Texans: Tired of spiking home appraisals? Some of you will get help starting Jan. 1
Good news, Texas homeowners.
If you protest your home value, and are successful in getting it lowered, appraisers can’t come back and increase it the next year without “clear and convincing evidence” it is merited.
“We are trying to slow them down,” said state Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford.
This is one of two dozen new laws that go into effect Jan. 1.
King said he authored the law after hearing from so many frustrated home owners.
People frequently told him that they would spend months protesting skyrocketing property values before they finally saw their home value lowered.
Then, just a few months later, appraisers would come back and again propose increasing the same property to the same higher value.
“If someone proved six months ago that the house shouldn’t be valued at that level, why are they raising it back up the next year?” King asked.
So he got to work in the 2019 legislative session to craft a bill that would require county appraisers to reach the “highest standard of proof” if they want to increase values the year after homeowners successfully appealed their proposed value.
“You’ve got to have clear and convincing evidence to show that the property value has increased that much,” King said. “They’re going to have to have strong evidence to show property value have gone up.
“I wanted to (create) a bigger hurdle for appraisal districts to raise it back up.”
King said he hopes this bill gives homeowners at least a year or two of relief from skyrocketing valuations before appraisers are able to raise values again.
Chandler Crouch, a real estate agent who helps people with their protests for free, said this new law could help many home owners whose neighborhoods are lumped into mass appraisals.
He stressed that he believes the Tarrant Appraisal District does a better job than other appraisal districts. But this new law, he said, will help with all appraisal districts.
“I love it now that, if someone goes to the trouble to protest and they win, that their value should not be raised unless the appraisal district is absolutely positive it should be raised,” Crouch said.
“But at the same time, I wonder why on earth is the appraisal district ever allowed to raise values without clear and convincing evidence?”
A full list of the bills that are going into effect Jan. 1, 2020, can be found online at the Legislative Reference Library of Texas at www.lrl.state.tx.us.
This story was originally published December 31, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
