What to Expect in a Protest When Representing Yourself
To begin the process, you must file a protest with your local appraisal district by the deadline, May 15th or 30 days after the appraisal district mailed your notice of appraised value, whichever is later. You must note your decision to protest based on whether you think your property was overvalued due to:
Incorrect valuation (also called market value). The basis of this would be recent sales or showing condition issues that devalue the property such as an estimate to fix the foundation.
Unfair valuation (also called equal & uniform/equity). The basis of this would be that you are unfairly valued when compared to a reasonable number of properties that are similar to yours.
You can (and most of the times should) protest on both the basis of incorrect and unfair valuation.
ARB Hearing Scheduled:
Once your protest is processed, the appraisal district will schedule a hearing with the Appraisal Review Board (ARB) and send you a notice of the hearing. This notice will include the date, time, and location of the hearing, along with instructions on how to prepare and what to expect. The notice serves as an acknowledgment that your protest has been filed and is being processed. It's important to keep a copy of your protest and any confirmation or correspondence from the appraisal district for your records. If you do not receive any acknowledgment within a reasonable time after submitting your protest, you may want to contact the appraisal district to confirm that your protest was received and to inquire about the status.
Informal Meeting
After filing, you may have the option to meet informally with an appraiser from the appraisal district to discuss your concerns about the valuation of your property. Contact your appraisal district to find out the hours of availability to meet informally with one of their appraisers. Many disputes are resolved at this stage without needing to go to a formal hearing. If you agree to a lower value and sign off on the agreement, your protest process is done for the year and can not be reopened.
Preparing Your Case:
The key to a successful protest lies in the evidence you can provide. A recent sales analysis, independent appraisals, and condition reports of the property are common.This can include photos, repair estimates or receipts for any condition that existed on January 1 of the current tax year, and any other relevant information. Understanding current real estate market trends in your area can also guide your decision. If property values in your area are generally declining but your assessed value has increased, this could support a market value protest. If there's notable inconsistency in how similar properties are assessed in your area, an equal and uniform protest might be more appropriate.
ARB Hearing:
If you can't resolve your dispute informally, or decide not to meet informally, the next step is a formal hearing before the ARB, an independent panel of citizens authorized to resolve disputes between taxpayers and the appraisal district. During the hearing, you'll present your evidence, and the appraisal district will present its evidence. You'll have the opportunity to question the appraisal district's evidence and to respond to questions about your evidence.
ARB Decision:
After hearing both sides, the ARB will make a decision and announce it. Documentation will also be mailed to you. If your protest is successful, your property valuation may be lowered, which can result in lower property taxes.
Further Appeal Options
If you're dissatisfied with the ARB's decision, you can file for an arbitration process (for properties valued at $5 million or less). It is also allowed that you can appeal to the state district court in the county where your property is located, or the State Office of Administrative Hearings.
What to Expect When Protesting with PropertyTax.io
We handle the whole process for you from start to finish. Here is what you can expect from us. The protest process can take a couple of months. During this time, we handle the entire process professionally and keep in regular contact with you so you know where we are in the timeline (rather than having you worry about deadlines, setting up meeting times, compiling relevant evidence and making time in your schedule to attend a hearing).
Because of the Appointment of Agent form that you signed to begin our representation, we automatically file the protest for you.
To prepare a case, we thoroughly analyze comparable sales and neighborhood properties to find the best avenues for a reduction. You can upload photos and documents (i.e. a bid to fix the foundation that you want us to include in the evidence packet we submit). We combine our research with your personal information and prepare a professional evidence packet that is easily understandable and organized in a manner familiar to the Appraisal Review Board (ARB) members.
Next we meet informally with the appraisal district. We submit the report and analyze their offer to settle the case. We don’t settle if we think there is a good chance for a larger reduction at an ARB hearing.
An experienced professional will present your case in front of the ARB. Each of our professionals has a thorough knowledge of the Texas Property Tax Code and an extensive background in real estate valuation. Our compensation is structured in such a way that we are incentivized to fight hard for the largest possible reduction.
Again, throughout the process we will keep you informed of the progress of your case. We will notify you of the final value of your property that the appraisal district has agreed to. We only charge you a fee for this entire process if we are able to successfully lower your property tax bill for the year.