Terms of Service

Important: who we are

Abatero is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Abatero is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of any county property appraiser, value adjustment board, or other government agency.

Agreement to these Terms

Welcome to Abatero. These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a legal agreement between you and Abatero ("Abatero," "we," "us," "our") governing your use of the Abatero website at abatero.com and the services we provide through it (the "Service"). By using the Service, creating an account, or purchasing our DIY product, you agree to these Terms.

1. What Abatero is — and what it is not

Abatero helps Florida homeowners challenge an over-assessment of their residential property by a county Property Appraiser. For the 2026 launch we offer a single product: a do-it-yourself ("DIY") self-file product.

When you use the DIY product, Abatero pulls your county's public assessment data and comparable sales for your property; estimates whether your property appears over-assessed and the savings that a successful appeal could produce; and prepares a draft petition packet for you to review and file yourself — a draft Florida Department of Revenue Form DR-486 ("Petition to the Value Adjustment Board") and a comparable-sales evidence exhibit.

Abatero is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Abatero is not your attorney, and nothing we provide is legal advice. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of any county, any Property Appraiser, any Value Adjustment Board ("VAB"), or the Florida Department of Revenue.

For the DIY product, Abatero does not act as your agent or representative. We prepare the packet; you file it, you are the petitioner, and you present your own case. We do not file on your behalf, we do not sign the petition for you, and we do not attend the informal conference or any VAB hearing for you.

2. Eligibility

To use the Service you must be at least 18 years old and the owner of the Florida residential property you submit, or be authorized to act on the owner's behalf. When you ask us to build a report for a property, you affirm that you own it or are authorized to act on the owner's behalf and that the information you provide is accurate to the best of your knowledge.

The Service is offered for Florida residential, individually-owned property. It is not designed for commercial property, entities, or properties outside Florida.

3. The DIY product, the fee, and the money-back guarantee

The DIY product is a one-time flat fee of $99 for one property, for one assessment year. The fee is charged at checkout through our payment processor (see Section 6 and the Privacy Policy). Unless otherwise stated, the fee does not include the county VAB filing fee, which you pay directly to the county (commonly cited around $15 per petition, but some counties publish more — confirm your county's current amount).

For the fee, Abatero prepares and makes available to you a draft DR-486 petition and a comparable-sales evidence exhibit for your property and assessment year, plus filing instructions (the deadline, where to file, and the fee). You are responsible for reviewing, signing, and filing the petition with your county VAB by the statutory deadline, and for presenting your case.

The DIY product carries a money-back guarantee on our fee: in plain terms, if you file the petition we prepare for you and your assessed value doesn't come down, we refund every dollar you paid us. The full terms, eligibility conditions, and exclusions are set out in the "DIY Money-Back Guarantee" section below, which controls the guarantee.

The guarantee is a refund of our fee — not a promise that your taxes will drop. Our savings figures are estimates, not guaranteed results. Whether your assessment is reduced is decided by the county Property Appraiser and the VAB, not by Abatero. We never guarantee a particular reduction or outcome, and the taxpayer (you) bears the burden of proof before the VAB.

The DIY Money-Back Guarantee (full terms)

The promise. If, at the time of purchase, our free property check indicated your property was over-assessed and that filing was worthwhile, and you then (i) file the DR-486 petition we prepare for you with your county Value Adjustment Board by the statutory deadline, (ii) pursue the petition to a final decision without withdrawing, settling, or failing to appear, and (iii) your county's assessed value for your property for that assessment year is not reduced, then Abatero will refund the full fee you paid Abatero for the DIY product, subject to the conditions below.

This is a refund of our fee — not a promise that your taxes will drop. Our savings figures are estimates, not guaranteed results. Whether your assessment is reduced is decided by your county Property Appraiser and the Value Adjustment Board, not by Abatero, and as the petitioner you bear the burden of proof. We never guarantee a particular reduction or outcome. Abatero is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.

