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Notice of Appraised Value Texas: What to Do in 2026

Your Notice of Appraised Value just arrived in the mail. The number on it is higher than last year. It is probably higher than your house would actually sell for. And Texas law gives you a narrow window — measured in weeks, not months — to do something about it.

This is the guide for Texas property owners who have never protested before. No legalese. No upsell. Just what the notice means, what your rights are, what the deadlines are, and exactly what to do next.

The short version

If you only read one section of this article, read that one. Now here is the rest.

What the Notice of Appraised Value actually is

Each year, your county appraisal district — not the city, not the county tax office, not the state — assigns a market value to every piece of real property in the county. That value is the basis for your property tax bill. The Notice of Appraised Value is the letter telling you what the district decided your property is worth as of January 1.

Under Texas Tax Code Section 25.19, the appraisal district must mail this notice by April 1 for residence homesteads and by May 1 for other property. Most Texans receive theirs in April.

The notice will show several numbers. The four that matter most:

The notice also lists the deadline to protest and, in most counties, an eFile PIN or code you will need to protest online.

The two caps every Texan should know

The 10% homestead cap (Tex. Tax Code § 23.23)

If your property is your primary residence and you have filed for a homestead exemption, the appraised value used to calculate your taxes cannot increase more than 10% per year over the prior year’s appraised value, plus the value of any new improvements.

That does not mean the district stops raising the market value. They will. In fast-growth counties, the market value on your notice may jump 15%, 20%, 30% in a single year. The homestead cap simply limits how much of that increase flows into your taxable value this year. The rest gets carried forward. Every year the market value stays above the appraised value, the appraised value ratchets up another 10% — until it catches up.

This is why you should protest the market value even when the homestead cap is protecting you right now. Every dollar you knock off the market value this year is a dollar that cannot be dragged into your taxable value in future years. And the moment the homestead exemption comes off the property — because you move, rent it out, or pass it on — the cap disappears and the full market value becomes the basis for taxes.

The 20% circuit breaker (Tex. Tax Code § 23.231)

For real property that is not a residence homestead — second homes, rental houses, small commercial buildings, raw land — the Texas Legislature in 2023 created a temporary 20% cap on annual appraised-value increases. It applies to properties with a market value at or below a ceiling indexed to inflation ($5 million for 2024, $5.16 million for 2025, with the 2026 figure set by the Comptroller).

The circuit breaker is automatic. You do not apply for it. You must have owned the property for a full calendar year to qualify, and properties with agricultural-use or timber special appraisal are excluded.

The critical detail most property owners do not know: the circuit breaker expires December 31, 2026. Unless the Legislature extends it, starting in the 2027 tax year, non-homestead real property will have no cap on annual appraisal increases at all. That makes protesting the 2026 market value more important than any year before it. Whatever the district certifies this year becomes the baseline you carry into an uncapped 2027.

Deadlines — do not miss these

Under Texas Tax Code Section 41.44, the deadline to file a written protest is:

The mailing date is printed on the notice itself. It is not the date you opened the envelope. If your notice was mailed May 1, your deadline is May 31, not May 15.

If the deadline falls on a weekend or legal holiday, it rolls to the next business day. May 15, 2026 is a Friday, so that standard deadline holds.

Miss the deadline and you forfeit your right to protest for the 2026 tax year — with only a handful of narrow post-certification remedies available under Sections 25.25 and 41.411 of the Tax Code, most of which require proof the district failed to give you proper notice.

File early. Even if you have no evidence gathered yet, file the protest first. You can refine your case before the hearing. You cannot file after the deadline.

What grounds can you protest on?

The Notice of Protest form (Comptroller Form 50-132) lists the grounds. You can check more than one. The two used most often by homeowners:

Other grounds apply less often but matter when they do: denial of an exemption, incorrect property description, the property should not be taxed at this location, owner name or mailing address wrong, ag-use or timber denial. Check every line on your notice — errors on any of these are grounds to protest.

