Time to check your property tax appraisals

One of the most important things that a homeowner must do every year is to check the appraisal value that your local appraisal board has assigned to your property. This year it is especially critical because the appraisal boards know that the economy is relatively strong and in their eyes, that means automatic property appraisal increases, even where the increase is not justified. In some cases, it might be that you should protest even if the appraised value is the same as the year before because your specific neighborhood might have gone down. Don’t accept the appraised value given to you by a bureaucrat.

George Scott over at George Scott Reports is a veteran of the Harris County Appraisal District and has written extensively on the district undervaluing commercial property, putting the burden of taxes on homeowners. I’d suggest that you click over there and read some of them so that you can get a better idea of what is happening. Here are his thoughts about wether or not you should file a protest:

Protest or Not?

Confronted with the magnitude of this development and other related issues, every single homeowner should a file a formal protest of values with HCAD by the May 31, 2014 statutory deadline. (There are exceptions to that deadline but that’s the one in effect for the vast majority of homeowners.)

Between now and May 31 (the actual deadline will shift to June 2 because of the calendar),George Scott Reports will cover this matter in detail. But here are the basic reasons every (literally) homeowner should file a formal protest.

1. There is no downside to filing a protest. It is your statutory right. Use it.
2. If there were ever a year to do this, 2014 is the year because it is the base year of what is expected to be multiple years of increases.
3. There is no relationship between your fighting for lower taxable values and the amount of money you can sell your home for even if you win lower taxable values.
4. HCAD is facing unprecedented legal challenges from major commercial property owners whose values were increased in 2013 and will increase again in 2014. In the past, HCAD has surrendered literally billions of dollars of value in settlement with these major commercial and industrial property owners.
5. Historically, HCAD and other central appraisal districts have certified values on these major properties at about 65{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} (give or take depending upon category) of true market value while homes have been taxed much closer or actually in excess of true market value. That’s an issue of equity and it is also a potential constitutional issue as a basis of a future lawsuit IF HCAD does not ‘right its ship’ so to say.
6. The fate of the resolution of these current and major lawsuits will not generally be decided before the May 31 deadline for homeowners to protest. HCAD’s settlement position of 2014 values for these major properties is at least a year way if not more.
7. Homeowners who want to preserve their standing to pursue or join an equity based challenge on the difference in how HCAD certifies major commercial and residential property should file a protest to protect their best position, I have been advised.

We will go into all of these issues in much more detail over the course of the next weeks and months. Your mailbox will soon receive your official notice from HCAD. In reality, it’s a no-brainer. File the protest. Preserve your options. It’s not that hard to represent yourself and it’s not that expensive to turn the process over to a professional tax agent that generally work on a contingency of actual savings or a relative small fee plus contingency.

If you don’t protest and lower your new appraised value, that becomes the base for next year and beyond. I was mildly surprised that the district thinks my property has increased 6.2{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} in one year. Remember, I live in the tiny city of Shoreacres, where we still haven’t fully recovered from Hurricane Ike, our tax rate is the highest in the area, our budget is 20{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} in the red, flood insurance reform is hurting property values, homes sit for months before selling, and the Port of Houston’s Bayport expansion rumbles in our backyards. And yet someone hired by HCAD drives by my house and says, yep, he needs to pay more taxes. Ridiculous. So, I’ll definitely be filing.

If you live in Galveston County, you are in luck because you have taxpayer friendly Cheryl Johnson as your Tax Assessor/Collector. Ms. Johnson is holding a series of classes on how to protest your appraisal:

Galveston County Tax Assessor Collector Cheryl Johnson’s press release on free classes on protesting property tax appraisals

Wouldn’t it be nice if every elected official was as taxpayer friendly as Ms. Johnson?

Oh, and one more thing about property taxes. Sen. Dan Patrick has made this one of his  most important issues for years. He hasn’t received much support in the past, with members of both chambers preferring to listen to local government officials, who like the fact that  their budgets increase without having to go to the voters and raise rates. Patrick’s runoff against Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is on May 27th, days before the end of the protest filing period. I’m guessing that he is going to raise the profile of this issue as part of his campaign, so expect to hear a lot more about it.

Property tax reform is critical to the long term success of the state. Until then, you and me as homeowners are on our own and must protect our own interests because heretofore, politicians have refused to recognized the extremely high burden that we bear.