Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. You have the legal right to protest your property tax assessment every single year. There is no limit on how many years in a row you can protest, and protesting one year does not affect your ability to protest in future years. In fact, many experienced homeowners make protesting an annual routine. HCAD reassesses every property every year, so even if you won a reduction last year, your value may go up again this year.

The standard deadline is May 15 each year. However, if your appraisal notice was mailed after April 15, you have 30 days from the date the notice was mailed. The date your notice was mailed is printed on the notice itself. We strongly recommend filing at least one week before the deadline, because the iFile system gets very slow in the final days as hundreds of thousands of homeowners try to file at the last minute.

If you miss the May 15 deadline and your appraisal notice was mailed more than 30 days ago, you generally lose your right to protest for the current tax year. There are a few narrow exceptions:

• If you never received your appraisal notice, you may be able to file a late protest
• If HCAD made a clerical error in your assessment, you may have grounds for a correction
• If you were on active military duty, extended deadlines may apply

Contact HCAD at (713) 957-7800 if you believe you have grounds for a late filing. But the best approach is to not miss the deadline in the first place.

Filing a protest with HCAD is completely free. There is no fee to submit a protest through iFile, attend an informal hearing, or appear before the ARB. The only costs are your time and any materials you choose to prepare (like our evidence packet). If you pursue binding arbitration after an ARB decision, there is a deposit required (typically $500, which is refundable if you win). And if you hire a tax consultant or attorney, their fees would be a separate cost — but none of that is required.

No. Under Texas law, your value cannot be increased as a result of your protest. The worst outcome is that your value stays the same as what HCAD originally set it at. There is no risk of a higher value from protesting. This is an important point that prevents many homeowners from protesting out of unfounded fear — there is truly no downside.

If a tax agent has already filed a protest on your behalf for the current year, you cannot file a second protest for the same year. HCAD only allows one protest per property per tax year.

If you want to handle your protest yourself instead of using the agent, you have a few options:

• Contact your agent and ask them to withdraw the protest so you can file your own
• Revoke the agent's authorization with HCAD and file yourself (call HCAD to find out how)
• Wait until next year and file on your own before the agent does

Many tax agents send authorization letters to homeowners early in the year. If you signed one, review the terms to understand how to opt out.

Yes. A family member, friend, or professional can file and represent your property at a hearing with a signed authorization form. HCAD has a specific form for this called a "Designation of Agent" form. You can download it from the HCAD website or pick one up at their office. This is common for elderly homeowners whose children handle their property tax affairs.

That depends on your comfort level and situation. Property tax consultants typically charge a percentage of the tax savings they achieve (often 33% to 40% of the first year's savings). The advantage is that they handle everything for you.

However, with a good evidence packet and this guide, most homeowners can achieve similar results on their own and keep 100% of the savings. The protest process is designed to be accessible to regular homeowners without professional help. If you are comfortable following instructions and can attend a hearing (or participate by phone), doing it yourself is a reasonable and cost-effective choice.

Even if HCAD lowered your value compared to last year, your home might still be assessed higher than it should be relative to comparable properties in your neighborhood. The question is not just whether your value went up or down, but whether it is fair compared to similar homes.

Use our free property check tool to see how your assessment compares to your neighbors on a per-square-foot basis. If you are assessed above the neighborhood median, protesting can still result in additional savings even if your value already decreased from last year.

Yes, especially if the assessed value is higher than what you paid. Your purchase price is strong evidence of market value. If you bought your home for $300,000 and HCAD has it assessed at $340,000, you have a clear case using the "Market Value" protest ground.

Even if you paid more than the assessed value, you may still benefit from an "Unequal Appraisal" protest if comparable homes in your area are assessed at even lower values per square foot.

In Texas, HCAD uses the term "market value" to mean the value they assign to your property for tax purposes. This is sometimes confusing because "market value" can also mean what your home would sell for on the open market, which may be a different number.

For protest purposes, the number that matters is what HCAD calls your "appraised value" or "market value" on your appraisal notice. That is the number your property taxes are calculated from, and that is the number you are trying to reduce. Whether your home would actually sell for more or less than that number is a separate question that may or may not be relevant to your protest strategy.

No. Your assessed value for property tax purposes has no direct impact on what a buyer will pay for your home. Home sale prices are determined by the market — buyer demand, comparable sales, condition, location, and other factors. Reducing your assessed value lowers your tax bill, but it does not reduce the amount a buyer would be willing to pay. In fact, lower property taxes can actually make your home more attractive to buyers.

From filing to resolution, the process typically takes 2 to 6 months. If your case is resolved through iSettle, it could be as quick as a few weeks after the filing deadline. If it goes all the way to a formal ARB hearing, it could take until late fall. The length depends on how many protests are filed that year and how far your case progresses through the system.

You can file your protest entirely online through iFile at iFile. There is no need to visit the HCAD office to file. If your case is resolved through iSettle, you never need to leave your home. If your case goes to a hearing, some hearings are conducted by phone or video conference, though in-person hearings are also available. You can also file a paper protest by mail, but online filing through iFile is faster and provides instant confirmation.

Yes. Always pay your property tax bill on time, even if your protest has not been resolved yet. Penalties and interest on unpaid taxes start accruing on February 1 of the following year, regardless of whether you have an open protest. If your protest results in a reduced value, you will receive a refund or credit for any overpayment. Do not risk penalties by waiting for your protest to be resolved.

A homestead exemption is a separate tax benefit from protesting. If you live in your home as your primary residence, you should have a homestead exemption on file with HCAD. This exempts a portion of your home's value from school district taxes and caps annual value increases at 10%.

You can check whether you have a homestead exemption on file by looking at your property details on HCAD. If you do not have one, apply for it — it is free and provides significant tax savings on top of any protest reduction. The homestead exemption and the protest process are completely independent of each other.

Check your property details at HCAD. Look at the square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, year built, and any special features listed (pool, extra garage, etc.).

If any of this information is wrong, note it in your protest. Select the "Error in Appraisal Records" option when you file through iFile and explain the specific error. For example, if HCAD lists your home as 2,400 square feet but it is actually 2,100 square feet, that error alone could be inflating your assessed value significantly. Correcting HCAD's records can lead to a substantial reduction.

Your evidence packet includes:

• A list of comparable properties in your neighborhood assessed at lower values
• A per-square-foot analysis comparing your property to the neighborhood median
• A pre-written protest reason text ready to paste into iFile
• A suggested target value based on your comparable properties
• All formatted as a professional PDF you can upload to iFile and print for hearings

The evidence packet is personalized for your specific property using real HCAD data.

No. We provide the evidence and the tools to make a strong case, but the outcome of your protest depends on many factors, including the specific details of your property, the appraiser assigned to your case, and the quality of HCAD's comparable data.

That said, 88% of Harris County protests result in a reduction, and having organized evidence significantly improves your chances. We offer a 7-day money-back guarantee on the evidence packet purchase.

All property data used in our analysis and evidence packets comes from publicly available Harris County Appraisal District (HCAD) records. This is the same data that HCAD uses and that tax consultants use. It includes assessed values, property characteristics (square footage, year built, etc.), and neighborhood information for all properties in Harris County.

Currently, our evidence packets and this filing guide are specific to Harris County, Texas. The property data we use comes from HCAD, and the filing instructions reference HCAD's iFile system. Other Texas counties have their own appraisal districts with different systems and processes. We may expand to additional counties in the future.