Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Texas

I have a question regarding property taxes. After reviewing the condo information the state of Texas had on file I discovered that the square footage was off by almost double amount (that's in a high rise building, not much room to swing with the sq footage.) My husband appealed the current year's appraisal along with filing for the refund of the overpayment from the previous 7 years. In July of this year the petition was approved to amend the square footage and the suggested property value was adjusted. However, we are still to see the refund. We were told that the issue lies in the fact that we hired a company to appeal taxes in 2008 and 2009, both of those appeals resulted in a small ( a few hundred dollars) adjustment and neither one was based on the erroneous square footage.

We just received another tax bill in the mail for this year's taxes. What can we do to speed up the process with the refund. We don't even care if they refuse it because we can appeal the decision at that time, but we cannot get any answers at all. We left dozens of messages but the person who is handling the claim is "never there." Is this legal? What can we do on our end? Thank you in advance, by the way the property is in Austin, TX.


Asked on 11/05/12, 4:18 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
T. Deon Warner Warner & Associates PLLC

Dear Hi Riser,

First and foremost, send a letter to the taxing authority rescinding the authority of the property tax consultant to represent you. After that, all notices regarding your property tax account will come to you (instead of them).

Second, make sure you have prepared and filed all of the appropriate forms to get your refund paid to you. The fact that the square footage and valuation was adjusted does not automatically mean you have requested a refund for the overpayment. that is a separate requests. Make sure you made it correctly.

Next, don't call but write the taxing authority a letter (mail it certified, return receipt requested) requesting a status on your refund. I hope this is not true but you might find out it was mailed already: to the property tax consultant you hired. If so, write them and demand them to forward it to you. The taxing authority will reply to a formal letter.

As to the property tax consultant (whom I assume you have been calling); send them a certified letter making your requests. Certified letters seem to cause companies and individuals to reply because they create a record of the communication.

I am not sure if it is illegal not to respond: but it definitely is not ethical. Write your taxing authority about the non responsiveness . No legitimate firm wants their dirty laundry exposed. That may help. If all else fails, retain counsel to write a demand letter.

Wish you success.

TDW

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Answered on 11/07/12, 2:35 pm


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