The First Level Review is the lowest-friction way to tell Philadelphia's Office of Property Assessment that your number looks wrong. No hearing, no lawyer, no filing fee — just a form, some evidence, and a deadline you can't miss.
A First Level Review (FLR) is an informal request asking the Office of Property Assessment (OPA) to take a second look at the value it assigned your property. OPA sets that value using mass appraisal — one standardized model run across hundreds of thousands of parcels at once. It's efficient, but it isn't personal. The model can miss a recent block of sales, ignore that your roof is failing, or carry an error in your property record that's been sitting there for years.
The FLR exists precisely because a computer model can be wrong about a specific house. You're not accusing anyone of bad faith — you're handing OPA the local facts the model didn't have. If the reviewer agrees, your assessed value comes down and your tax bill follows, since Philadelphia applies a combined City and School District rate of about 1.4% (1.3998%) to assessed value.
Philadelphia gives you two separate ways to challenge an assessment, and it helps to see them side by side:
They are not a sequence you're forced to march through. You can file the FLR first because it's fast, then still take the formal BRT appeal if the informal review doesn't go your way. For a fuller comparison, see our knowledge base note on First Level Review vs. BRT appeal.
The First Level Review is the cheapest, fastest shot you have. It costs a stamp and an afternoon — and if it works, the savings recur every year you own the home.
Each year OPA mails an assessment notice with a First Level Review form attached and a deadline printed directly on it. That printed date is the one that governs your filing. It is a real, hard cutoff — and because it moves from year to year, you should never rely on a date you saw online or a friend's memory from last spring. Read your own notice and write the deadline down first.
Before you file anything, make sure you have a case. The test is simple: does your assessed market value line up with what genuinely similar homes near you have sold for recently? If comparable properties — similar size, age, condition, and block — sold for meaningfully less than your assessed number, you have grounds. If they sold for about the same, an appeal probably won't move the needle. Our guide on what evidence you need walks through this in detail.
Pull together the comparable sales you found, photos or contractor estimates for any condition problems (a bad roof, foundation issues, an unfinished basement the model assumed was livable), and notes on any factual errors in your OPA record — wrong square footage, an incorrect unit count, or a lot size that doesn't match reality. Record errors are some of the strongest, cleanest arguments you can make, because they're objectively verifiable.
Fill in your parcel number and owner details, state the value you believe is accurate, and attach your evidence. Keep the tone factual and specific. Reviewers respond to "three comparable rowhomes on my block sold for X" far better than "my taxes are too high." State a defensible number, not the lowest one you can dream up.
Return the completed form and attachments the way your notice instructs, on or before the deadline shown on the notice. Keep a full copy of everything you send. If you mail it, a low-cost tracking option gives you proof it arrived.
OPA reviews your submission and mails back a written result that either adjusts your value or leaves it as-is. There's no hearing in an FLR — it's decided on the paper you provided, which is exactly why the quality of your evidence matters so much.
If OPA lowers your value, you're done — the new number flows through to your tax bill. If the review upholds your assessment and you still disagree, the First Level Review does not close the door: you can file a formal appeal with the Board of Revision of Taxes, provided you meet that separate deadline. Keep an eye on the appeal deadlines for both paths so a slow FLR response doesn't cost you the formal window.
Everything above hinges on one hard part: the research. Finding truly comparable sales, spotting record errors, and settling on a defensible requested value is the work that makes people hire a consultant. TaxAssessmentIQ does that research for you — it pulls your live OPA record, checks it against real comparable sales, tells you whether the gap is worth acting on, and hands you a clean packet. You still file the FLR yourself, but the analysis that used to eat a weekend takes minutes. No tool can guarantee an appeal will win, but a well-evidenced review is the version most likely to.
It is an informal request asking the Office of Property Assessment to reconsider your assessed value. It is simpler and usually faster than a formal Board of Revision of Taxes appeal, and you file it on the form that comes with your assessment notice.
The deadline is printed on your annual assessment notice, and it changes from year to year, so it is not a fixed calendar date. It is usually earlier than the formal BRT deadline, so check the date on your own notice and file before it.
No. The First Level Review and the formal BRT appeal are separate paths. Many owners try the informal review first because it is quick, but you can go straight to a BRT appeal if you prefer.
No. A First Level Review is designed for owners to file themselves. The hard part is the research, and that is exactly what TaxAssessmentIQ automates for you.
You can still file a formal appeal with the Board of Revision of Taxes, as long as you do so before that separate deadline. The two processes do not cancel each other out.
TaxAssessmentIQ gives you a free, honest verdict from the City's own recorded sales — just enter your address, no sign-up and no account. If your home looks over-assessed, you can get a ready-to-file appeal packet for a flat, one-time price, backed by a money-back guarantee. If it isn't worth filing, we tell you that too — for free, before you pay anything.