What is the difference between a First Level Review and a BRT appeal in Philadelphia?
What is the difference between a First Level Review and a BRT appeal in Philadelphia?
In Philadelphia, a First Level Review (FLR) is an informal reconsideration by the Office of Property Assessment, while a formal appeal to the Board of Revision of Taxes (BRT) is the binding appeal due the first Monday in October; you may file both, but each has its own deadline.
Philadelphia gives homeowners two separate ways to challenge an assessment, and they are not the same thing.
First Level Review (FLR) — informal, run by the OPA. When the Office of Property Assessment issues a Notice of Proposed Valuation, it includes an FLR request form. The FLR is an informal reconsideration: an OPA evaluator re-examines your property's data and value. It is the low-effort first step, but it is optional — you do not have to complete an FLR before appealing, and the FLR deadline is set by the date on your notice (typically a set number of days after the notice is mailed).
Formal appeal — binding, decided by the BRT. A formal market-value appeal goes to the independent Board of Revision of Taxes (BRT). This is the statutory appeal, and it must be filed by the first Monday in October of the year before the tax year — October 5, 2026 for tax year 2027. The BRT holds a hearing and issues a binding decision.
You can do both. Requesting an FLR does not preclude a BRT appeal, and the city advises homeowners not to wait for the FLR result before filing with the BRT — because the two run on different clocks and the BRT deadline is firm. File the FLR for a quick informal fix, and file the BRT appeal in parallel to protect the hard October deadline.
After the BRT. If the BRT denies your appeal, you may appeal to the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas (Philadelphia County), which hears the matter de novo.
Practical rule: treat the FLR as a bonus shot, not your safety net. The first-Monday-in-October BRT filing is the deadline that actually preserves your right to a binding decision and a court appeal.