You do not have to pick one theory and stick with it. Check “incorrect appraised value” and “unequal appraisal” on the form. The district will address both.

How to file — step by step

Step 1: Read the notice carefully

Before anything else, check the notice for basic errors. Wrong square footage. Wrong year built. Wrong number of bedrooms or bathrooms. Pool listed that is not there. Garage counted as finished living space. These errors are common and they all inflate your value. If any exist, that alone is grounds to protest — and the district will usually correct them without argument.

Also confirm your homestead exemption is listed. Every year, some homesteads drop off because of a filing glitch, a death in title, a refinance, or a name change. A missing homestead exemption costs real money.

Step 2: File the protest

Most Texas appraisal districts — including Collin, Dallas, Denton, Tarrant, Harris, Travis, and Bexar — allow you to file online through their eFile portal. Your eFile PIN is printed on the Notice of Appraised Value. Go to your appraisal district’s website, enter the PIN, and file.

If your district does not offer online filing, or you prefer paper, download Form 50-132 from the Texas Comptroller’s website, fill it out, and mail it or drop it off at the appraisal district office. Certified mail is not required but creates a paper trail.

The protest does not have to use the official form. Under Section 41.44(d), a written protest is sufficient if it identifies the property, the owner, and states dissatisfaction with a district decision. An email or letter meeting those requirements, filed by the deadline, counts. But the form is easier.

Step 3: Gather evidence

Between filing and your hearing, build your case. What you need depends on your argument.

For a market-value protest: find three to five comparable sales (comps) of properties similar to yours that sold within the last twelve months, ideally before January 1, 2026. Similar means same neighborhood, same size within roughly 15%, same age, similar condition. Your realtor, a free MLS-adjacent site, or the appraisal district’s own comparable sales data (available through the Online Portal in many counties) can provide these. If your comps come in below the district’s market value for your home, you have an argument.

For an unequal-appraisal protest: pull the appraised values of five to ten comparable properties in your immediate area from the appraisal district’s public records. If your neighbors with similar homes are appraised meaningfully lower on a per-square-foot basis, that is your case. Many districts provide a tool for this in their protest portal.

For a condition-based protest: document any issues that would lower the sale price of your home. Foundation problems, roof damage, outdated kitchen or bathrooms, deferred maintenance, noisy road, commercial property backing up to your lot. Photos, contractor estimates, and repair invoices all help.

You do not need a professional appraisal. You do not need an attorney. You need two or three pieces of evidence that tell a coherent story: here is what my house is actually worth, and here is why.

Step 4: The informal conference

In most counties, once you file, the appraisal district will offer an informal conference with a staff appraiser before your formal Appraisal Review Board (ARB) hearing. Take it. In Collin County, Denton County, and most large districts, a large share of protests are settled at the informal stage without ever reaching the ARB.

An informal conference is not adversarial. You sit down — in person, by phone, or via video — with a district appraiser. You show your evidence. They show theirs. They make an offer. You accept or decline. That is the whole process. It usually takes 15 to 30 minutes.

If the offer is reasonable, take it. Signing a settlement at the informal stage ends the protest for the year. If the offer is not enough, decline and move to the ARB. Nothing you say or show at the informal stage binds you at the formal hearing.

Step 5: The ARB hearing

If you do not settle at the informal, you get a formal hearing before the Appraisal Review Board. The ARB is a citizen panel — three members in most hearings — appointed to hear protests. They are independent of the appraisal district staff.

The ARB must send you notice of the hearing date, time, and location at least 15 days in advance. You can request copies of the evidence the appraisal district plans to use against you at least 14 days before the hearing. Ask for it. Read it before you walk in.

The hearing itself is structured but informal. You present first. Keep it short: here is my property, here is what the district says it is worth, here is my evidence, here is what I believe the correct value is. The district appraiser presents their case. The ARB asks questions. They deliberate and issue a decision, usually the same day.