How a refund is determined. Florida assessment results are public record. At the time of purchase, Abatero records your property's then-current assessed value, market (just) value, parcel/folio identifier, and assessment year as a baseline. After the appeal cycle resolves, Abatero re-pulls your parcel's final certified assessed value for that assessment year from the county / Florida Department of Revenue roll and compares it to the baseline. A refund decision is based on this public-record comparison — never on your self-report alone.

Eligibility — all of the following must be true: (1) Qualifying check: our free check, at purchase, showed a quantified over-assessment above our qualifying threshold (we extend this guarantee only on cases where our estimate cleared that threshold). (2) Timely filing: you filed the DR-486 petition with your county VAB by the statutory deadline, and you provide your VAB filing confirmation or receipt showing the folio, petition number, and date. (3) Genuine adverse outcome: your petition reached a final decision — the VAB's final decision, or an earlier Property Appraiser informal-review outcome — showing no reduction, and Abatero's independent public-record re-pull confirms your assessed value for the year did not fall; both must agree. (4) Timely request: you request the refund within 30 days after your county's decision date.

No refund is due when your assessed value was reduced — in whole or in part. Any decrease for the year means the product worked. This includes a reduction from a county-wide or across-the-board roll correction: if your parcel's assessed value for the year went down, you kept the benefit. We do not attempt to attribute causation; we ask only the publicly verifiable question — did this parcel's assessed value for the year go down?

No refund is due when you withdrew, settled, abandoned, or did not appear, or the petition was dismissed for non-appearance or failure to submit evidence. The guarantee covers a case genuinely pursued to a final decision with no reduction — not one you declined to follow through on. There is also no refund if you missed the filing deadline, or if your request is outside the 30-day window above. Abuse or fraud signals — for example repeated buy-refund cycles across parcels or falsified documents — are referred to manual review and may be denied.

How a refund is paid. Approved refunds are returned to the original payment method through our payment processor.

4. Deadlines are yours to meet

Florida law gives you a limited window to petition — generally 25 days after the date on your TRIM notice (the "Notice of Proposed Property Taxes," usually mailed in August). After the deadline you lose the right to petition for that year.

Because you file the DIY petition yourself, meeting the filing deadline is your responsibility. We will tell you the deadline based on the TRIM date you give us, but we cannot file for you and are not responsible for a missed deadline.

5. Your responsibilities and acceptable use

You agree that you will: provide accurate information and use the Service only for property you own or are authorized to act for; review the packet we prepare before you file it, and file the official county form (our draft is a working draft, not the official county filing); not resell, redistribute, scrape, or reverse-engineer the Service, our valuation and comparable-sales methodology, or our outputs; and not use the Service unlawfully or to infringe anyone's rights.

Our valuation methodology, comparable-sales selection, narrative, per-comparable adjustments, and the work product behind your report are Abatero's proprietary property. The free property-lookup result is a limited preview only and intentionally does not reveal that work product.

6. Third-party services

We use trusted third-party providers to operate the Service — for example a payment processor to take your fee, an email provider to send you sign-in links and notifications, and infrastructure/hosting providers. How these providers handle your information is described in the Privacy Policy. Your use of the Service is also subject to those providers' terms where applicable.

7. No guarantee; disclaimer of warranties

The Service, the savings estimates, the comparable-sales data, and the prepared packet are provided "as is" and "as available." We draw on public county and Florida Department of Revenue assessment data and other sources; that data can be incomplete or out of date, and our estimates are predictions, not promises. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Abatero disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, and non-infringement. We do not warrant any particular tax reduction, savings, or appeal outcome.

8. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Abatero will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost savings, lost tax reductions, or missed deadlines.

9. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify Abatero from claims arising out of your misuse of the Service, your breach of these Terms, or your filings with the county.

10. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Florida.

11. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we do, we will update the version and effective date above and, where appropriate, notify you. Your continued use of the Service after an update means you accept the updated Terms.

12. Contact

Questions about these Terms: founder@abatero.com.