HOUSTON – “I have no idea how they are planning to assess the damage that we had.”
Marilyn Johnson is not the only homeowner concerned over the financial unknown on the horizon; there are many others.
Homeowners are concerned they are not going to receive any break with their taxes.
Houston City Council member Dave Martin has been hearing the concerns since the days after Harvey. He tells Channel 2 that many may not be anticipating what may be coming down the pike.
“I think they are going to be in for a sticker shock when they open up their appraisals for calendar year 2018 and that’s not fair," Martin said.
Jack Barnett, with the Harris County Appraisal District, is not speculating on any of the potential numbers, but he admits Harvey is changing the dynamics of their yearly process.
“With Harvey, it throws another wrench into what we do every single year,” Barnett said.
State property tax code requires property reappraisal to be reflective of a home’s market value as of Jan. 1. As a result of of Harvey, appraisals have lasted longer than expected.
“We are looking at every property that we know was damaged to make sure we put the best, most accurate value on that property that we can,” Barnett said.
There are a number of jurisdictions where disaster reappraisal were requested; surprisingly, Kingwood, one of the areas hardest hit, is not on the list. Kingwood City Council member Dave Martin says the school district and the county dropped the ball.
“We should have had the advantage of ordering a reappraisal, but yet we did not do that,” Martin said.
Johnson is hoping for her HCAD appraisal to come in lower, admitting anything else would seem like further punishment.
“If it comes in higher I will feel like we did not get any sort of a break for having gone through the disaster that we did,” she said.