amoxill Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 No takers on the o'Connor thread, thought I would start try this as a new topic rather than bump...OK tax protest question:Is it credible to cite capped properties (i.e., those with either over 65 or homestead exemptions) when protesting for unequal appraisal? I have a Homestead Exemption and got popped with the standard max 10% increase this year. No sales comps to speak for as evidence on my side, but I have plenty of similar properties in the area that have certified values lower than mine. Only catch is that all have exemptions. My concern is that HCAD could counter that due to the cap, any citation of such comps is not valid for appraised value (regardless of market value...)Anyone out there have any advice? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 I don't think the capped properties are unusable. Clearly, if the old folks sell, the property is no longer capped, and would be back in the mix, so it would be my belief that HCAD appraises all properties equally (or at least claims to), so any market value on a capped property would be valid as comparison to yours.It is not the appraised value that you are protesting, but the market value. The appraised value is merely the number used for calculating your property taxes. A capped account only caps the appraised value, not the market value. By the same token, your appraised value only rises 10% in any given year, up to the market value. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amoxill Posted October 30, 2007 Author Share Posted October 30, 2007 I don't think the capped properties are unusable. Clearly, if the old folks sell, the property is no longer capped, and would be back in the mix, so it would be my belief that HCAD appraises all properties equally (or at least claims to), so any market value on a capped property would be valid as comparison to yours.It is not the appraised value that you are protesting, but the market value. The appraised value is merely the number used for calculating your property taxes. A capped account only caps the appraised value, not the market value. By the same token, your appraised value only rises 10% in any given year, up to the market value.that's where things get tricky. i'm shooting to reduce my appraised value as well - i want the lowest tax bill possible! assuming that i successfully convince HCAD that my market value is high to comps, what's the best strategy to reduce the appraisal value? the only thing I have come up with is an unequal market-to-appraisal value ratio. plausible?maybe i'm being stingy, but for me, even the notion of an "automatic" 10% annual appraised value increase seems arbitrary... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 Normally, the appraised value and market value are equal. Only when the market value increases more than 10% in a year will the appraised value be lower. The appraised value will increase 10% each year until it reaches equality with the market value. The only way to see a reduction in the appraised value is to convince HCAD to lower the market value. As an example, in 2005, my market value actually DECREASED $1,000. Therefore, so did my appraised value. In 2006, my market value increased $2,000 (after protest). Since it was less than 10%, the appraised value was still equal to the market value. This year, my market value after protest increased 8%. So did the appraised value. However, prior to the protest, the proposed increase in market value was 22%. If I had not protested, my appraised value would have only increased 10%, resulting in different values. Next year, even if the market value did not change, my appraised value would have increased another 10%, still less than the total appraised value. In 2009, it would increase 2% to be equal to the market value again.So, the only way to keep the appraised value from going up is to protest the market value. There are several threads on this forum with suggestions for doing that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJXterra Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 Through no fault but our own, my wife and I missed our protest ability this year. Reason being that we filed to protest early this year but noticed that they had only increased the value of our newly aquired house by 10%, keeping it well below what we paid for the house. Upon noticing that we decided not to protest and draw attention to ourselves. However, in August we got a completely seperate tax appraisal for the same year and put it away w/o looking at it. It was significantly higher, 30%+ if I'm remembering correctly, than the original one. Needless to say we missed our chance at protesting it b/c we'd already protested but 'skipped' the first time and can't protest a second time. We also may have been out of the time frame b/c we didn't look at it but I don't remember the cut-off date.My question is this: due to the change in appraisals is there any recourse we have to get this challenged? We had some really drastic problems with the house originally that would significantly help our cause if we could get in front of someone. Any way we can do something this year or is it too late and time to wait for next year?AJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urbannomad Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 "In most cases, you have until May 31 or 30 days from the date the appraisal district notice is delivered - whichever date is later." If 30 days is up then you are out of luck.Taken from:http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/proptax/protests.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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