Appraisal Protests And Appeals - Texas Comptroller

Appraisal Review Board Protests

If the appraisal district appraises your property at a higher amount than in the previous year, Tax Code Section 25.19 requires the appraisal district to send a notice of appraised value by May 1, or by April 1 if your property is a residence homestead, or as soon as practical thereafter. The notice of appraised value includes information on how to file a protest as well as an explanation of the availability of an informal conference with the appraisal district prior to your formal ARB hearing.

If you are dissatisfied with your property’s appraised value or if errors exist in the appraisal records regarding your property, you should file Form 50-132, Property Owner’s Notice of Protest (PDF) with the ARB. Property owners and lessees may appoint someone to represent them in handling hearings concerning their property. You should file Form 50-162, Appointment of Agent for Property Tax Matters (PDF) if you elect to designate someone to represent you at the protest hearing.

Property owners or their authorized representatives are not required to use the notice of protest form to request a protest hearing. A notice of protest is sufficient if it identifies the property, property owner and any subject that indicates a level of dissatisfaction with a decision made by the appraisal district in writing.

In most cases, you have until May 15 or 30 days from the date the appraisal district notices are delivered — whichever date is later. Note that the deadline is 30 days from the date the appraisal district mails a notice, not upon the property owner or their authorized representative's receipt of delivery. Off-shore workers or full-time military service members may be entitled to file a late protest.

After filing your protest, you will receive written notice of the ARB hearing date, time, place, subject matter, and information on how to access your property's estimated taxes. You may request an informal conference with the appraisal district to try to resolve your protest before the ARB hearing. If you are not able to resolve your protest informally, you can continue your protest to the ARB. At the formal hearing, the ARB listens to both the taxpayer and the appraisal district representative. You may discuss your objections about your property value, exemptions, special appraisal qualification and circuit breaker limitation. The ARB's decisions are binding only for the tax year in question.

If you lease property and the lease contract requires you to pay the owner's property taxes, you may protest the property's value to the ARB. You may file a protest only if the property owner does not. The right to protest applies to leased land, buildings and personal property. The appraisal district will send the notice of appraised value to the property owner, who is required to send a copy to you if you are leasing real property. You may request that the chief appraiser send the notice of appraised value to you if you are contractually obligated to reimburse the owner for the taxes imposed on the property. If you protest, the ARB will send any subsequent notices regarding the protest to you.

The Comptroller's office is prohibited from advising a property owner, authorized representative or appraisal district about a matter under protest and from intervening in a protest.

Once the ARB rules on a protest, you will receive a written order by email or certified mail. In counties with populations greater than 120,000 you or your authorized representative can submit to the ARB an electronic delivery of communication form containing a valid email address to receive the hearing notice electronically. If the ARB rules in your favor, it will instruct the chief appraiser to notify the taxing units about the change. If you paid the taxes, the taxing units will send you any refund resulting from the appraisal roll change.