Travis Bunn

Founder, AppealDesk · Published March 27, 2026 · Updated August 3, 2026

DTE Form 1 by March 31: The One Property Tax Lever You Control After Inheriting an Ohio Home

Updated August 2026

Almost everything about an inherited Ohio tax bill is decided by other people's calendars. The county auditor sets the home's value on a state-mandated reappraisal schedule that has nothing to do with the deed transfer. Levies passed by voters set the rate. Credits the previous owner earned expire on their own terms. The one decision that belongs entirely to you is whether to challenge the auditor's value, and Ohio gives you a fixed annual window to do it: file DTE Form 1 with the county auditor between January 1 and March 31, and the county Board of Revision must hear you.

That window deserves top billing because inherited homes are unusually likely to be overvalued on the auditor's books, and unusually well equipped to prove it. This guide starts with the complaint window and works outward: why the transfer itself changes nothing, why the countywide value resets are the real threat, which credits quietly fall off the bill after a death, and what an estate should gather before March 31 arrives.

First, What Does Not Happen: No Revaluation Because You Inherited

Ohio does not reprice a house when it changes hands. Under R.C. 5713.01, the tax commissioner orders each county to reappraise all real property once every six years, the sexennial reappraisal, with a statistical triennial update at the midpoint of the cycle. Values move when the county's turn comes up on that calendar, countywide, all at once. A deed filed because someone died does not put the property at the front of any line.

The tax math itself runs through a fixed ratio: the auditor lists property at 35 percent of appraised market value (R.C. 5713.03), and levies apply to that assessed figure. So the bill you inherit is the decedent's bill, computed on the auditor's existing market value, until the county's next cycle date or until you change the value yourself through the Board of Revision.

One nuance worth knowing: an arm's length sale is one of the events that can support a value change between cycle years, because a real sale price is direct market evidence. An inheritance is not an arm's length sale. Nothing about the transfer gives the auditor a new number to use, which cuts both ways. Your value will not jump because you inherited, and it also will not fall to reflect the house's actual worn condition unless somebody proves that condition to the Board of Revision.

The Cycle Years Are Where Inherited Homes Get Repriced

Because each county runs its own staggered schedule, the question is never whether the reset comes, only when, and the recent resets have been historic. In Franklin County's 2023 sexennial reappraisal, residential values rose an average of about 41 percent, with some school districts up as much as 70 percent. Cuyahoga County's 2024 sexennial produced an average residential increase of roughly 32 percent, ranging from 15 percent in Hunting Valley to 67 percent in East Cleveland. A home held by one owner for decades absorbs that entire repricing in a single cycle year.

For an heir this means two things. Look up where your county sits in its six-year cycle before deciding whether to keep or sell, because a reappraisal year landing twelve months after you take title can move the bill substantially. And treat the mass-appraisal number with suspicion when it arrives. Cycle-year values come from neighborhood models applied to thousands of parcels, and a dated kitchen, an original roof, or thirty years of deferred maintenance are exactly what those models cannot see.

The Window: January 1 to March 31, DTE Form 1, Filed With the Auditor

The complaint mechanism is R.C. 5715.19, and the paperwork is DTE Form 1, Complaint Against the Valuation of Real Property. The form's own instructions state the deadline: the complaint must be received by the county auditor on or before March 31 of the year following the tax year being challenged, or the last day to pay first-half taxes without penalty, whichever is later. In practice, counties open filing on January 1 and treat March 31 as the date that matters. The complaint goes to a three-member Board of Revision made up of the county auditor, the county treasurer, and the president of the board of commissioners, or their representatives. Many counties, including Franklin and Cuyahoga, accept filings online.

Three mechanics matter more for inherited property than for anything else on the form:

• You are arguing full market value, not the tax bill. Column B of the form is the auditor's current market value, which equals the taxable value on the bill divided by 0.35. Your opinion of value in Column A should be a defensible market number, not a wish.
• You generally get one complaint per interim period. Line 14 of the form limits repeat filings between reappraisals and updates unless something specific happened: an arm's length sale, a casualty loss, a substantial improvement, or a major occupancy change. If the decedent filed a complaint earlier in the same three-year interim period, check with the board before assuming you can file again.
• Bring everything you have. R.C. 5715.19(G) requires the complainant to give the board all information or evidence in their possession that affects the property. Evidence held back at the board generally cannot be introduced later on appeal to the Board of Tax Appeals.

