If it says "Residential Homestead," then we're good to go?

yes sir

Anyone hear back from jubally?

Anyone able to answer a few questions for me? My house has the residential homestead exemption, no work was done last year, and yet my appraised value increased nearly 29%. The increase in taxes is going to be painful if I can't get the 10% cap.

stroodles said:

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Anyone able to answer a few questions for me? My house has the residential homestead exemption, no work was done last year, and yet my appraised value increased nearly 29%. The increase in taxes is going to be painful if I can't get the 10% cap.

struzick at gee mail - if anyone can help or is willing to answer a few questions.

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Are you in Harris County?

Are you sure it was the appraised value and not the market value that increased 29%?

Were there any improvements made in 2015 that HCAD is aware of?

Sooper Jeenyus said:

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stroodles said:

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Anyone able to answer a few questions for me? My house has the residential homestead exemption, no work was done last year, and yet my appraised value increased nearly 29%. The increase in taxes is going to be painful if I can't get the 10% cap.

- if anyone can help or is willing to answer a few questions.

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Are you in Harris County?

Are you sure it was the appraised value and not the market value that increased 29%?

Were there any improvements made in 2015 that HCAD is aware of?

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Yes - Harris County

Positive - my appraised value is still approximately 7% less than what HCAD thinks my market value is. Appraised went up 29% - market only went up 6%, but there was such a large delta between appraised and market I think they are trying to make up for lost time.

I purchased the home in November 2013, remodeled the home, and the permit was closed in April 2014.

No other significant work has been done since approx April of 2014.

Looking at 5 year history they just went up 10% each year and ignored the remodel until now.

Are they allowed to do that? At what point are they not allowed to go back?

stroodles said:

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Are they allowed to do that? At what point are they not allowed to go back?

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Prices of new and used homes in Harris County have increased substantially in recent years. In order to prevent sharp increases in home property taxes from year to year, Texas voters in 1997 approved a constitutional amendment, which became effective January 1, 1998, to limit increases in the taxable value of a qualified residence homestead. To qualify, property must be your residence homestead, and you must have received a homestead exemption in your name in both the current and previous years.
Under this law, the value for tax purposes (appraised value) of a qualified residence homestead will be the LESSER of:

• the market value (what the property would sell for on the open market); or
• the preceding year's appraised value
• + 10%
• + the value of any improvements added since the last re-appraisal.

Last year I received an appraisal notice indicating an appraisal value for my property. Does this mean that my property was reappraised last year?
Not necessarily. The year in which your property was reappraised is not always the last year in which you received an appraisal notice. Instead, it is the last year in which the appraisal district formally reappraised your property. Currently, the Harris County Appraisal District is on a two-year appraisal cycle whereby it reappraises all property every odd year (2001, 2003, 2005, and so on).
In some instances, a property may have been formally reappraised in a year not designated as a reappraisal year (i.e. 2002). This is often necessary to ensure equitable treatment between properties as well as where property or neighborhood characteristics have changed sufficiently to warrant a formal reappraisal.
The last reappraisal date will not be shown on your 2003 appraisal notice. You can determine the date by calling our Information and Assistance Center at (713) 957-7800.

So his market value has not changed one iota since 2014? If that market value changed in 15 or 16 then they should not be able to claim they haven't reappraised it since his remodel.

I can tell you that HCAD thinks my market value has increased every year, but I have been capped at the 10% max every year. That was until this year where it appears they are trying to make up for lost time.

Texas Property Tax Code 23.23 is the part of the code that deals with this.

http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/TX/htm/TX.23.htm

23.23(e) in particular says...

Quote:

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(e) In this section, "new improvement" means an improvement to a residence homestead made after the most recent appraisal of the property that increases the market value of the property and the value of which is not included in the appraised value of the property for the preceding tax year. The term does not include repairs to or ordinary maintenance of an existing structure or the grounds or another feature of the property.

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I take this section to mean they can only consider something a new improvement if your improvement was made after the last time they increased market value AND they must have not included it. IE both of those things must be true. If they have increased the number they are calling "market value" in the last couple years, they have reappraised your house since you made improvements.

