A property owner may designate a representative, agent or attorney to assist in the appeal of the assessment.

The owner may appear in person with the representative or the representative may appear alone without the owner being present. In order to preserve the orderly conduct of the appeal hearing, a property owner should be accompanied by not more than one such representative.

An owner or tenant may use the attached form or a similar written authorization (the “Authorization”) to designate a representative. This form is to be submitted to the Department When ownership is not a natural person, the signature must be one of the managing members of an LLC, one of the general partners of a partnership, or an officer of a corporation. 

The Authorization must contain the original owner’s or tenant’s hand-written or electronic signature for acceptance by the Department due to the sensitivity of the information that may be shared. An electronic signature is a writing or symbol created by electronic means adopted by a person with the intent to sign a record.  The Authorization must state that, under penalties of perjury, the signatory represents that he or she intends to sign the Authorization. 

COMAR 18.01.02.03 provides that the representative must have proper authorization filed by the deadlines listed below.

When the representative has failed to provide the proper Authorization within the deadlines stated above, the office is to set up the appeal under the property account owner’s name and mailing address.  All future correspondence will then be directed to the property owner.  If the representative provides Authorization after the deadline, but prior to the hearing date, the representative may still represent the owner at the appeal. However, when a hearing or final notice has already been mailed to the owner, the office is not required to send any previous notices to the representative unless a copy is requested by the representative.  Any postponement of the hearing date will still count toward their total postponements allowed by law.  

When a representative has been designated through an Authorization, all further notices regarding the appeal shall only be sent to the representative. Duplicate notice will not be sent to the owner, except in such instances deemed appropriate by the Supervisor of Assessments.