Indiana's spring and summer severe-weather season delivers the same scenario to some set of Hoosier property owners every year: a tornado, derecho, hailstorm, or flood damages or destroys a house, a barn, or a business — and the property tax assessment keeps right on reflecting the building that no longer exists. Assessments are set as of January 1, so a structure that was standing on the assessment date is valued as standing, even if it was a debris pile by April.
The legislature built a specific remedy for this. Under IC 6-1.1-4-11, property owners can petition the county assessor for a survey and reassessment of property destroyed by disaster — and the vehicle is Form 137R, the Petition for Survey and Reassessment of Real and Personal Property Partially or Totally Destroyed by Disaster. This guide walks through how it works, when it has to happen, and how to make sure the relief actually lands on your bill.
What the statute does
IC 6-1.1-4-11 covers situations where property has been physically destroyed, in whole or in part, as a result of a disaster. When an owner petitions, the county assessor causes a survey of the affected area and orders a reassessment of the destroyed property. The reassessed value reflects the property's post-damage condition, and the tax adjustment flows from that corrected value.
Three features make this remedy different from a normal appeal:
- It covers both real and personal property. A destroyed machine shed and the destroyed equipment inside it are both within scope — relevant for farms and businesses.
- It's damage-driven, not value-opinion-driven. You're not arguing the assessor's market judgment; you're documenting that the physical asset changed. That makes these petitions far less adversarial than Form 130 appeals.
- It can apply area-wide. When a substantial amount of property in a township is destroyed — the tornado-through-town scenario — the survey and reassessment covers the affected area. One petition can set the process in motion, but every affected owner should still file their own rather than assuming a neighbor's petition covers them.
Warning
A reassessment petition is not automatic relief. Insurance claims, FEMA registrations, and demolition permits do not notify the assessor for tax purposes. If you don't petition, the destroyed improvements can stay on your assessment — and on your bill — until the next routine review picks up the change, which can be years.
The deadline that controls everything
The statute sets an outer limit: the petition for reassessment, the reassessment order, and the tax adjustment may not be made after December 31 of the year in which the taxes that would first be affected by the reassessment are payable.
Translating that into a real calendar: Indiana assessments as of January 1 become taxes payable the following year, due in May and November installments — May 11 and November 10 in 2026. So for damage affecting the 2026 assessment (taxes payable 2027), the entire process — petition, survey, reassessment order, adjustment — must be complete by December 31, 2027.
That sounds generous. It isn't, for two reasons. First, the deadline covers the whole process, not just your filing — a petition filed in November leaves the assessor weeks to survey, order, and adjust. Second, memories, debris, and documentation all degrade. The practical rule:
Tip
File the Form 137R within weeks of the damage, not months. The petition costs nothing, the assessor's survey is most accurate while the damage is visible, and an early filing means the corrected value can be reflected before bills go out rather than clawed back through refunds afterward.
How to file: the practical steps
1. Get the form. Form 137R is a state form available from the DLGF forms page and from most county assessor websites.
2. File with the county assessor for the county where the property sits. Include parcel number, a description of the damage, and the date of the disaster.
3. Expect a survey. The assessor (or township staff in counties that retain township assessors) inspects and documents the post-damage condition. Make access easy and walk the inspection with them — pointing out non-obvious damage (foundation movement, water intrusion, compromised framing) changes outcomes.
4. Reassessment order and adjustment. The assessor orders the reassessment of the destroyed property and the corrected value flows through to the auditor for the tax adjustment. If you've already paid on the higher value, the overpayment is handled through credit or refund — the same machinery described in our refund-after-appeal guide.
The DLGF has published assessor-facing guidance on disaster reassessment — useful reading if you want to see the process from the county's side of the desk.
Documentation: build the file the day after the storm
The petition is one page; the evidence behind it determines how much relief you get, especially for partial destruction where degree of damage is a judgment call. Gather:
| Evidence | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Date-stamped photos and video, exterior and interior | Establishes condition immediately post-damage, before cleanup erases it |
| Insurance adjuster's report | A third-party damage scope with dollar figures, produced by someone with no tax incentive |
| Contractor repair or rebuild estimates | Corroborates severity; a $180,000 repair estimate on a $250,000 improvement speaks for itself |
| Demolition permits and disposal receipts | Proves total loss of structures that came down |
| Utility disconnection records, condemnation or unsafe-structure notices | Independent confirmation the building was uninhabitable |
| Local or state disaster declarations, county EMA documentation | Establishes the qualifying disaster event and its date |
Keep everything parcel-keyed and dated. If your damage spans real and personal property (farm equipment, business inventory fixtures), separate the documentation by category — they're reassessed on different schedules.
Partial damage: the gray zone worth fighting
Total destruction is easy: the improvement comes off. Partial destruction is where owners leave money on the table. A house that took a tree through the roof, flooded to the sill plate, or lost a wing to fire is worth substantially less than its pre-storm assessment even after temporary repairs — and the reassessed value should reflect condition, habitability, and the real cost to cure.
If the assessor's post-survey value still looks high, you have not surrendered your normal appeal rights. The reassessed value can be challenged through the standard Form 130 process like any other assessment, with your insurance and contractor documentation doing double duty as appeal evidence.
Rebuilding: don't let the recovery re-create the problem
Here's the cycle to watch. Storm hits in 2026; you petition; the destroyed improvement comes off the assessment. You rebuild in 2027; the new structure gets picked up as new construction as of the next January 1 assessment date — often at a higher value than the old building, because it's new, built to current code, and priced off current cost schedules.
That's not improper, but it surprises people who expected the tax bill to return to its pre-storm level. The pickup timing, partial-completion assessments, and what to verify on the first post-rebuild Form 11 are covered in our new construction assessment timing guide. Two specific checks after a rebuild:
- Confirm the destroyed improvement actually came off before the new one went on. Record cards sometimes end up carrying both — the ghost of the old barn under the value of the new one. Pull your card through Property Lookup and read the improvement lines, not just the total.
- Match the new improvement's details to what you built — square footage, finish, grade. Rebuilds get assessed from permits, and permit valuations don't always match final construction.
The checklist
- Document the damage exhaustively in the first week — photos, video, adjuster contact.
- Download and file Form 137R with your county assessor as soon as the immediate emergency passes.
- Walk the assessor's survey in person and point out non-obvious damage.
- Confirm the reassessment order and the corrected value on your record card.
- If you already paid on the pre-damage value, confirm the credit or refund with the county auditor.
- When you rebuild, verify the old improvement is off the card and the new one is assessed accurately.
- Calendar the hard backstop: December 31 of the year the affected taxes are payable — and treat it as a last resort, not a plan.
A storm takes enough from you. The assessment on what it destroyed shouldn't be part of the loss.