Travis Bunn

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

Delaware Just Finished Reassessing Property for the First Time in 40+ Years, But Inheriting a Home Still Won't Trigger One

Updated August 2026

Delaware's three counties spent decades assessing property against wildly outdated base years, New Castle at 1983 values, Kent at 1987, Sussex at 1974, until a Court of Chancery ruling forced a fix. All three counties have now completed court-ordered reassessments, and a new statute requires every county to reassess at least once every five years going forward. None of that, old or new, changes what happens when a home is inherited: Delaware has never used a transfer-triggered reassessment system, and it still doesn't.

Decades-Stale Values, Now on a Fixed 5-Year Cycle

Delaware assesses property at fair market value as of the county's reassessment base year under 9 Del. C. 8306, and nothing in Chapter 83 ties reassessment to a sale, gift, or inheritance. A 2020 Court of Chancery decision found the state's decades-old base-year system violated the state constitution's uniformity requirement, and Kent County's reassessment took effect for tax year 2024, Sussex and New Castle for tax year 2025. Going forward, a statutory amendment now requires every county to reassess at least once every five years, ending the pattern of assessments frozen for 40-plus years at a stretch.

If you're inheriting a Delaware home, its assessed value already reflects one of these fresh reassessments, or will soon under the new 5-year cycle. Either way, the inheritance itself isn't the event that changes the number; the county's own cycle is.

No Broad Homestead Exemption, and the Senior Credit Doesn't Transfer

Delaware has no general ad valorem homestead exemption. What it has is the Senior School Property Tax Credit, worth 50% of the regular school portion of the property tax bill, capped at $500 a year, available to residents 65 and older on their primary residence. Eligibility depends on how long you've been domiciled in Delaware, with no wait for those domiciled before 2013, a 3-year requirement for those who arrived 2013 through 2017, and a 10-year requirement for anyone who became a Delaware domiciliary in 2018 or later. Applications are due April 30, and the credit requires the prior year's property tax to already be paid in full.

Because the credit is built entirely around the individual applicant's age, ID, and years of Delaware domicile, it doesn't run with the property. An heir who inherits and moves in doesn't inherit the decedent's credit or their years of accumulated domicile; they have to independently qualify under their own residency history and file a fresh application.

No State Estate or Inheritance Tax

Delaware repealed its estate tax effective January 1, 2018, and its inheritance tax effective January 1, 1999. Both chapters are marked repealed in the current Delaware Code. There is no state-level tax on the inheritance itself today, regardless of how the estate is structured or who receives the property.

Title, Chancery Court, and Appealing the Assessment

Delaware's probate system is bifurcated in an unusual way: real property title generally vests directly in heirs or devisees at death, while the executor or administrator handles only the income from that property, not its possession, under 12 Del. C. 1901-1902. If the estate's personal assets aren't enough to cover debts, the executor can petition the Court of Chancery to order the real estate sold, which can divest the heirs' title to that extent, but absent that, the heirs already hold it. Each county's Register of Wills handles routine probate administration but formally operates as an arm of the statewide Court of Chancery, which retains supervisory authority.

Appeal deadlines vary by county: New Castle requires written notice to the Board of Assessment Review before March 15 each year, while Kent and Sussex hear appeals during a window from March 1 through May 31. The appeal statute uses broad "any person" language rather than restricting standing to the record titleholder, and because title vests in heirs immediately at death, an heir should generally be able to file before probate formally closes, though county assessment offices may ask for a death certificate or Register of Wills documentation alongside the appeal.

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