The Tarrant Appraisal District is extending the deadline for property valuation protests until May 30 and says they're working to improve the functionality of their website including bringing their Automated Market Value tool back online.
Property value notices for Tarrant County property owners began arriving at homes on April 15, starting the clock on the 30-day countdown property owners have to review the appraisal and file a notice of protest should they disagree with the district's valuation.
The annual reappraisal of property values is done to account for changes in the local real estate market and to provide local taxing authorities with the current estimated value of property in the district. As property valuations have increased in recent years so has the tax burden for property owners. In turn, more property owners have been filing protests to challenge their appraisals.
The volume of property owners attempting to file protests has apparently led to the TAD.org website becoming unstable, with property owners reporting the site either being slow to respond or failing to load altogether.
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On Thursday, a message appeared at the top of the TAD.org website saying they were working to resolve functionality issues and that the deadline to file a notice of protest had been extended until Tuesday, May 30, and that protests filed by that date would be considered "timely filed."
"Our team is actively working on addressing previous functionality and adding new services. Thank you for your patience and understanding during high volume levels of activity. Any 2023 protests filed after May 15th but before May 30, 2023, will be considered a timely filed protest this year," the message said.
Shortly before noon Thursday, TAD Chief Appraiser Jeff Law shared a letter on Twitter that he emailed to Keller Mayor Armin Mizani addressing the district's response to the website troubles, saying that his team has been working "around the clock" to improve the site's functionality.
"Our staff is actively working to address the functionality of the website, ensuring the tools property owners have used in the past are available to them for this protest season," Law wrote. "It has always been our goal to provide property owners with functional tools to review and address their appraisals. We apologize for the frustration and confusion many have felt in regards to our website and we thank you for challenging us to continue enhancing our services."
Law was responding to a Letter sent by Mizani where the mayor said it was "inexcusable" that the TAD's website hasn't been fully functional since November 2022 and that property owners are not yet able to reliably challenge their valuations online. Mizani urged the TAD to seek remedies including considering extending the deadline for property owners to file their protests.
In his response Thursday, Law addressed the extension of the protest deadline and added that they also expect to restore public access to their Automated Market Value tool by May 3, that's the tool that allows property owners to protest their valuations online without a face-to-face appointment with the Appraisal Review Board.
An additional hurdle this year is that all property owners are required to create a new online account on the TAD website before they can file a notice of protest, even if they previously had an account registered with the district.
That process, too, has been problematic for some users who have reported trouble successfully setting up new accounts and getting access to the site.
Once an account is successfully created, users should be able to file a notice of protest and, by May 3, they should be able to fight their appraisal using the county's online tool.
The ability of homesteads to file a protest electronically is a requirement for appraisal districts serving counties with populations greater than 500,000, according to the Texas Comptroller.
"If an appraisal district has an internet website, it must permit electronic filing of a protest for incorrect appraised value and/or unequal appraisal of property for which a residence homestead exemption has been granted, with certain exceptions. Counties with populations of 500,000 or more are required to do so and thus must have a website," the comptroller wrote in a Jan. 1, 2023 document (below).
For those who have filed a notice of protest, hearings with the Appraisal Review Board were originally scheduled to begin on May 22. It is not yet clear if that schedule has been changed.
The Tarrant Appraisal District is responsible for local property tax appraisals and exemption administration for 73 jurisdictions or taxing units in Tarrant County. The TAD does not set tax rates, those are established by each taxing unit (county, city, school district). Property appraisals are determined by the appraisal district and are then used by the various taxing units to calculate and allocate a property owner's annual tax burden.
KELLER MAYOR'S LETTER TO THE TARRANT APPRAISAL DISTRICT
TARRANT APPRAISAL DISTRICT RESPONSE TO KELLER MAYOR
TEXAS COMPTROLLER - PROPERTY TAXPAYER REMEDIES
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