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Harris County Appraisal District (HCAD) Is Over-Taxing Flooded Property Owners By 50 To 100%. HCAD is NOT valuing these flooded properties accurately. They are not following mandatory requirements of the Tax Code and the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. HCAD and the Appraisal Review Board (ARB) are not considering market evidence in valuing flooded homes, grossly overtaxing Texans at their time of greatest need.  Both HCAD and the ARB are  overtly   ignoring the law.  HCAD appraisers are testifying that the HCAD has not developed an opinion of market value.  Despite evidence from the HCAD appraiser that their valuation does not meet basic requirements, ARB panels are ratifying the HCAD value in a  breath-taking display of raw power and force. The appraisal district and the ARB appear to be  ignoring all evidence at hearings .  In our opinion, it is clear the process is a  sham  after 1 or 2 hearings. The ARB ...

DO YOU KNOW WHAT UNEQUAL APPRAISAL IS AND HOW IT CAN HELP YOU IN YOUR FIGHT FOR FAIR TAXES? *Its ok! We didn’t either at first! 🙂 BACKGROUND OF UNEQUAL APPRAISAL During the 1997 legislative session, major changes were made to the Texas Property Tax Code. One of the reforms was the right to appeal property taxes based on unequal appraisal. Harris County Appraisal District chose to  VIGOROUSLY OPPOSE  this provision of the tax code.  (SHOCKER!) Appealing based on unequal appraisal is  BENEFICIAL  because it allows an owner to reduce the taxes even if the property is assessed for much less than the market value. In the past, appraisal districts wanted a  VERY COMPLICATED  process to hear cases of unequal appraisal which was  EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE  to prepare. The new approach also made judicial appeals financially  feasible  and  effective . WHY AREN’T PROPERTIES ASSESSED EQUALLY TO BEGIN WITH? You may be won...

Chances are many owners have not heard of a substantial error appeal before. If the property has a substantial error, then the tax code supports owners to  file a late appeal .  Instead of the May 15th deadline, the new deadline would be January 31st of the following year! WHAT IS IT? Owners may be asking then,  what qualifies as a substantial error ? You should never be overtaxed!  If anything, owners should be a bit  undertaxed . If you’re overtaxed by more than one-third, there’s a substantial error.  You can file a substantial error correction appeal (25.25d) provided it is filed by the tax delinquency date. This is typically Jan. 31 of the following year. This substantial error occurs with many commercial properties as well as properties that have seen a natural disaster such as flooded properties or properties that have previously flooded. Within 15 days after a substantial error motion is filed, the Appraisal District will r...

We pose this question to our esteemed readers: HAS THE APPRAISAL REVIEW BOARD (ARB) IN HARRIS COUNTY LOST ITS MIND? There have been concerns for 25 years surrounding bias at the Appraisal Review Board, but they truly set a new low this week. WHY DO WE THINK THAT? After a week of disaster re-appraisal hearings, ARB board members have made it clear that they’ve taken a biased approach when evaluating properties that were impacted by Hurricane Harvey. In the hearings I sat in, ARB members essentially told us (property owners) not to bother presenting evidence because they’re not going to consider it. Even though the appraisal district has not done a legitimate estimate of market value as required by the tax code! They also have no evidence! They’re just going to rubber-stamp whatever Harris County Appraisal District is requesting, file after file after file. Time after time. WHAT CAN YOU DO? Contact Harris County Appraisal District and let them know this is no...

Texas law  requires  appraisal districts to value property at market value on January 1. To value property, one must understand its condition and the factors that influence market value, including flooding.  Many appraisal districts are not making an effort to determine which property flooded. Despite almost  $200 billion worth of damage  estimated by governmental sources, governmental sources valuing property (appraisal districts) have only identified about $25 billion worth of property damaged by Harvey. 

For the first time in  almost   40 years , the deadline in Texas to render personal property and to file a protest has CHANGED with little notice to taxpayers. The OLD deadline to file a property tax protest in Texas  was  May 31st. The deadline to render personal property  was  April 15th. That is a 15-day change in the deadline! A few weeks ago I was speaking at a luncheon on property taxes to real estate industry professionals. I decided to take a quick poll and ask the audience: “HOW MANY OF YOU KNOW ABOUT THE PROTEST DEADLINE CHANGES THIS YEAR?” Do you know how many people raised their hand?? ZERO. I thought: “How is this possible? Out of 80 real estate professionals, none of them knew there was a change in the deadline to protest?” But that was the case. And I imagine that is the case among thousands of property owners across Texas. I even took a look at the top 100 county appraisal district’s websites in Texas and found that un...

Mike Collier – democratic candidate for lieutenant governor opens up about the two policies that made the property taxes in Texas to fall into crisis. Texas is a wealthy state, and the government is not wasting any money, but still property taxes are so high. mike Collier explains why, 1. Equal and Uniform law Legislature of Texas has passed an Equal and Uniform law in 1997, in which the property owners can fight against the appraisal district if they can show that the comparable property of them is appraised at lower values than their own. This sounds good and logical as a concept, but this has left an unintended loophole to the owners with large, industrial and commercial properties. The theme is, if one owns a complex asset and talented lawyers, then it is really not needed to pay the fair amount of taxes to the government of Texas. Mike Collier says closing the loophole is a chief element of his agenda on tax reform, as a lieutenant governor. 2. T...

The real estate market of Houston has beaten the existing sales record, even after the devastating effects of Harvey. Damage caused by Harvey is substantially high, but the Houston housing market did not lose its steam. The housing market has recorded a significant increase of 3.5 percent compared to the last year sales. This is totally unexpected after the upsetting effects of Harvey. Many are still trying to fix the damages and no Houston realtor has expected the massive rebound. The whole Texas has not seen this kind of rebound in the past decades. Looking on the sales record of Houston housing market, buyers had closed nearly on 79150 single family homes around Houston, Texas; representing almost $23 billion as per the report provided by the Houston Realtors. This increase had inflated the median price by 3.8 percent to $229,900. This is the first time for the Houston housing market to break the records after such a damaging natural calamity. In the Houston real estate market...