iSettle won't settle and we're headed to a hearing. (sales, 2013)

[jwtomt2day]

We closed on our house in the middle of last May. We immediately protested the taxes and got them brought down to our sales price. We filed for homestead exemption this January and they jacked up the appraisal by 13% which is ridiculous and they also dropped all of our neighbors appraisal by about 10%.

1. I thought taxes could only rise 10%/year?

We tried iSettle but got this message today: Thank you for signing up for our iSettleâ„¢ program. Unfortunately, after reviewing the information we have available, we cannot propose an online settlement for your 2013 protest.

So we are headed to the hearing. Our plan is to bring in all the sales data for our neighborhood in the last year...nothing, NOTHING has sold at the price they want to appraise our house at.

Any other ideas?

[usc619]

Do go to a hearing by yourself, get a third party firm to rep you.

[mikeyyc]

I went through the hearing process in Fort Bend County, and it was quite amicable. In actual fact the assesor agreed with me, and told me in the future to just arrange a meeting with the assessor instead of wating for the hearing date, and he could get it taken care of faster and without the formalities of the hearing.

Now, this was FB, so YMMV in Harris.

[astrohip]

Originally Posted by usc619

Do go to a hearing by yourself, get a third party firm to rep you.

I think you meant DON'T. But curious, why do you say that?

I haven't heard from iFile yet, fingers crossed. Although if they reject me, I will show up and fight. My basis is the "higher than neighboring properties" reason.

[KatieKennedy]

If you hire a third party they charge 50 percent of any tax savings you get. You can represent yourself at HCAD. First you have an informal meeting with one person. If you are not satisfied with the offer HCAD makes then you can present your case to a 3 member board. Several previous postings have discussed what to do at a hearing before the board. If you do not like what the board does, you can sue.

[usc619]

Originally Posted by astrohip

I think you meant DON'T. But curious, why do you say that?

I haven't heard from iFile yet, fingers crossed. Although if they reject me, I will show up and fight. My basis is the "higher than neighboring properties" reason.

Thanks I meant to say Don't (Dam iPhone). The reason I say go with a third party is because they tend to have better results than representing yourself. Sure some folks have had success for one reason or another, but the odds are against you especially if you live in one of HCAD hottest zip codes.

[PedroMartinez]

Originally Posted by usc619

Thanks I meant to say Don't (Dam iPhone). The reason I say go with a third party is because they tend to have better results than representing yourself. Sure some folks have had success for one reason or another, but the odds are against you especially if you live in one of HCAD hottest zip codes.

The only way the odds will be against you is if the appraisal they use is fair.

If the appraisal is fair, you will not be able to prove that you should receive an adjustment; therefore, a third party firm may be able to use the "good 'ole boy" network to get you the reduction you couldn't get yourself.

If the appraisal is not fair, the board will look at your evidence and should adjust accordingly. No, it's not a perfect world, so you're not guaranteed to get the adjustment you deserve, but I think those incidents would be rare.

[usc619]

It's all a racket, so their is no such thing as a fair appraisal lol. The name of the game is to prevent the county from screwing you. I'll sleep just fine working off the good ole boy network.

[PedroMartinez]

Originally Posted by usc619

It's all a racket, so their is no such thing as a fair appraisal lol. The name of the game is to prevent the county from screwing you. I'll sleep just fine working off the good ole boy network.

If you've read some of my posts about property taxes, you'd know my true feelings about this system.

That being said, last year and the prior year, I won my hearings by presenting the facts that I gathered and presented by myself and kept my appraisal from increasing. I have explained exactly how I went about in on this forum, and I also said that if you didn't have the time to do the research or just can't present in a concise and clear manner that you should look at using a service.

But going back to my point, if you receive an unfair appraisal, you should be able to win the hearing without PAYING for a service.

[astrohip]

Rec'd this email reply today:

[BTW: the incredibly poor HTML formatting "&nbsp" in this email are verbatim.]

My protest was filed based on one of HCAD's accepted protests, "Value is unequal compared to other properties". I didn't state it was not market value, just unequal. Yet their reply is a market based reply, "sales disclosures". All they had to do was look at other properties on my street to see I am appraised 40% higher than all but one house (and my house is 25 yrs old and never remodeled). So far I'm not impressed with how HCAD handles this.

Dear Property Owner:
&nbsp
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 2013 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.
&nbsp
We appreciate your interest in iSettleâ„¢ and hope that as we improve the process we will be better able to serve you in the future.
&nbsp
Sands Stiefer
Chief Appraiser