner is a spouse, a child, or an unrelated devisee.

Exemptions Are a Different Story, and Don't Carry Over

The Senior Valuation Protection option, sometimes called the senior freeze, lets a resident 65 or older who has lived in the home at least two years lock in its value, with income limited to a multiple of the federal SSI benefit rate. It's established directly in the Arizona Constitution, Article IX, Section 18(7), and applications are due by September 1. Because eligibility runs to the individual owner's age, residency, and income rather than to the parcel, an heir does not inherit an existing freeze; they would need to independently qualify and apply.

The Widow/Widower and Disabled Person Exemption under A.R.S. 42-11111 makes this explicit: the statute lists conveyance of title to another owner as a disqualifying event. The exemption, currently up to $4,188 off assessed value, ends when the property changes hands, full stop, regardless of who inherits it. A surviving spouse of a veteran with a 100% service-connected disability can continue claiming the full exemption while occupying the property and remaining unmarried, but that's the one narrow continuity provision in the statute.

No State Estate or Inheritance Tax

Chapter 4 of Title 42, where Arizona's old estate tax lived, no longer exists in the current statutes; the compiled chapters run straight from Chapter 3 to Chapter 5. Arizona's estate tax was historically a pickup tax tied to a federal credit that phased out after 2004, and voters later repealed the underlying authority. There is no separate Arizona inheritance tax either. Nothing is owed to the state on the inheritance itself.

Community property adds no separate wrinkle to the valuation rules: because A.R.S. 42-13302's trigger list doesn't single out ownership changes of any kind, a surviving spouse who inherits the other spouse's interest keeps the same capped Limited Property Value as any other heir would, without needing a spousal-specific carve-out.

Appealing as an Heir, Before Probate Closes

Under A.R.S. 14-3101, Arizona's Uniform Probate Code provision, property passes to devisees or heirs immediately at death, subject to homestead allowance, family allowances, creditor claims, and administration. Arizona also allows a beneficiary deed under A.R.S. 33-405, letting real property pass to a named beneficiary outside probate entirely if recorded before death.

Because title and interest devolve at death, an heir with a vested interest generally has standing to petition for a valuation review even while administration is open. The deadline to petition the county assessor is 60 days after the notice of valuation is mailed, under A.R.S. 42-16051. From there, appeals proceed to the County Board of Equalization, or a property owner can go directly to Arizona Tax Court by December 15 regardless of whether they exhausted administrative remedies first.

Frequently Asked Questions