Travis appraisal district restores in-person protest hearings

The Travis Central Appraisal District said Tuesday that it will resume face-to-face, informal settlement hearings with property owners who challenge their appraised values for 2020.

Chief Appraiser Marya Crigler had faced criticism after doing away with the in-person hearings for the first time last year, part of an what the district says is an ongoing effort to move the informal process online.

The appraisal district’s board of directors voted to approve Crigler’s recommendation to provide property owners with the option to have an in-person informal conference meeting with a staff appraiser as part of this year’s process. The meetings will allow property owners to learn how a property’s market value was determined and present new information that could affect that value.

“Travis County property owners who protest their property’s market value will have the option to sit down with a TCAD appraiser in 2020,” Crigler said in a written statement. “It’s clear that property owners value these meetings and want them to be part of the protest process.”

In November, property tax agents whose firms represent thousands of property owners in Travis County told the appraisal district’s board that Crigler’s decision to eliminate the face-to-face settlement hearings created problems that led to a drawn-out -- and costlier -- protest season and the need for about 90,000 formal hearings.

Austin attorney Bill Aleshire, representing Texas Protax, which challenges appraised values on behalf of property owners, also spoke at the November meeting. Aleshire told the board that getting rid of the face-to-face informal discussions cost taxpayers “millions more” in 2019. The protests instead had to be resolved in formal hearings before taxpayer-paid Travis Appraisal Review Board panels.

At an appraisal district board meeting in May, Aleshire said the informal discussions the previous year settled over 90% of the tax protests, and worked “because each side shared their evidence with each other, resulting in value reductions or withdrawal of protests. The chief appraisers new e-file system is bogged down, slow to produce any results (and) is producing ridiculously low settlement offers that will not be accepted.”

On Tuesday, Aleshire told the American-Statesman via email that Crigler “made a serious mistake unilaterally canceling face-to-face informal settlement discussions in 2019 that had been in place for many years.”

The appraisal district first introduced its online informal protest process in 2010, Crigler said. After nine years of refining the program, the informal process was conducted exclusively online last year, she said.

Shifting the informal process online has reaped benefits, Crigler said in an email.

“Property owners were asked to submit their protest and evidence via our online portal,” Crigler said. “Typically, they received a settlement offer within five business days. While this system allowed us to automate the process, shorten the protest season by 14 weeks, and reallocate $987,414 in staff time to beginning to work on the 2020 appraisal roll before the end of 2019, the public made it clear that they missed the opportunity to sit down with a (staff) appraiser.”

In a news release, the appraisal district said the in-person conference meetings are expected to begin in early April and will be offered until May 30.

“While most meetings will occur at the TCAD office (8314 Cross Park Drive), the agency is exploring a pilot program to host additional meetings at local Travis County Community Centers,” the release said. “Travis County property owners will be able to walk in for a meeting at their convenience. To help alleviate long wait times, TCAD hopes to develop an online system that will help property owners schedule their meetings through the agency’s website.”

The 2020 informal meeting process will include additional oversight measures to ensure fairness, the release said.

“Offers to reduce a property’s market value will be reviewed and approved by a TCAD manager before being made Property owners are expected to receive their offer within 10 business days of an in-person meeting.”

If a property owner does not accept the offer they receive after their informal conference meeting, they will be able to present their case to the Appraisal Review Board at a later date.

“These changes will help streamline the protest process, educate the public on the appraisal system, and ensure fairness for Travis County taxpayers,” Crigler said.