2014 Tax Appraisal Thread (Austin, Rule: appointed, home, taxi)

[TexasHorseLady]

Falconhead West, could you define what you mean by "arbiter"? Do you mean the Appraisal Review Board who sit when a protest goes beyond the first stage? Or do you mean the individual appraiser who you speak to upon first meetings (I've always met with a licensed appraiser representing the county when challenging my taxes.) I've (successfully, for the most part) challenged my taxes almost every year for a long time now in Travis County, twice taking it to the second step, and my ag once in Williamson, and I've never hear that term used.

[COCUE]

Originally Posted by gpurcell

Using Assessment Comparables to Fight Unequal Property Taxes

Gpurcell - thanks for posting this because I honestly couldnt for the life of me think how I was going to gather appraisals on about 100 odd houses. What I just need to find out is why exactly identical houses to ours built the same time is getting lower appraised value than ours. I search on the wcad website for our street and we had the single highest valuation (even before the cap was applied on the other houses), yet like all neighborhoods like AR, identical houses abound.
By the way, for those of you that know the law, is property taxes supposed to be somewhat equitable? or is it normal to pay potentially $000 of more for an identical house in sqft, year, neighborhood etc

[FalconheadWest]

As an arbitrator for the Comptroller's office, "I" make my rules. There is no state statue to use beyond comptroller's rule 9.804. I make the rules of my arbitration, if it's in person or on the phone, or just submitting documents. I determine if the evidence I receive is worth the paper it's written on.

Binding Arbitration is the step you take after you've gone to the CAD and after you've been through the Apraisal review board. If you are still not happy about your value, you get to file Arbitration with the comptroller's office for $500. If you are right, you get $450 back. If you are wrong in your value, you do not get any money back.

My rules are not ridiculous. What's ridiculous is people who submit 5 low values in a neighborhood that has 500 houses. To fight the "unequal" criteria, you must show a representative sampling of being unequal. 5 properties valued lower than yours is not representative of the neighborhood, and you're going to throw your $500 away because you can't win with such a low sampling.

I did not say I want to see 1/3. I said 20%. 20% of a neighborhood is a representative sampling of values. That's about 1 in 5 houses (if you have a smaller neighborhood, minimum of 10 properties need to be submitted). And if you go to Arbitration, you have to go by the rules the arbitrator makes. It's completely different than fighting your tax value at the CAD's office. Completely different set of rules.

[Trainwreck20]

By the way, for those of you that know the law, is property taxes supposed to be somewhat equitable? or is it normal to pay potentially $000 of more for an identical house in sqft, year, neighborhood etc

There can be variations, although it is usually hard for the CAD to justify them even though they pretend that they are considering other variables - location (corner lot, greenbelt), updates (new kitchens/bathrooms), and a few other things.

[centralaustinite]

Originally Posted by COCUE

Gpurcell - thanks for posting this because I honestly couldnt for the life of me think how I was going to gather appraisals on about 100 odd houses. What I just need to find out is why exactly identical houses to ours built the same time is getting lower appraised value than ours. I search on the wcad website for our street and we had the single highest valuation (even before the cap was applied on the other houses), yet like all neighborhoods like AR, identical houses abound.
By the way, for those of you that know the law, is property taxes supposed to be somewhat equitable? or is it normal to pay potentially $000 of more for an identical house in sqft, year, neighborhood etc

Make sure you are also looking at how the underlying land is appraised, separate from the structure. You could potentially have similar structures (type of construction, sq feet, year built, etc) on land that is valued differently (size of lot, greenbelt view, different zoning or zoning potential, location, proximity etc).

[FalconheadWest]

Originally Posted by COCUE

okay, thanks.. but where is the HS exemption itself then, isnt that what the HS cap is? Because a house that is identical to ours on the same street is valued at $30K lower than ours with the HS cap. Based on this, are you saying that because its our 1st year here, we would be valued that much higher for an identical house?

I'm not sure what you aren't understanding. Your assessed value is not necessarily the same as your taxable value. A house just like your house should not have an assessed value $30k less than yours. However, their taxable value could be $30k less than yours because they have a HS cap while you have not set your initial HS value yet because this if your first year to have the HS. You cannot be capped until they have an initial value. After the initial value of owning the home, your HS exemption caps future increases of TAXABLE value by 10%, but it does NOT cap your assessed value.

[COCUE]

Originally Posted by FalconheadWest

I'm not sure what you aren't understanding. Your assessed value is not necessarily the same as your taxable value. A house just like your house should not have an assessed value $30k less than yours. However, their taxable value could be $30k less than yours because they have a HS cap while you have not set your initial HS value yet because this if your first year to have the HS. You cannot be capped until they have an initial value. After the initial value of owning the home, your HS exemption caps future increases of TAXABLE value by 10%, but it does NOT cap your assessed value.

What am simply not understanding is that my assessed value is = to my taxable value. I have looked at houses on my street as my level 1 analysis and we all have the same land value +/- $1,000 but yet improvement value for the houses differ with mine being the highest yet nothing has been done. One of these houses I'm very familiar with as its my neighbor that am friendly with and have been in each others houses several times. The first timeI went, it was weird because apart from different furniture, it is IDENTICAL. Now before their HS cap. their improvement value is $11K lower than ours, then add a $33.8K HS cap and its now crazy. So as a whole, their taxable value is now $45K lower. Only difference is that they've lived in their house since new and we just bought ours in December from the original owner

[FalconheadWest]

Originally Posted by COCUE

What am simply not understanding is that my assessed value is = to my taxable value.

Again, yes, your taxable value will equal your assessed value because there is no cap to put into place until the year after an initial value is set. Next year, if your assessed value goes up more than 10%, your taxable value will then be less than your assessed value.

[texasplace]

Someone have a good "how to" appeal? What's the best was to find comps, process for appealing, etc? I live in wilco and have never protested but intend to do so in person this year.

TIA!

[gpurcell]

Originally Posted by FalconheadWest

As an arbitrator for the Comptroller's office, "I" make my rules. There is no state statue to use beyond comptroller's rule 9.804. I make the rules of my arbitration, if it's in person or on the phone, or just submitting documents. I determine if the evidence I receive is worth the paper it's written on.

Binding Arbitration is the step you take after you've gone to the CAD and after you've been through the Apraisal review board. If you are still not happy about your value, you get to file Arbitration with the comptroller's office for $500. If you are right, you get $450 back. If you are wrong in your value, you do not get any money back.

My rules are not ridiculous. What's ridiculous is people who submit 5 low values in a neighborhood that has 500 houses. To fight the "unequal" criteria, you must show a representative sampling of being unequal. 5 properties valued lower than yours is not representative of the neighborhood, and you're going to throw your $500 away because you can't win with such a low sampling.

I did not say I want to see 1/3. I said 20%. 20% of a neighborhood is a representative sampling of values. That's about 1 in 5 houses (if you have a smaller neighborhood, minimum of 10 properties need to be submitted). And if you go to Arbitration, you have to go by the rules the arbitrator makes. It's completely different than fighting your tax value at the CAD's office. Completely different set of rules.

Your rules are ridiculous, are opposed to the Texas Constitution, and will get your butt sued off someday. There is absolutely NO justification for requiring 20 percent of similar properties to be inequitably assessed to trigger the constitutional and statutory provisions. It is equivalent to completely removing the protection.