1. Parts Manual Hcad Spec
2. Parts Manual Hdcad Specs

Thinking of filing a property tax protest? Reports suggest 2014 may see one of the.

To see a map of the 2014 tax increase in your area, click on this. I am not a property tax protest expert. Just a homeowner who believes the computerized tax assessments on my home value are always off-base. I’ve found the most helpful information in protesting my taxes was talking to friends about what has worked for them.

Wanted to use this blog post as a forum to share my (non legal advice) experiences, and ask for you to add any practical, helpful advice that you have in the comments below. ( UPDATE July 18, 2016: I do not handle tax protests as a part of my practice, so please do not email me about that. I do my own with mixed success.

There are companies out there who do it. I have heard mixed things about various ones. I enjoy creating places on the web that are useful for people, and that’s why I made this blog post. When I first started doing my own tax protesting, I didn’t see a lot of helpful information. I figured if I could gather what has worked/not worked for people in the comments, maybe we would all benefit. I love when comment sections are helpful and not stupid.

Personally, I think the whole way that Texas values properties for taxation is broken and wastes everyone’s time. I think if we can send cameras to a specific orbit around Jupiter, humankind should figure out a less time wasting and aggravating way to take my money). I figure we need all the help we can get this year. Practical help to win your property tax protest. First some basics.

File your protest. On the list of things that you might forget, this can be an expensive one. You can use the HCAD website to file it, so you don’t even need a stamp. This is a particularly important year not to forget this given the rise in values. It’s not enough just to file your protest. You need to remember to show up to the hearing as well unless you get a i-Settle resolution. This is obvious but is a pain to do every year to say the same thing to get the same result.

Should you get professional help to protest? Personally, no. Easy for me to say because the lawyer thing. But many people have positive results without getting tax agent help. At least one study suggests. For residential properties 41% better.

Why is that so? Tax agent companies might suggest they tend to have harder cases than the people who feel like they can protest it on their own.

Perhaps it is a matter of motivation and familiarity. A homeowner is very motivated to reduce their tax valuation. They can focus their time on only one property, and knows its problems better than anyone. I don’t want to pay anybody for things that I’m capable of doing myself and likely do better.

Have that view regarding restaurant food too, which is why I often order the fish and skip things easier to cook at home. 3. Spend some time exploring the HCAD website. The contains the logistical procedures of what to expect, what information they consider. They go into a lot more detail than I can reasonably do here. After you file your protest tax protest and receive an informal hearing date, the website will show you what properties their computerized models are using to compare to yours. That information won’t be on the site until. It will give a list of comparable properties with basic information about them.

You have to log-in and click around a bit to find this information. ( UPDATE July 18, 2016: Commenters/emailers have been asking where to find that info. I always end up forgetting where I found it the last time and have to look for it. HCAD currently doesn’t make it obvious that it exists or where to find it. In fairness to them, there’s a lot of stuff on their site.

Fortunately, commenter “Kbum” was helpful and answered this below: “Once you log in here (and set up a user name/password) Navigate to the “Manage Your Property Accounts” page. You will find it at the bottom left of this page under “View HCAD Hearing Evidence.””) You may want to actually see those properties in person and photograph the outside to distinguish them from your property. It’s been my experience that the properties that their computerized system used to compare to mine weren’t terribly similar. Should you do i-Settle? If you don’t use i-Settle, then your filing goes to an informal hearing appraiser and then if isn’t resolved then, to the entire appraisal review board. If you use HCAD i-Settle process, you may get a reduction in your home value such that you feel fine taking it without going to HCAD. For me, though I asked to use i-Settle in the past, I’ve always received this email back after they considered it: “ Thank you for signing up for our iSettle™ program.

