Property Tax issue-new owner (2014, insurance, house)

[FlyingTexan1]

I purchased a home in Timbergrove in April 2013. When at closing the paperwork showed the home had already had a homestead exemption on it. Everyone has assured me that the exemption last for the entirety of the year. I received notice from my bank that my escrow amount for 2014 was going to jump significantly due to new projections. I look and see that in December my escrow account was billed the full taxable amount on my home without the exemption.

I have a PDF file showing there was an exemption when I purchased the home. Who do I contact, and how, about having them make sure it gets applied and I get refunded back the difference? My realtor says she's never seen this happen before and I all she could really offer were the scanned files of everything at closing. The bank said whenever they receive the bill they simply have to pay it so then they adjust my escrow after the fact. Overall it adds about $220 per month to my escrow payment and right now times are a little tight.

Can anyone help me figure out what's going on? My 2013 Tax statement shows only the full amount of $4797 that I was billed. With the homestead it should have been $3637. Is there a way, through the city/county websites, to see when homestead was last applied to the house so I can make absolutely sure it was there at signing?

Thank you for any help.

Texan

[PedroMartinez]

Have you contacted the taxing authorities (the county in particular) to see what they say?

I do not escrow my taxes or insurance due to many factors, including this.

[Schumacher713]

The homestead exemption is not transferable from seller to buyer. I doubt it is for the entire year. Soon as you buy the house they jack the taxes at the purchase price. Have you talked to the title company? You can look at hcad.org to see if a house is homestead. Though if they have already updated it I am not sure if you can see if it was in the past. A friend actually asked me why my house was not homestead once. I was confused as how they knew that.

[longhorn96]

Originally Posted by Schumacher713

The homestead exemption is not transferable from seller to buyer. I doubt it is for the entire year.

This.

When we bought our home, we were told that you have to be residing in the home on January 1st to claim a homestead exemption for that year. We bought our house on August 2013. Since we did not own it as of January 1st in 2013, we could not claim homestead exemption for taxes in 2013.

We can, however, file for the exemption for 2014.

[ToyYot]

When you bought your home in 2013 you had the benefit of the exemption for the balance of the year.

Presumably your 2014 escrow is to pay for 2014 taxes due at the end of 2014 which will be based on the new, revised valuation HCAD has put on your house as a result of the sale. No doubt that's a muych higher value.

If you haven't already done so, apply for the homestead exemption and it will count towards 2014 taxes and save you about 20%.