Your TRIM Notice Is Coming. It Is Not A Bill, And It Has A Clock On It.
Sometime this month a letter shows up from your county property appraiser. Across the top it says TRIM notice. Most people look at the numbers, feel their stomach drop, and put it on the counter with the junk mail.
Do not do that. There is a clock on it.
First, it is not a bill
TRIM stands for Truth in Millage. It is a notice, not an invoice. Nobody is asking you for money yet. The actual tax bill comes in November.
What the TRIM notice tells you is three things: what the county thinks your property is worth, which exemptions they have applied to you, and what the proposed tax rates are for the coming year.
That middle one is where people get hurt.
Check your exemptions before you check the number
I know the assessed value is the number your eye goes to. Skip it for a second and find the exemptions line.
If you bought last year and filed for homestead, this notice is where you confirm it actually took. If it is not listed, something went wrong and you want to know that now, not in November when the bill lands.
If you have owned for years and your homestead quietly dropped off, same thing. It happens. A refinance, a name change on the deed, a spouse added or removed. The county does not call you about it.
And if you moved within Florida and expected portability to carry your Save Our Homes savings over, this is where you find out whether it did.
The 25-day clock
Here is the part almost nobody knows.
If you disagree with the assessed value, or with an exemption that was denied or removed, you can petition the Value Adjustment Board. That is a real process established under Chapter 194 of the Florida Statutes, and the filing fee is about $15 per parcel.
You have 25 days from the date the notices were mailed in your county. Not 25 days from when you got around to opening it.
Two things that trip people up. First, counties mail on different dates, so the exact deadline is printed on your notice. Read it. Second, the board has to receive your petition by that day. A postmark on day 25 does not count.
Twenty-five days sounds like plenty. It is not, if the envelope sat on the counter for three weeks.
Why does this land on a mortgage guy's blog?
Because your property taxes are usually in your escrow, and your escrow is part of your payment.
When the assessed value jumps, the tax bill in November jumps. Then your servicer runs an escrow analysis, finds a shortage, and raises your monthly payment to cover both the shortage and the bigger bill going forward. That is the year-two payment jump people call me about in a panic.
The TRIM notice in August is your early warning. It is the only look you get at that number while you still have time to do something about it.
What I would actually do with it
Open it the day it arrives. Confirm your exemptions are on there. Read the deadline printed on the notice and put it in your phone. If the value looks wrong for what your street is actually selling for, call the property appraiser's office before you file anything, because sometimes it is a data error on the parcel and they will just fix it.
And if the numbers mean your payment is about to change, call me and let's look at it before your servicer surprises you. Sometimes there is something to do. Sometimes there is not, and knowing that in August beats finding out in December.
Lakewood Ranch folks, one extra wrinkle: your community sits in two counties. Your notice comes from whichever county your parcel is actually in, and the rates are not the same on both sides.
Call or text (941) 941-5150.
Tony Fitzgerald, The Mortgage Jedi. NMLS #1284924.
Sources: Chapter 194, Florida Statutes (Value Adjustment Board); Florida county property appraiser TRIM notice guidance, 2026. Deadlines and fees vary by county and change over time, so confirm against the notice you receive and your county property appraiser. This is general education, not tax or legal advice, and not an offer of credit.
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Tony Fitzgerald, NMLS #1284924. 1st Response Mortgage, powered by Mpire Financial Group LLC, NMLS #2108504, Florida Mortgage Lender License #MLD2467. Equal Housing Lender. NMLS Consumer Access: nmlsconsumeraccess.org. This article is general education, not financial, tax, or legal advice, and not an offer of credit or a commitment to lend. Terms vary by borrower, property, and transaction, and program guidelines change over time.