Unfortunately, after reviewing the information we have available, we cannot propose an online settlement for your 2012 protest. Since sales disclosure is not mandatory in Texas, we acknowledge that our market information may not be complete and that you may have evidence unique to your property that may support a reduction in your property’s market value. To be sure you have an adequate opportunity to have it reviewed, we will be setting you up for appointments with one of our appraisers and for a hearing with the Appraisal Review Board. The Appraisal Review Board will set a hearing for your protest and notify you of the time, date and place of the hearing by standard USPS mail.” Perhaps it works better for smaller reductions than what I requested.

I ended up getting a informal appraisal hearing and approving their offer after i-Settle gave me no offer. This detailed property tax protest Examiner blog post from a few years ago called advises not using i-Settle at all. What to expect from the informal appraisal hearing? You show up at the HCAD building and wait for your name to be called.

An appraiser brings you to his cubical. When you go to this, bring all the documentation that supports your view of the market value of your home. Lots of quality pictures of defects with your home that adversely affect market value are crucial. One year, the detailed info that I brought to the appraiser demonstrated that some of the information they had in their computer about my home was inaccurate, and he changed it in their system. At one meeting I had with an appraiser, he told me that the most that they have authority to reduce with homeowners is $100,000.

I do not know if it is true or not. In my limited dealings with the informal process, they were reasonable and gave me what I thought was a fair offer worth not going the next step to the appraisal review board. What to expect from the appraisal review board (ARB) hearing? The panel is comprised of three citizens not employed by HCAD to hear your case. (In my experience, three old white guys. UPDATE July 18, 2016: Since this blog post was originally written, I had a panel not of old white guys, which ended up worse than the old white guy panel actually.

Nothing like putting on your case in front of the panel, not knowing their concerns, and then hearing the chair of the panel ruling based on something that was in your packet of evidence but they didn’t ask about. I am not a mind reader, rude guy who chaired my panel).

There is also an HCAD employee who represents HCAD that argues against your point view. When I did this, I put together a packet of material for me, each of the representatives, and the HCAD employee.

One section was reasons why house should have lower value than what the computerized system suggested due to problems with the property. This section had many clear color pictures of problems with the house.

Another section was details on the properties HCAD in its online materials said were the comparables, and why my property was worth substantially less. To do that, I looked both online with the information contained there, but also went to those properties and took pictures. Then I flipped through the packet of materials, using it as a visual aid to discuss with the ARB panel. It was fancy looking packet with a cover sheet, good quality color photos to try to show I gave the proceeding some thought, respect and time.

Having everything in a packet is also helpful if you feel shy about talking in front of a group of people. You can just walk them through the packet. The HCAD employee makes her response mostly based on the comparables.

So if you give specifics of why those comparables are inaccurate and perhaps show better ones, it is hard for an HCAD employee who just picked up the file to refute you. You just killed all her evidence and she doesn’t have any additional evidence beyond the comparables to refute your point. They consider the information, and you get a final determination from them at the end of the hearing. Be nice, be prepared.

Get them to want to help you. Remember, this process is not really about doing a “property tax protest” and more about discussing the information that justifies what the market value for your house is. Market value being what it would sell on the open market. The informal appraiser and the appraiser review board folks are human beings.

Ones who have a lot of control. So you want to politely and logically state your position, with so much support and in such a friendly way they want to help you. Under no circumstances should you complain about the tax burden to the informal appraiser or to the ARB panel. Because it ain’t their doing. In fact, one of the is this statement: “If you’re concerned about tax levels, you should take those concerns to local government officials.” I am certain they know what you think about the rising taxes. They have heard it a million times.

Likely from bat bleep crazy people who said it in bat bleep crazy ways. But if you want the human beings who control your tax appraisal to help you, you help them by providing good reasons supported by data. And being the nice sort of person they feel good about helping. (This is good advice in dealing with most service providers who have control over something you want them to do–making them feel good to want to go the extra mile for you. They just want to do their job, get paid, get off work, maybe go to Applebees, get some beers. You can try to bulldoze service providers into doing good stuff for you, but that is not a high percentage situation when they have more power and control in the situation).

