Editor ––
I saw your recent story on the increase in property tax appraisal protests and thought I’d share my experience attempting to protest what is now my former home’s value. When I saw the county appraisal office triple my home’s value in the less than 2 years my family owned it, I first thought it must be a mistake so I filed an online protest. I gathered recent comparison sales and submitted my notarized affidavit. They offered to lower the value by a few thousand dollars, which still left their appraised value absurdly beyond its actual value. I subsequently scheduled a protest hearing which I later attended virtually.
To put things into context, their appraisal was over $50,000 more than my neighbor’s unit just sold and that my unit was currently under contract for. When I logged into my hearing, I requested a closed caption accommodation on the video platform, as I have a hearing disability. This was denied and they told me they’d “look into that.” How an office that serves the public is able to get away with not accommodating people with disabilities is beyond me. They certainly have the money to purchase the closed caption function on Zoom.
I struggled through my hearing, as I couldn’t see their lips so didn’t know catch most of what they were saying. I regularly had to put my face as close to the video just to get the general idea of what they were saying I presented my three comparison sales, all identical units from my own building, including my former home, which all recently sold for $50-70,000 less than what they appraised my home’s value at. I thought common sense would prevail, that they would have to see the market value of my home as what the unit was under contract for at the time and soon to close sale.
They told me they would only accept sales comparisons from January to March 2023, and that all my comparisons were too recent for them to take into consideration. This comparison window certainly isn’t explained to you when you start the protest process. How sales of two identical units in my own building, and the selling price of my own unit were irrelevant to them, was very upsetting. In tears, I asked if I had any recourse. They said no since I was selling the unit, and therefore kept the value tens of thousands of dollars beyond what they knew it was selling for.
I’ve dedicated my life to helping other people, first as public school teacher and then as a social worker. It’s not in my DNA to go to work each day with the goal of hurting other people. I was frankly shocked to see the protest board’s indifference, as they continue to force people to leave the island with their rulings that defy common sense. My family isn’t rich - we had saved and saved to purchase a home on South Padre Island where we had planned to retire. The property appraisal and protest process in Cameron County is a scam designed to hurt homeowners, and the sole reason my family will never set foot on South Padre Island again.
Best regards,
Jason Mallonee
El Paso, Texas
