Pity the tiny gecko that winds up on the meal plan of the wind spider. If caught, the fangs sink in, and he is eaten alive. Or consider the fly that's seized by an ambush bug: first saliva is injected into the little insect, which paralyzes him while his insides are sucked out.

So, see? There are some fates worse than paying taxes.

It's a brutal time for homeowners. Not only is the value of your house possibly plunging, the taxes that go with them? Not so much. Chances are, they haven't dropped a dime.

Fortunately, if you think your property tax should be lower because your house is worth less than it once was, you may (keyword: may) be able to appeal and pay less.

Where Property Taxes Are Born

Obviously, either it just strikes you one day that your house's value rivals the 1985 Buick your cousin still drives and you get angry enough to do something -- or you may have received a notice of value letter, also known as an assessment notice, in the mail. In some parts of the country, they were mailed in February, some were mailed in March, some will be mailed in May, some in June (Atlanta residents can expect theirs then) and so on; and in many parts of the country, this is only done every three years.

Either way, you're about to get friendly with your neighborhood county assessor or county auditor, depending on what you call it in your neck of the woods.

In fact, every government entity handles things a little differently, so there is no one strategy that every American can employ when trying to bring down the tax on your property. One township does it one way; another, another way. But if you receive a notice of value letter, you can expect to have 45 days from the date on the letter to appeal your property tax, if you believe that your local government has mischaracterized the worth of your house.

And chances are, your local county assessor or auditor will accept a petition from you decrying the value of your house any time, but you'll have a much stronger case and easier time of it if you're buying a home, or if you recently had some serious property damage like a flood or fire. If you just feel that your property taxes are too high, and you want to get them lowered, the party line won't be very sympathetic.But to bottom-line it: if you're interested in getting an assessment review, you really should contact your local county's assessor or auditor office and ask what the process is for getting your property taxes lowered.

Solo vs. Hired Gun

You don't necessarily need to hire help to get your property tax lowered, says Michael Agetstein, the chair of the tax department for KatzAbosch, a well-regarded public accounting and consulting firm in Maryland. "The first couple steps are rather impersonal -- you can do it by telephone or in person or by writing," says Agetstein. "You need to make sure you have your homework done, but you don't have to be represented."

Still, the arguments for being represented are cogent. "The advantage is that most tax consultants and attorneys are familiar with the statutory scheme of how property is valued and many, most hopefully, have an understanding of basic appraisal principles to be able to refute the assessor's comparable sales," says Kelley Gorry, a tax attorney at Rose Law Group in Scottsdale, Ariz., which has seen its real estate value plummet in the last year.

If you pay for help, many tax consultancies are charging contingency fees for helping to lower your property tax. If that's the route you go, and it probably is the better route -- versus having them charge by the hour -- expect to pay 33 percent of the estimated savings and possibly up to 50 percent.

NEXT: Do your homework and make your case >>