If you win on the ARB level, you’ve beaten HCAD until next year, when the computer spits out the same old wrong valuation and you make many of the same arguments year after year. (So save your documents). If you don’t get a reduction at the ARB level, then your next choice is district court, which for most homeowners won’t be worth the time and money. There is no guarantee you and the ARB panel will agree with your assessment, so sometimes it may be worth it to take the informal appraisal reduction for the certainty involved. Talk to your neighbors. You know your property.

Your neighbors know your neighborhood. Sometimes they may know gossip that can help you gather helpful valuation information.

One year, one of my neighbors put a spreadsheet in local mailboxes demonstrating the rise of land values on our street relative to nearby streets, showing an improper valuation issue. That connection wouldn’t have occurred to me until I saw that flyer. Talking to your neighbors can sometimes give you a sense of what works and doesn’t work in doing their property tax protest. Leave a comment here. As I said, I am no expert in this. What I’d like to do is to start a dialogue about this topic.

Where people share their ideas of what works and what they have experienced. As a Houston homeowner who knows I will be doing this fight every year, I’d like to receive whatever help I can get. I went through the entire process including a hearing after they tried to value our house at over a million dollars in a neighborhood where larger homes and properties sold for a max of 700,000. Despite that, they only lowered our value minimally and have it appraised at higher than any house in our area has sold.

It doubled the value of our property by 400,000 after a 150,000 remodel. Short of having the most unbelievable return on our investment, it is totally unrealistic. Is there anything left to do? I bought my house end of dec 2014 for 375,000 and the property appraisal for 2014 was 151,000.

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My 2015 property appraisal went up to 320,000! All the homes in my neighborhood around the same sq better condition and curb appeal are appraising for 240k-260k.

I was told by a few that I would have no luck in lowering the appraisal since its lower then the sales price. If Texas is a non disclosure state how do they know my sale price? HCAD also has my house as being remodeled in 2013 but it was not, only a bad hardwood floor install. Should I still protest? We just noticed that HCAD is completely WRONG on our sq footage (over by about 100sq ft) and they have overstated our bedrooms and full baths by 1 each, respectively. We successfully won our protest last year based on comps in the neighborhood of the exact same house.

What is your (non-legal advice) recommendation in light of this new situation and the fact that HCAD is now trying to raise our value by 10% - this is a completely new situation we discovered and we now know we have been paying taxes on areas that do not exist for 7 years. One thing to be extremely careful of is asking them to lower the square foot. When your property is appraised, the appraiser almost always goes by the official sq footage reading and assigns a value based on that. Where I am, the price per sq foot is about $100 so 100 would mean the valuation would come in $10,000 lower for selling purposes by getting that reduction.

So, my theory with it is if the 100 sq foot puts your tax up by $200, it would take 50 years to recover the lost value. If it puts it up by $500, it would take 20 years.

Look at how much extra you are paying in taxes per square foot and then compare it to the perceived lower value to figure out how long the savings take to recover the lost value. If you expect to sell within that time frame, do not protest the square footage. If you do, protest away. I successfully protested my square footage (mine was over by 300 sqft) in 2014 after having been in my home for 4 years.

I and HCAD had a copy of the floor plan of my home and they were able to measure my home using Google maps (or the like) picture of my home and a program that allowed them to draw the plan over my home and determine that they had been including some attic space in my livable square footage. You will not be able to go back and get a refund for the overage paid in year past. I feel like perhaps my victory may have placed me on their radar and have gotten an increase in valuation every subsequent year, including this, of 10% or greater. Last year I added a pool so I expected it but this year I think they overreached and I get to go back in. Thanks for your advice and sharing your knowledge with it. Although I found this blog the morning of our protest, it solidified the evidence I used and empowered us to be positive and not combative (that always helps). We were actually very successful this year, the appraiser was very nice, not arrogant or power hungry, but a human like us.:) Very refreshing indeed.

The repairs were our best defense, then equity properties (comp/like props in our tiny allowed area) but they liked theirs better even though ours were the same floor plan within a block or our house. They of course chose the most expensive ones out there, we at least put high middle and low ones in.

