Protesting of Property Taxes in Montgomery and Harris Counties in Texas

We spend, at minimum, 12 or 13 years of our lives in school learning what we need to know to get by in this world. Some things, however, never make it into the curriculum. Homeownership 101 is a subject this is left out and often not thought of, yet most people would greatly benefit from such a course. Most of what I learned came from talking to my parents or other family members and from what I thought was common sense. Luckily, some of the dumb mistakes I made did not come back to bite me. Other times I learned something just by being in the right place at the right time. How to protest your property taxes was one of those items that I learned by being in the right place at the right time. Luck or destiny was on my side as someone who knew what they were talking about was kind enough to share that knowledge with others.

I am not an accountant. I am not a business person. I have no degree in economics or politics. Even though it sounds very difficult, protesting your taxes really is just a matter of time and having access to a computer. You could do it without a computer, but it would be more difficult. First though, let us clarify what is meant by "protesting your property taxes"? I am not talking about whether the taxes are legal or morally right or whether you should or should not pay them. That is between you and the sheriff to decide when he comes to reposes the property for lack of payment. What I am talking about is protesting the amount of taxes that you are required to pay. The amount your property to worth is not written in stone or determined by some giant super computer. It can be changed. Did you know that? I did not till someone told me. I had never thought about it. My main concerns were the long commute to work and trying to get to the grocery store before dark. You know, life. Property taxes were the least of my concerns, until that bill came stating what the amount was. They my jaw would drop and the check would be written out and mailed. All the while I would be left wondering how everyone afforded this.

You see, in Texas, property taxes can be increased 10% a year or 30% every 3 years. That can really start to add up. If you look on your property tax statement you will see the explanation of how to protest your taxes. This is something you can do yourself or hire someone to do for you. It really is up to you. If you have the time it is free to do. If not, then it is worth hiring someone to do it for you. Often they receive a percent of the amount you save, so it becomes a win-win situation. The basics are that you have to send in the proper form saying that you want to protest. You will receive an appointment date and time to show up to explain your case to an appraiser. If you can not come to an agreement, then you will go before a board to state your case again and see if they can come to an agreement.

There are several great online resources which can help you in this effort. The first is your county's Central Appraisal District (CAD). The website for your CAD offers lot of information. For Montgomery County go to http://www.mcad-tx.org/. For Harris County go to http://www.hcad.org/. Each website contains the forms you need to fill out in order to protest your taxes. These Notice of Protest forms have a deadline, usually May 31, so make sure you do not delay too long in filling them out and mailing them in! They also contain the information on your property and similar properties, which enables you to find supporting data. Read on to see what I mean.

A second online tool to help you out is actually a non-profit's website. CLOUT, or Citizens Lowering Our Unfair Taxes, contains updates on the tax issue. Additionally, If you scroll all the way to the bottom of their page (http://www.clouttexas.com/) you will also see a form that they have put together to help you in organizing your data to protest.

The CAD's website is a great place to look up surrounding properties that are similar to yours. As you begin to find them, make note of the important data. Things like property descriptions, square footage, land size, etc. These are items to show that these properties are similar to yours. One tip that I learned, which I would never have thought of, was that you need not show all the similar properties. See, you are trying to prove that your taxes are too high. If you can show similar properties that have lower taxes then you have proven your point. Therefore, you only need to bring before the appraiser the properties similar to yours that have lower taxes.

When I put together a packet to take to the meeting with the appraiser, I filled out the form from CLOUT's website and included copies of several similar properties' assessments from the CAD website. This form is not official, it is just something someone put together to help others. You can create your own if you like, but you need not reinvent the wheel. They have also included some tips and guidelines, which I found to be very useful. This is where I got the idea to print off the similar properties from the CAD website. The little box on the official Notice of Protest form to include supporting data is almost a joke. I think I could fit two sentences in it. Thankfully it says to attach additional sheets if needed.

I put the form and the copies of similar appraisals into a folder so that I would have everything in a neat order for me to find as we talked. I sent in the appropriate form from the CAD website, along with corresponding support information with the correct number of copies of such information.

The meeting with the assessor was scheduled for a weekday morning. There were others in the office waiting for the same reason, so the waiting is what took the longest. At the meeting with the assessor, there was a number in mind that I was looking to get the assessed value of my home lowered to. As it turns out, I did not even need to argue with him. After showing all the proof the assessor offered a new assessment that was lower than what I had in mind. The new number was agreed upon and our value was lowered by almost $20,000. That translates to instant savings on the property tax bill this year and all the years to come. As it turns out I had more than enough data to back me up, but I figure it is always better to have too much than not enough.

Yes, the taxes will need to be protested again as they will increase every year. How much they increase every year will help decide if I want to protest yearly or every two years. Some might say that protesting is bad because then it lowers the value of your house. This is where the market value and the appraised value differ. The market fluctuates a lot depending on a variety of factors and this will affect the market value, or price you pay for a property. When you buy a house, the appraised value is often reset to the value you bought the house at. After this experience I no longer look at the appraised value of a house to determine if the asking sales price is correct. Who knows what factors affect the appraised value at the time is was determined.

Owning a home has enough costs associated with it. Why not take a bit of time and help decrease one of those costs? It will have a lasting affect on your wallet . . . in a good way.