A plain-English guide to the ARB hearing for Harris County homeowners — including the step most people never take.
Check your home FREE →Most protests never reach a hearing — they settle earlier, online or in an informal meeting. But if yours does go to a hearing, this is the part where homeowners feel the most nervous and the least prepared. It shouldn't be. The hearing is short, informal, and it follows the same script every time. Here's exactly how it goes.
One piece of context worth having before the hearing, counting HCAD's own public appraisal roll: the median Harris County single-family home is appraised at $279,813, across 1,157,293 homes. That is context and not evidence — under §41.43(b)(3) the panel compares your property to a reasonable number of comparable properties, never to a county-wide median. The same roll is where our Harris County exemption-gap findings come from — 328,310 homes (28.4%) with no homestead exemption on record, which is never evidence that anyone is overpaying: rentals, second homes, estate-held property and recent purchases legitimately have none.
The Appraisal Review Board is a group of local residents appointed to settle disputes between property owners and the appraisal district. Two things surprise people:
Their decision applies to that tax year only — which is why you can protest again next year, and why the recheck should be an annual habit.
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| By ~April 1 (homestead) | HCAD mails your Notice of Appraised Value — the number you can protest. |
| By May 15 — or the 30th day after HCAD delivered your notice, whichever is LATER (§41.44(a)) | You file your protest (Form 50-132), online through iFile, by mail, or in person. |
| Days to weeks later | HCAD may offer a settlement online, or you can ask for an informal meeting with an appraiser. Most protests end here. |
| At least 15 days before | The ARB must send you notice of the hearing date, time and place. |
| At least 14 days before | The appraisal district must send you the ARB's hearing procedures, the state's Taxpayer Assistance Pamphlet, and a notice that you may request the evidence they intend to use. |
| Hearing day | A short hearing — often 15 to 20 minutes. The panel votes and you receive a written order afterward. |
Your $39 kit includes a ready-to-send version of this request, already filled in with your name, property address and account number — you just send it.
You have four options, and they are not equal in effort:
| Option | What it means |
|---|---|
| In person | Simplest. Bring your printed evidence and speak to the panel. Nothing has to be filed in advance beyond your protest. |
| By telephone | You argue live by phone — but Texas law requires you to pre-file your evidence with a notarized affidavit before the hearing. Ask for the phone hearing well ahead of time. |
| By videoconference | Same as phone: you appear live, but your evidence must be pre-filed with a notarized affidavit. HCAD runs remote hearings through its online portal. |
| Written affidavit only | You don't appear at all. The panel decides on your paperwork alone. Least effort, least chance to answer questions. |
This is HCAD's own published order of hearing, so you can follow along and know exactly when it's your turn. A three-member panel runs it, the whole thing is recorded, and it lasts about 15 minutes.
Treat it like a courtroom in tone, even though it feels like a small meeting: be on time, be polite, and stick to the evidence. The panel members hear dozens of cases a day, and the ones who get good outcomes are the ones who make it easy to say yes.
You don't need a speech. Something this simple works:
Then, if your home has problems, add the second half:
Close by thanking them. That's the entire performance.
An unfavorable order isn't the end. You have 60 days from the written order, and homeowners get an option most property owners don't.
An independent arbitrator from a state registry re-decides your value, and the decision binds both sides. It's designed to be cheaper and simpler than court.
You don't pick the arbitrator; the Comptroller appoints one from the state registry after the 45-day settlement window, and that arbitrator schedules the hearing with you.
You may instead file a petition for review in state district court within 60 days, and you'll generally need to pay the undisputed taxes first. Talk to an attorney before going this route.
Values are reset every year, and so is your right to protest. Plenty of homeowners lose one year and win the next.
| What you need | Where |
|---|---|
| General questions, "where is my evidence packet?" | HCAD Telephone Information Center — (713) 957-7800 |
| Problem checking in or starting a remote hearing | Hearings Support — (713) 812-5802 |
| Switch an in-person hearing to remote | (713) 812-5860 |
| Upload evidence (≥3 days before) | owners.hcad.org |
| Mail evidence / affidavit to the ARB (≥5 business days before, no faxes) | Harris Central Appraisal District (ARB), PO Box 922006, Houston, TX 77292-2006 |
| In-person hearings & drop-off | HCAD, 13013 Northwest Freeway, Houston, TX 77040-6305 |
| Binding arbitration by mail (Form AP-219 + deposit) | Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Attn: Arbitration, 111 E. 17th St., 4th Floor, Austin, TX 78774 |
Usually 15 to 20 minutes. Panels hear many cases a day, so being organized matters more than being thorough.
No. Homeowners represent themselves at ARB hearings every day. The process was built for that.
No. Protesting is a right written into the Texas Tax Code, and it's routine — hundreds of thousands of Harris County owners do it every year.
Yes, and it's common — especially when the homeowner would rather have someone else do the talking or translate. If someone will speak on your behalf as your agent, that requires a separate authorization form.
Your protest can be dismissed. If you know you can't attend, use the phone, video, or affidavit option instead — and ask for electronic reminders when you file.
Last updated: July 26, 2026. Sources: Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Appraisal Protests and Appeals and Regular Binding Arbitration; Texas Tax Code Chapters 41 and 41A. This page is general information for Harris County homeowners, not legal or tax advice. Deadlines and amounts can change — verify with HCAD or the Comptroller before you file.
Line every comparable home up in order, cheapest to dearest, and the median is the one in the middle. It is not the average.
Worked example. For 9429 Pembrook St the tool finds 30 comparable homes. Their median is $70.35 per square foot. Their average is $91.24 — about 30% higher, because one home in the set, 9401 Sundown Dr, is appraised at $270.86 per square foot and drags the average up on its own.
That is why the median is the one that counts. One unusual house barely moves it, and the law names the median specifically: a protest on equal and uniform grounds turns on the median appraised value of comparable properties (Texas Tax Code §41.43(b)(3)).
There are two ways to argue a value is wrong. The first is that the home simply is not worth that much. The second — equal and uniform — is that whatever it is worth, it has been appraised higher than comparable homes around it. The second one does not require you to prove what your house would sell for.
The statute sets the test: your value should be “equal to or less than the median appraised value of a reasonable number of comparable properties appropriately adjusted” (§41.43(b)(3)).
Worked example. 9429 Pembrook St is appraised at $116,588. The median appraised value of its 30 comparable homes is $82,294. That difference is the whole argument — and it is made from the district's own published records, not from an opinion about the house.
⚠ “Appropriately adjusted” is doing real work in that sentence. Comparable homes are rarely identical, and a difference in size, age or condition has to be accounted for rather than ignored. The kit files on both grounds, so a case that fails one can still be heard on the other.
Two different numbers, and your bill is worked out from the second one.
Worked example. 9429 Pembrook St carries a market value of $142,436 and an appraised value of $116,588. The $25,848 difference is the 10% homestead cap (§23.23) holding the taxable figure down: with a homestead exemption on record, the appraised value cannot rise by more than 10% a year, however fast the market value climbs.
163,495 of Harris County's 1,157,293 homes currently show a market value above their appraised value. ⚠ The cap is a separate thing from the homestead exemption itself — the exemption takes an amount off the value, the cap limits how fast the value may climb. A home can have both.