The Sales data was all but ignored. We based our comps on Improvement Value only since the Land Value is basically fixed, something the appraiser was happy about that we actually knew what our evidence was and understood it. We were well prepared, over prepared if you ask my husband, but loaded for bear worked. Thanks to our Appraiser. This may seem like a simple question to those more experienced, but what kind of faults to you normally highlight when protesting?

This is the first time I will be protesting the increase in our appraisal value and I want to be as prepared as possible. The entirety of the increase in our homes value came from the improvement value. The land value has stayed the same for the past few years, but our home keeps getting appraised for more and more. I know the best way to protest is to demonstrate areas of our house in poor condition, but would love suggestions on what I should look for/ consider.

Here is a thoughtful and interesting article I found on the problem of true impartiality and independence of ARBs, and what can be done about it. Critiquing Texas Appraisal Review Boards Presented to Texas Association of Property Tax Professionals By Paul Pennington Appraisal Districts and Appraisal Review Boards (ARBs) should be acutely sensitive of the public perception of their distinct and separate functions.

The Appraisal Review Board Manual promulgated by the Texas Comptroller’s Office which is used as a training tool for ARB members tells us “The ARB is a quasi-judicial entity with the responsibility to resolve disputes between property owners and appraisal districts. The ARB is a separate entity from the appraisal district and serves a different function.” Unfortunately, many property owners, some in The Texas Legislature, and independent property tax professionals, do not see the ARB in that light. They view ARBs as an extension of the appraisal districts, fraught with bias and not independent.

There is always room within the Texas Property Tax System to refine and improve and the ARBs are no exception. Some professionals would prefer a system where the appraisal district and appraisal review boards were physically separated to insure impartiality. The concept on the surface seems to be one which any reasoned person could not argue with. However, upon closer examination there are issues which arise relating to cost, administration and logistics which suggest the separation of the ARB may not be practical in all cases.

That doesn’t mean constructive criticism couldn’t improve the Texas ARB system. What contributes to the ARBs apparent appearance as an institution overly influenced by appraisal districts? What could be done to correct current perception? Appraisal Review Board (ARB) member selection process:.

Board members are selected by the Board of Directors of the appraisal district. To insure impartiality the selection of ARB members should be taken out of the hands of the appraisal district board of directors.

This notion has been previously discussed. This year the Texas Legislature passed HB 1030 which, among other things, provides that in Harris and Fort Bend Counties, “ ARB members are appointed by the local administrative judge”. Others might argue that anyone other than the appraisal district board of directors might bring local politics into the current system. Who compensates ARB members?.

Board members are generally paid by the day and reimbursed for expenses. The appraisal district directors set the amount of payment in the budget. However, some appraisal districts do not budget to reimburse ARB members for their expenses. Consider: Human nature would suggest impartiality is affected when ARB members receive compensation from the appraisal district.

Therefore board members should not be compensated by appraisal districts. Who can serve on an ARB?. If you lived in the county for at least two years before becoming a member. No special qualifications required. Property tax professionals recognize the difficulty of recruiting citizens to serve. Thus a large number of ARB members consist of retired individuals from various fields. Counties should consider increased compensation for qualified members serving on the ARB.

Who can not serve?. A current appraisal district director;. A current employee or chief appraiser of the appraisal district;. A current board member, employee or officer of a taxing unit served by the appraisal district; or.

A current employee of the Comptroller of Public Accounts. Appraisal districts with a population of 100,000 or more, the following restrictions apply:. You served for all or part of three previous terms as a board member or an auxiliary board member on the ARB;. You were a former appraisal district director;.

You were a former employee or former officer of the appraisal district;. You appeared before the ARB for compensation; or. Until the fourth anniversary of the date you ceased to serve as a member or officer of a taxing unit for which the appraisal district appraises property. Consider using property tax professionals (property tax consultants, attorneys, corporate tax agents, etc.) as potential ARB members after the fourth anniversary of the date they cease ARB appearances for compensation.

