300,000 homeowners don't have 2005 appraisals

06:32 PM CDT on Friday, May 27, 2005

By Janice Williamson / 11 News

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The deadline for a filing a protest for your Harris County property tax appraisal is Tuesday.

But what happens if you don't have your appraisal yet? Believe it or not, hundreds of thousands of residents don't.

KHOU-TV

There are 300,000 property owners who have not yet received their 2005 appraisals.

When it comes to notifying homeowners about 2005 appraisals, the Harris County Appraisal District is barely in the game.

With the deadline looming to file tax protests 300,000 homeowners don't even know what their property is worth.

"It shouldn't take that long. They don't want to wait to get their tax money though," says homeowner Cindy Wolters.

11 News has learned that appraisers are looking at every piece of property in Harris County. That is more than a 1.5 million homes and businesses.

"We're working very hard to get it all done. We hope to have the bulk of the noticing done within the next two weeks," says HCAD Chief Deputy Sands Stiefer.

Stiefer says homes in areas that overlap into other counties or with school districts based in other counties, will be among the last to be appraised.

But don't worry about filing a protest after the May 31st deadline.

"Your notice is going to have a new protest deadline. It usually rolls over 30 days from the day we mail it," says Stiefer.

We've learned the Harris County Appraisal District has done enough of the math to determine the average increase this year will be about eight percent.

Some homeowners just won't know about it for a few weeks yet.