Now, I highly recommend filing not only a regular protest (over market value, unequal appraisal) but make sure you also check the box on the form that your exemption was modified or canceled. If you go in for a regular value hearing before an ARB, some boards will take any excuse to agree with a possible CAD argument that your hearing "is a value hearing, not an exemption hearing" and not hear your argument based on exemption if they can weasel out of making a decision.

htxag09 said:

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Anyone hear back from jubally?

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We should be live for Harris as of this afternoon. We haven't sent out notifications just yet, however.

Cru said:

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htxag09 said:

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Anyone hear back from jubally?

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We should be live for Harris as of this afternoon. We haven't sent out notifications just yet, however.

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I have an "Excellent" case

Bondag said:

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Cru said:

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htxag09 said:

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Anyone hear back from jubally?

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We should be live for Harris as of this afternoon. We haven't sent out notifications just yet, however.

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I have an "Excellent" case

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We love years when hcad doesn't raise values everywhere. If they could, they would. When they don't, that generally means comp values are defined against them.

Cru said:

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Bondag said:

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Cru said:

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htxag09 said:

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Anyone hear back from jubally?

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We should be live for Harris as of this afternoon. We haven't sent out notifications just yet, however.

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I have an "Excellent" case

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We love years when hcad doesn't raise values everywhere. If they could, they would. When they don't, that generally means comp values are defined against them.

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Seems to be the case for me! No increase in market value (since the 20% increase last year). According to Jubally, I can knock 24k back off! Doing God's work!

Is there anyway to get your iFile number if you don't have your tax statement handy?

I think you can call hcad

DL the Harris County Appraisal District App. On the main page it says Lookup iFile Number. Follow the steps and boom. You done.

What time frame do they use for comp comparison again?

January 1, 2016 to now basically.

Ours finally came out in Brooke Smith. Way up again. Our land went up by 1/3 and improvements up a little too.

77079 Nottingham West

Land value: unchanged
Improvement: up 42%

We did nothing to the house in the past year other than new flower beds in the front yard. Why would the improvement value jump that much?

MAS444 said:

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Ours finally came out in Brooke Smith. Way up again. Our land went up by 1/3 and improvements up a little too.

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Got mine this morning too. Land values did not rise in Brooke Smith, they just did yours incorrectly. They should valuate the second lot at 50% like they've done in the past. Should be an easy protest.

Yeah I wondered about that...but they did the same thing to every other double lot I looked up.

Nevermind, should have read the Jubally tips sheet.

77008 - No change in market or appraised, but both are too high.

Are there any alternatives to Jubally? Will be my first time protesting and want to explore all the options (unless Jubally is far and away the best resource).

Just got mine from Ft Bend CAD.

I bought my house late 2015. 2016 assessed value only rose 6.4%, but that number was still 3.4% less than my purchase price and 6.1% less than the appraisal that was done when I bought.

2017 rose only 0.4% over 2016. Pleasantly happy so far, especially considering my property tax % also reduced a little bit this year.

agnatgas said:

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77079
Land valuation flat
Improvement valuation up 70%
There were no changes to the structure last year. We partially redid a bathroom the year before.

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Whittled down to improvement valuation up 18%

Wife is an Aggie said:

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Just got mine from Ft Bend CAD.

I bought my house late 2015. 2016 assessed value only rose 6.4%, but that number was still 3.4% less than my purchase price and 6.1% less than the appraisal that was done when I bought.

2017 rose only 0.4% over 2016. Pleasantly happy so far, especially considering my property tax % also reduced a little bit this year.

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Fort Bend appears to be taking a less aggressive approach this year, after a couple of years of increases that were higher than they needed to be.

Mine in Ft. Bend went up 5.5%. I have to fight them every year. As others have posted, it is a crap shoot what they will do with the protest.

Jubally says I have an excellent case based on 10 comparable properties and 4 recently sold for the market value. Does it matter that I bought in 2015 for slightly more than my market value or am I F'ed?

DOWN 11.2% in 77096!

down 1% in missouri city

AgLA06 said:

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Jubally says I have an excellent case based on 10 comparable properties and 4 recently sold for the market value. Does it matter that I bought in 2015 for slightly more than my market value or am I F'ed?

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2015 is not relevant to this year. A 2016 sale/purchase would be, however. So nope, doesn't matter. Use the talk to us link, bring your question up so I know it is you, and I'll take a look at your report and give you more feedback.