Who Files When the Owner Has Died

Standing under R.C. 5715.19 belongs to the property owner, the owner's spouse, certain retained professionals, and, for property held in trust, the trustee. Ohio real estate passes to heirs or devisees at death, subject to administration, so once the probate court's certificate of transfer or a transfer-on-death designation puts the new owner on record, that owner files in the ordinary way. While the house is still titled in the estate, have the executor or administrator coordinate the filing, and consider a licensed attorney for the signature: Ohio courts police who may prepare and argue board complaints, and boards apply the caption rules strictly. A call to the Board of Revision clerk before the window closes costs nothing and prevents a dismissed complaint.

The Estate Already Holds the Best Evidence

Estates routinely order a date-of-death appraisal to establish the stepped-up federal income tax basis. That same document is professional evidence of market value, and if it comes in below the auditor's number, it is the spine of a Board of Revision case. Add recent sales of comparable homes, photographs of condition problems the mass appraisal never saw, repair estimates, and the property record card, which for long-held homes often shows wrong square footage or rooms that do not exist. Our Ohio appeal guide walks through the hearing itself and the appeal path beyond it, from the Board of Revision to the Board of Tax Appeals and the courts.

Three Tax Breaks That Quietly Fall Off the Bill After a Death

While the value holds steady, the credits attached to the previous owner do not. These are the line items that make an inherited bill creep upward even with no reappraisal in sight.

The Owner-Occupancy Credit Ends With Owner Occupancy

Ohio trims 2.5 percent off the taxes charged by certain qualified levies, generally those passed before November 2013, for a home the owner occupies as a principal residence on January 1. A homeowner and spouse get it on one home only. If the inherited house sits empty, becomes a rental, or is your second property, the credit goes away. If you move in and make it your principal residence, apply with the county auditor on form DTE 105C to put it back.

The Homestead Exemption Belongs to the Person, Not the House

The homestead exemption shields a slice of market value from tax for homeowners who are 65 or older or permanently and totally disabled, subject to an income test. For tax year 2025, payable in 2026, the exemption removes $29,000 of market value, and the enhanced version for qualifying disabled veterans removes double that, with no income test on the veteran track. The income limit runs on Ohio adjusted gross income, $41,000 per the Lucas County Auditor for the current cycle, and is indexed annually, so confirm the year's figure with your county.

None of it is inheritable. A surviving spouse can continue an existing exemption only if the deceased spouse was receiving it and the survivor was at least 59 years old on the date of death. Any other heir starts from zero: qualify on your own age or disability and income, occupy the home as your principal residence, and apply on form DTE 105A, or DTE 105I for the disabled-veteran version. Expect the auditor to remove the decedent's exemption once the death is on record, and treat the resulting bump in the bill as normal, not as an error you can appeal away.

CAUV Farmland Carries a Three-Year Clawback

If the property includes acreage enrolled in Current Agricultural Use Valuation, the land has been taxed on its farm-use value instead of market value. Inheriting it does not end the program, but converting it does. Under R.C. 5713.34, converting CAUV land to a non-agricultural use triggers a recoupment charge equal to the tax savings for the three tax years preceding the conversion, and the charge lands on the current owner whether or not that owner ever received the benefit. Letting the annual renewal application lapse can trigger the same result. If you inherit enrolled farmland, file the renewal on time and decide nothing about development or sale until you have priced the recoupment.

What Ohio Will Not Charge You for Inheriting

Ohio has no inheritance tax, and the Ohio estate tax was repealed for individuals dying on or after January 1, 2013. For deaths after that date the state collects nothing on the transfer itself; only the federal estate tax can apply, and its exemption is high enough that the overwhelming majority of Ohio estates never touch it. The carrying costs that matter are the ones above: the annual property tax bill, the credits that fell off, and any CAUV exposure.

A Worked Example (Hypothetical)

The numbers below are illustrative only. Suppose you inherit a Columbus-area house the auditor carries at $260,000 following the 2023 reappraisal. The estate's date-of-death appraisal, ordered for basis purposes, came in at $228,000, citing an original 1987 kitchen and a roof at end of life. At Ohio's 35 percent ratio, the difference between those two numbers is $11,200 of assessed value, and every levy on the bill applies to it, every year, until the county's next cycle.

Between January 1 and March 31 you file DTE Form 1 with the auditor, listing $228,000 in Column A, and attach the appraisal, three comparable sales, and photographs. Whether the board lands on your number or somewhere between, the correction compounds: a value won at the board holds until the next update or reappraisal, so one on-time filing can pay for itself several times over.

Frequently Asked Questions