How is an ARB member removed?. Under certain circumstances, appraisal district directors may remove board members by majority vote. Consider removing this authority of the appraisal district directors. Who trains ARB members?. The appraisal district trains the board and the Texas Comptroller’s Office produces a manual which is also used as a training tool.

The appraisal district should not be involved in the training of the ARB. In 2009 the legislature passed HB 2317;” which provides a training curriculum for ARB members and requires that it be completed.” Where is an ARB located?. Generally, an ARB may reside in any office it chooses, limited only by its budgetary constraints.

Most ARBs meet at the appraisal district office. To insure that the ARB is perceived as an independent entity, they should be separate and distinct from the appraisal districts. Obviously this might not be practical with most appraisal districts. In fact the concept may only be practical for the five largest appraisal districts (The Big 5).

Why separate the ARB from the appraisal district?. Property owners and tax professionals perceive the ARB as an extension of the appraisal district and not as a separate independent and impartial entity. What are the Pro’s and Con’s of the physical separation of the ARB and Appraisal District?.

Con: Appraisal Districts could argue that the concept of separation is cost prohibitive. Issues such as staffing, rent, fixed assets, salaries, etc. Would make the idea of “separation” a non-starter or would it?. The chart listed below shows the 2010 budgets for the “Big 5 Appraisal Districts” (Bexar, Dallas, Harris, Tarrant and Travis Counties). RATIO STUDIES. (a) The comptroller shall conduct an annual study in each appraisal district to determine the degree of uniformity of and the median level of appraisals by the appraisal district within each major category of property.

The comptroller shall publish a report of the findings of the study, including in the report the median levels of appraisal for each major category of property, the coefficient of dispersion around the median level of appraisal for each major category of property, and any other standard statistical measures that the comptroller considers appropriate. In conducting the study, the comptroller shall apply appropriate standard statistical analysis techniques to data collected as part of the annual study of school district taxable values required by Section 403.302, Government Code. The ARB Process: Listed below are the seven steps of the ARB system during a typical tax year:. Chief appraiser submits records to the ARB. ARB hears taxing unit challenge. ARB hears taxpayer’s protests. ARB issues Orders Determining Protests.

Parts Manual Hcad Spec

ARB approve appraisal records. Chief appraiser certifies tax roll to taxing entities. Corrections after tax roll approval For the purpose of this critique I will limit my comments specifically to issues relating to the ARB hearing taxpayers protests. ARB Hearing procedures This year the legislature passed SB 771 which, among other things, increased “the penalty for ex parte communications between a CAD (county appraisal district) and ARB members.”. Evidence / Burden of Proof:.

The appraisal district must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that their value is correct. Hearsay testimony is not allowed.

The appraisal district has the burden of proof. Witnesses:. Anyone may appear as a witness. Expert witnesses. Appraiser testimony and evidence:. The Comptroller’s Office describes staff testimony as an informed opinion not necessarily verifiable fact. Subpoenas:.

The ARB has the power to subpoena witnesses, books, records or other documents. Abuses of this power have occurred. Postponement of a hearing:. The ARB must postpone a hearing if the property owner or owner’s agent is previously scheduled for an ARB hearing in another appraisal district. ARBs should schedule the out of town taxpayer or the owner’s agent hearings at one time. These would be obvious convenience, financial and time management factors.

Mass appraisal:. Establishes market value on real and business personal property. Appraisal districts must comply with Uniform Standard of Professional Appraisal Practices (USPAP). Three approaches to value:. Cost. Income capitalization. Sales Comparison.

Parts Manual Hdcad Specs

ARB members should be familiar with the three approaches to value and be able to make reasoned conclusions based on this knowledge. Additionally, they need to have a solid grasp of their local economies. Unequal appraisal: The Texas Property Tax Code states the following in Section 41.43 Protest of Determination of Value or Inequality of Appraisal.