|
House Bill 1887 |
House Author: Villarreal |
|
Effective: 9-1-11 |
Senate Sponsor: Hinojosa |
House Bill 1887 amends Tax Code provisions relating to administration of and procedures for property tax protests and appeals. The bill clarifies that the entitlement of an individual who is exempt from registration as a property tax consultant and who files a protest with an appraisal review board on a property owner's behalf to receive all notices from the appraisal district regarding the property subject to the protest applies to an exempt individual who is neither supervised, directed, nor compensated by a registered property tax consultant and includes all notices from the appraisal review board. The bill requires such an individual who is not designated by the property owner to receive notices, tax bills, orders, and other communications to file a statement with the protest that includes the individual's name and address, a statement that the individual is acting on the property owner's behalf, and the basis for the exemption.
House Bill 1887 extends the current prohibition against an appraisal district or a taxing unit providing initial or continuing appraisal review board training to also prohibit a chief appraiser, appraisal district employee, member of an appraisal district board of directors, or appraisal review board member from providing that training. The bill also prohibits a chief appraiser, district employee, director, officer or employee of a taxing unit in the district, or attorney or firm representing the district or taxing unit from communicating with an appraisal review board member about a training course or any matter presented or discussed during the course, with certain exceptions. The bill authorizes an appraisal review board to retain an appraiser certified by the Texas Appraiser Licensing and Certification Board to instruct board members on valuation methodology if the appraisal district budgets for the instruction.
The bill expands the conditions that constitute an offense of ex parte communication between an appraisal review board member and appraisal district staff to include such communication between an appraisal review board member and a member of the district's board of directors, specifies the necessary intent on the part of the staff or director, and provides additional exceptions to the application of that offense. The bill makes an individual ineligible to serve on an appraisal review board if the individual is related within the third degree by consanguinity or within the second degree by affinity to a member of the appraisal district's board of directors.
The bill prohibits an attorney from serving as legal counsel for an appraisal review board if the attorney or a member of the attorney's law firm has, during the year before the date of the appraisal review board's hiring of the attorney, represented an owner of property in the appraisal district, a taxing unit participating in the district, or the district itself in certain matters. The bill authorizes the county attorney for the county in which the appraisal district is established to provide legal services to the appraisal review board even if the attorney or an assistant to the attorney represents or has represented the district or a taxing unit participating in the district in any matter. The bill sets out additional provisions relating to an attorney serving as legal counsel for an appraisal review board.
The bill includes the correction of an error in an appraisal roll in which property is shown as owned by a person who did not own the property on January 1 of that tax year among the changes that the appraisal review board may order to be made in the appraisal roll for any of the five preceding years on motion of either the chief appraiser or a property owner. The bill requires a property owner who files a motion to correct an appraisal roll or who protests the failure of the chief appraiser or the appraisal review board to provide the property owner any notice to which the owner is entitled to pay the amount of taxes due on the portion of the property's taxable value that is not in dispute before the delinquency date or else forfeit the right to proceed to a final determination of the motion or protest, unless the property owner is excused from that requisite to a final determination based on an oath of inability to pay. The pendency of the motion or protest does not affect the delinquency date for the taxes on the property that is the subject of the motion or protest. The bill authorizes the property owner or the chief appraiser to file suit to compel the appraisal review board to order a change in the appraisal roll within 60 days of receiving notice either of a final determination of the motion for such change or of a determination that the property owner has forfeited the right to a final determination for failing to prepay property taxes. The bill entitles a property owner to appeal a determination of forfeiture. The bill requires the board, on the motion of a party, to hold a hearing to determine compliance with the requirements for avoiding such forfeiture and authorizes the board to set such terms and conditions on any grant of relief as the circumstances may reasonably require.
The bill prohibits a taxpayer's notice of protest from being found to be untimely or insufficient based on a finding of incorrect ownership if the notice identifies one of certain persons as the property owner or uses a misnomer for such a person. The bill requires the appraisal review board, if the protest is of a determination of appraised value, to state in the order determining the protest the appraised value of the property as shown in the appraisal records submitted to the board by the chief appraiser and as finally determined by the board.
The bill entitles a person to intervene in an appeal to a district court for judicial review of a property tax dispute, grants that person standing, and grants the court jurisdiction in the appeal if the property that is the subject of the appeal was also the subject of a protest hearing and the person owned the property, leased the property and filed the original protest, or is shown on the appraisal roll as the owner or lessee who is authorized to file a protest and filed the original protest. The bill prohibits a petition for review from being brought against an appraisal review board and authorizes an appraisal district to hire an attorney to obtain a dismissal of such a petition.
The bill requires the district court, on motion by a party to an appeal, to enter an order requiring the parties to attend mediation and authorizes the court to enter an order requiring the parties to attend mediation on its own motion.
The bill expands the scope of what constitutes sufficient evidence to deny a motion in a judicial review of a property tax appeal with regard to a no-evidence motion for summary judgment and what constitutes personal property as it relates to the admission of expert testimony to determine the value of chemical processing property or utility property. The bill requires that an attorney provide notice of certain third-party engagements to the person represented by the attorney and requires separate forms for each district court appeal to which a property owner is a party.