Every year that dreaded time comes when you must protest your property taxes. The notice comes in the mail that you have until May 31 to file your property protest. If you believe that the property has been appraised for more than its January 1 market value, or if you were denied an exemption or agricultural appraisal, you may protest to the appraisal review board. The owner or owners are allowed to represent themselves in any property tax matter, or hire a paid property tax agent to represent them.
Here are some techniques Houston Realtor®Bill Edge uses to help clients with their protest
Informal meeting with Appraiser
- Be on time, the protest can be dismissed if you are late. Always arrive at least 20 minutes early for you appointment.
- Bring full color pictures of your evidence.
- Review the evidence the Appraisal Review Board may use in your case.
- Don’t complain about the unfairness of the system, and how your neighbor did a great remodeling job. But their home is appraised for one half the value of yours.
- Don’t reveal information, for example your home is really 5 bathrooms and not the 3 ½ bathrooms HCAD has listed.
- Don’t tell the appraiser you don’t care what value he says your home is worth because you are going to the Appraisal Review Board.
- Give the appraiser a realistic value for your home.
- Do not argue with the appraiser.
- Take notes. Pay attention to what the appraiser is saying about your property and the comparables.
- Be prepared to move on to the ARB.
- Pick comparables which sold between May and Feb of the year you are protesting.
- Find information on the comparables from HAR.com. Take your own pictures of the homes.
- Take pictures of problems and areas where repairs need to be made to your home.
- Take pictures of things in the neighborhood which think affect your house value such as Train Tracks, Proximity to schools, Ditches, Bars, Shopping centers, busy streets, run down homes etc.
Formal hearing with ARB (Appraisal Review Board)
- Each of the 3 members of the ARB and the appraiser need to be given copies of the evidence to be presented.
- Talk fast you have a limited amount of time to present your case. The ARB is on a tight schedule.
- Divide your time between talking about the conditions of your property and the comparables.
- Don’t waste time talking about HCAD evidence until your rebuttal to challenge their Comparables.
- Don’t spend your time on what HCAD says the lot value is. You are protesting the value of your house. It will do you no good to calculate the square foot value of lots unless you truly have a vacant lot.
- Have evidence to back up what you are saying but refer to it rather than present it. For example you may live by the railroads tracks. Have an article backing up your claim that house values are lower by railroad tracks.
- Don’t interrupt the appraiser when he is giving his testimony
- Give a realistic value to the ARB of what you think your property is worth. If you later take your case to Arbitration. The decision who pays for the arbitration is related to the values HCAD and the homeowner say the property is worth.
- Research everything HCAD may use as evidence. The appraiser can use any evidence they have sent you.
- Make hand notes on your evidence so that you don’t forget key evidence in the excitement of the presentation.
- Use an outline. Keep it in front of you at all times that way you can stick to your planned presentation.
- Rehearse your presentation.
- Don’t use black & white photos in your evidence and expect to pass full color pictures to the panel. They are going to ignore the color photos and only look at the four packets of evidence you present.
- Be courteous and thank everyone, give credit to HCAD for providing such great evidence even if you use nothing from HCAD.
Arbitration of Appraisal Review Board Determinations
Owners no longer have to appeal ARB decisions to state district court. Binding Arbitration is a much quicker and less expensive option for owners. The Texas Legislature created a binding arbitration process for e[property owners following an appraisal process review board. By filing a $250 or $500 deposit no later than 45 days following receipt of the SARB order the owner may file for arbitration. Once a decision regarding your appraisal is reached the agreement is binding, hence the term, and must be accepted by the appraisal district and the property owner. The decision is FINAL.
For more information or to see Houston Homes in 24 hours or less please call Bill Edge at 713-240-2949