Judicial Appeals by Property Type TexasSource: Texas Comptroller, compiled by O’Connor, and not affiliated with any appraisal district.
| Judicial Appeals | |||||||||||
| 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | ||
| Total Number of lawsuits | 8,770 | 9,533 | 10,717 | 12,367 | 16,441 | 16,030 | 17,093 | 17,498 | 21,702 | 27,139 | |
| Single Family Residential | 1,071 | 1,057 | 834 | 979 | 2,874 | 1,717 | 1,162 | 1,482 | 1,888 | 3,264 | |
| Multi Family Residential | 1,872 | 2,149 | 2,549 | 2,989 | 3,278 | 3,765 | 4,546 | 4,383 | 5,599 | 6,115 | |
| Commercial real and personal property | 4,948 | 5,381 | 6,408 | 7,111 | 9,065 | 9,213 | 10,342 | 10,512 | 12,589 | 15,710 | |
| All Other | 879 | 946 | 926 | 1,288 | 1,224 | 1,335 | 1,043 | 1,121 | 1,626 | 2,050 | |
Texas property owners should protest annually since You can’t evaluate the strength of your appeal until you obtain the hearing evidence file. You have to protest to obtain the hearing evidence file (available free upon request via U.S. mail).
Texas Judicial Appeals
of ARB Hearing
Judicial appeals at Texas appraisal districts provide a fresh chance to energize the property tax appeal process. The volume of protests is large (over 1.8 million in Texas in 2018). The limited staff at appraisal districts is sometimes unable to give adequate attention to complex valuation issues. Most appraisal districts and ARBs do not consider unequal appraisal evidence. So, for most property owners, if you want to appeal on unequal appraisal, a judicial appeal is your option. This is exacerbated since binding arbitration is not considered a reliable alternative for appeals on unequal appraisal.
The average value for a property in a property tax judicial appeal in Texas in 2018 was $13,436,353; that is 18 times O’Connor’s commercial threshold of $750,000 for judicial appeals. O’Connor is an order of magnitude more aggressive in using all available options to reduce our client’s property taxes. O’Connor reduced client property taxes by an estimated $95 million in 2019.
Property tax appeals without judicial appeals when appropriate is only doing half the job.
State of Texas Judicial Appeals Filed By Property Type
Texas appraisal districts judicial appeals focus primarily on commercial properties. Unlike informal hearings and ARB hearings, the volume of commercial judicial appeals far exceeds the judicial appeals for homes. It simply is not financially feasible to pursue a judicial appeal for most houses.
Even though it is not financially feasible for most homeowners to file a judicial appeal, there was a 126% increase in judicial appeals filed by homeowners in 2018. This underscores the level of frustration of Texas homeowners with steadily increasing property taxes.
Value Involved in Judicial Appeals - TexasSource: Texas Comptroller, compiled by O’Connor, and not affiliated with any appraisal district.
| Billions of $ | |||||||||||
| 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | ||
| Value of All Judicial Appeals | 92.109 | 161.953 | 203.774 | 220.597 | 247.683 | 305.692 | 342.405 | 323.946 | 430.271 | 549.828 | |
| Single Family Res | 2.385 | 2.18 | 3.346 | 3.604 | 9.458 | 5.226 | 5.526 | 7.134 | 6.708 | 10.843 | |
| Multi Family Res | 35.454 | 45.079 | 59.864 | 74.222 | 80.27 | 97.745 | 125.402 | 122.787 | 186.517 | 228.21 | |
| Commercial | 42.56 | 89.495 | 117.368 | 125.412 | 138.987 | 151.943 | 184.516 | 171.803 | 205.149 | 272.298 | |
| All Other | 11.71 | 25.199 | 23.196 | 17.359 | 18.968 | 50.778 | 26.961 | 22.222 | 31.897 | 38.477 | |
Texas property owners should protest annually since An annual appeal minimizes property taxes, sometimes well below market value.
State of Texas Value Involved in Judicial Appeals
Texas appraisal districts market value for judicial appeals is far higher for commercial / industrial compared to single family. There are a variety of factors that lead to this reason.
- 1. The costs of filing fee, attorney and expert witnesses discourages most homeowners.
- 2. The values of commercial property often exceed $4 million, while few homes exceed such a value.
- 3. Texas property owners with an issue on unequal appraisal after the ARB have no real option except a judicial appeal. Unequal appraisal is not typically considered at the informal hearing. Unequal appraisal is rarely considered at the formal hearing. So the primary option for unequal appraisal is a judicial appeal.
Total property values for all judicial appeals in Texas in 2019 were $548.5 billion after the appraisal review board, including $97.7 billion for multi-family residences.