Do you believe it? I do, but not without some pitfalls along the way.
We most certainly experienced a challenge helping our clients out with the property tax protest this year. Truth be told, we’re quite proud of our client’s results. Their fight truly proved one of our beliefs, and that is simply your passion cannot be duplicated. We’ve got the knowledge and proof, you’ve got the passion. Together those two make an incredible property tax fighting team.
Whatever you think of the government, and government run agencies, you probably agree that they should always be honest. We’ve seen just how much dishonesty ticks our clients off. Not dishonesty by us, of course, but by HCAD. Many times the HCAD appraisers misrepresented facts, laws, procedures, and properties, especially at the informal hearings. We worked our clients through many of these issues, and they won big at their formal hearing. We’ve gotten pretty close to simply recommending clients attend their formal hearing only, and don’t worry about the informal. This most certainly would present a big burden to HCAD, and we’re not quite ready to go this route yet, but goodness, they’ve got to start being more honest. Several of our clients have wanted to file suit against HCAD for misrepresenting the property tax code. I don’t blame them sometimes!
Back in the spring of 2013, the Houston Chronicle wrote an article based on a recent study. The purpose of the study was to decide whether individual homeowners do receive a larger reduction when they protest their property taxes themselves. We do believe this is the case. That said, they are also more prone to be taken advantage of and have the wool pulled over their eyes. So sure, we do see evidence that DIYers get a larger reduction, we also see that they are more likely to be duped. But if they realize it, watch out, that passion turns into vengeance!
We genuinely care about your property tax protest, and we want to help you appeal those Houston property taxes until you win.