The Comptroller’s guidance is explicit: emotional appeals do not move the ARB. Neither does arguing that taxes are too high in general. The ARB cannot reduce your value because you cannot afford the tax bill. They can only rule on whether the market value is correct. Stick to evidence.

You can appear in person, by phone, by video, or by sworn written affidavit. Written affidavits are allowed under Section 41.45(b) and are a real option for homeowners who cannot take time off work. The affidavit must be notarized.

What happens if you lose at the ARB?

The ARB’s decision is not final. You have three appeal paths, chosen based on property type and value:

For most homeowners, binding arbitration is the practical option. It is cheaper than district court, faster, and does not require a lawyer. But the great majority of protests never get this far. They are resolved at the informal or the ARB.

When to DIY and when to hire help

Most Texas homestead protests are well within reach for the owner. Your home is a property you know better than any appraiser. You can pull comps. You can photograph your own cracked foundation. You can sit through a 30-minute hearing.

DIY makes sense when: your property is a residence homestead, the value in dispute is under a few hundred thousand dollars of the market-value number, and you have the time to spend a weekend gathering evidence.

Paid help makes more sense when: you own a commercial property or rental portfolio, the value in dispute is large, the property has complex valuation issues (income-producing, mixed-use, recent major renovation), or you simply cannot take time off work for a hearing. Property tax consultants in Texas typically work on contingency — they take a percentage of the first-year tax savings, often in the 30%-50% range. You pay nothing up front and nothing if they do not reduce your value.

If you want to hire someone, verify they are registered with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation as a property tax consultant under Texas Occupations Code Chapter 1152. Unregistered operators are not legally authorized to represent you. Ask for the license number. Look it up on the TDLR website before signing.

The bigger picture

Protesting your Notice of Appraised Value is something every Texas property owner should do every single year, whether you expect to win or not. Here is why.

Texas appraisal districts use mass-appraisal models to value hundreds of thousands of properties at once. These models are not close readings of your house. They are statistical estimates calibrated to meet overall market targets in the district. Errors — sometimes small, sometimes enormous — are built into the system. The only way those errors get corrected is when property owners push back.

Protesting is also the only leverage you have. The appraisal district is funded by the taxing entities it serves — the school districts, the county, the city, the hospital district, the community college. When those entities set their budgets, the appraisal roll has to deliver enough value to cover them. If property owners do not protest, the path of least resistance for the district is to let values drift upward.

Every protest filed is a data point pushing back. Every successful protest reduces the aggregate roll. Every homeowner who shows up at an ARB hearing is a reminder that these values are being set on actual human beings, not abstractions.

The Republic of Texas founders who signed the 1836 Declaration of Rights wrote, at Section 13, that “no person’s particular services shall be demanded, nor property taken or applied to public use, unless by the consent of himself or his representative, without just compensation being made therefor.” They understood that the line between taxation and confiscation is held by the governed, not the governing.

A protest is that line, drawn one property at a time.

Do this today

  1. Open your Notice of Appraised Value and write down the mailing date and the protest deadline.
  2. Check for errors in square footage, bedrooms, bathrooms, year built, and listed exemptions.
  3. Go to your county appraisal district’s website. Find the eFile portal. File the protest using the PIN on your notice. Check both “incorrect appraised value” and “unequal appraisal.”
  4. Put your informal conference date on the calendar. Start gathering comps.
  5. Show up.

That is the entire job.

If you would rather hand the whole process to a contingency-based service and never touch it yourself, Ownwell is one option — they file and handle the hearing for a percentage of first-year savings. We are actively working to partner with licensed Texas property tax consultants and will update this page as that work develops. Either way — DIY or hire — file the protest before the deadline.

This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Deadlines and code sections cited are current as of April 2026. Verify the protest deadline on your specific Notice of Appraised Value and with your county appraisal district.

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