O'Connor sues Harris County Appraisal District
Recently, Patrick O'Connor brought suit against the Harris County Appraisal District (HCAD)and the Appraisal Review Board (ARB). Last week, he wrote an op-ed for the Chronicle explaining the lawsuit. Here's an excerpt:
Our state Legislature enacted the Texas Property Tax Code (TPTC) to ensure property owners are treated fairly and equitably. It empowers appraisal districts to set property values and mandates the ARB to conduct independent review hearings and make final value decisions when taxpayers protest.
Unfortunately, the following legislated rights are being ignored, sometimes blatantly and deliberately, sometimes innocently from lack of knowledge or direction.
• Property taxpayers may protest both the market value of the property, or that their property was not equally appraised compared to similar properties. Further, the ARB must return value decisions on both protests. (TPTC Sections 41.41a(2) and 41.47a and 41.45a)
• Prior to a hearing, taxpayers have the right to receive information on which an appraisal is based. No other information may be introduced by the appraisal district at the hearing. (TPTC Sections 41.461 and 41.67d)
• Appraisal districts must bear the burden of proving that their appraisal is correct. (TPTC Section 41.43 a and b)
• The appraisal districts and the appraisal review boards are separate entities and the ARB shall schedule protest hearings.HCAD and the ARB management have declined to structure hearings so there are separate decisions on market value and unequal appraisal. HCAD continues daily to present inappropriate evidence at hearings despite multiple requests to remedy this unacceptable behavior.
For those who are interested in the fine details of the case, the O'Connor and Associates brief may be downloaded here (in PDF format).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/07/05 10:32 PM | Print | Comments (1)
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