It is one of homeowners’ bigger annual bills: Property taxes. Yours is likely arriving now. You have the right to challenge your tax appraisal and more than likely you will be successful. Here is how to do a property tax protest:
The lower the value of your home, the less you will owe in property taxes. Do not just accept your appraisal from the county. Bexar County residences saw about a 15% increase in property taxes with the average home valued at $342,691.
“Last year was unprecedented,” said Rogelio Sandoval, the assistant chief appraiser for the Bexar Appraisal District. “We saw these double-digit increases throughout the state. Although this year we’re seeing almost half that.”
The increase was not as large as last year, but it is still sizable.
“It’s still significant enough to warrant property owners to protest should they feel the need,” Sandoval said.
Anyone can protest.
Appraisers do not inspect every home individually. Here is how valuations are arrived at:
“We work hand in hand with the city and county to get building permits for new construction additions, Sandoval said. “Those are verified by an appraiser. But what we do is look at the sales analysis of neighborhoods and we make sure that it’s neighborhood-specific because we don’t want to value your home in relation to something that’s going on over in a different part of town. We want to make sure the market information that we’re looking at is pertinent to your house. Once we do that, we establish what is the increase or decrease of that neighborhood.”
The paperwork you need to file for an appeal is on the back of your valuation notice. Fill it out and be sure to check the red box that says “evidence requested.”
“We send you all the information that we have as far as how we arrived at the valuation,” Sandoval said. “That gives every property owner all our information ahead of time so that you can be building your case.”
Then gather your evidence about why your bill should be lower. Two items are most impactful for getting your bill lowered:
“Photographs are good because we can see the damage,” Sandoval said. “But I also always say that estimates are better because it actually puts a dollar amount to what it’s going to cost to remedy that problem.”
Then you will schedule an informal hearing to be held virtually, by phone, or just through email messages. The odds are in your favor if you protest.
“For the last four years, informally, we’ve had over a 90% settlement rate,” Sandoval said.
Do not wait to file, protests are due May 15 by midnight.
You can send your Notice of Protest in several ways:
Mail: Bexar Central Appraisal District, PO Box 830248, San Antonio, TX, 78283. Postmark by midnight 5/15.
Email: protest@bcad.org
Dropbox at the Bexar County Appraisal District: It is located in front of the building at 411 N. Frio, San Antonio, TX, 78283. Note the gate to the building locks at 5 p.m. nightly.
If a protest is not settled in an informal hearing, it then goes to a formal hearing with the Appraisal Review Board. If no resolution is reached at the formal hearing, property owners can then go to binding arbitration or to district court.
Hearings are available in English and Spanish.
Have questions or need help? Contact the Bexar County Appraisal District at cs@bcad.org or 210-224-2432. You can also look at the video library to learn more about the protest process.
Another way to save on your property tax is the make sure you apply for a homestead exemption.