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Appraisal notices sent
Your property appraisal is in the mail.
If you own property in Port Aransas, you should be receiving the Nueces County Appraisal District's valuation of your property soon - if you haven't gotten it already. A news release from the district said 100,000 appraisals for the entire county were mailed out by Tuesday, May 6. Another 30,000 appraisal notices are still to be mailed.
The notice isn't a tax bill, said Vic Menard, the taxpayer liaison officer for the district. Instead, they show proposed 2008 appraised values and include information on protest procedures as well as giving homeowners an opportunity to review and verify information shown on their appraisal records.
Property owners have the right to protest to the Appraisal Review Board (ARB) on any disagreement with the district on their property's value, exemptions, ownership, equal and uniform appraisal and other such issues. Property owners who have filed a protest may also ask the appraisal district to make its evidence supporting its value assertion available to them not less than 14 days before a scheduled hearing. If the district fails to do that, it can't use any of that information as evidence at the hearing.
The ARB is an independent panel of private citizens responsible for hearing and settling protests from property owners who disagree with some action of the appraisal district. The notice contains instructions on how, where and when to file a protest and a protest form. The general deadline for filing protests with the ARB this year is June 2 or 30 days after an appraisal notice was mailed (not after the date the notice was received), whichever is later.
Menard advised homeowners to check the notice for:
• Values assigned to the land and any "improvements" separately (an "improvement is any building, structure, or other item on the land)
• Any exemptions the owner is eligible for, such as homestead exemption or exemption for being older than 65
• The property's legal address (the property owner is responsible for informing the district of the correct mailing address).
The notices also show estimated 2008 taxes, which are based on the new appraised value and 2007 tax rates. Taxing units set tax rates in the fall so final tax amounts may vary from these "estimated" amounts, Menard said.
Anyone who doesn't receive a notice or who has questions about the property's value or exemptions should call or visit the appraisal office, he said. The Nueces County Appraisal District office is at 201 N. Chaparral St. in Corpus Christi; the phone number is (361) 881-9978.
Information is also available on the district's Web site at www.nuecescad. net.
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