I just bought a home. Does the seller's homestead exemption transfer to me?

No. HCAD cancels the previous owner's homestead exemption as of January 1 of the year after the sale and mails the new owner an application form — usually to whatever address HCAD has on file, which for a recent buyer is often the wrong one. Under Texas Tax Code Section 11.42(f), a buyer who acquires a home after January 1 can receive the general residence homestead exemption for the applicable portion of that same tax year immediately on qualifying, but only if the previous owner did not already receive that exemption for the year. Either way, you must file in your own name.

Why did my tax bill jump in the second year after I bought my house?

Because the 10% appraisal cap under Texas Tax Code Section 23.23 does not transfer with the house — it only starts in the second year the new owner holds the homestead exemption. If the previous owner had accumulated years of capped value, the taxable value can jump close to full market value the year after a sale, and the number quoted at closing rarely accounts for that jump.

Why can my mortgage escrow account come up short after buying a home?

Your mortgage company typically estimates the monthly amount it collects for property taxes based on the most recent available tax bill for the home — which reflects the PREVIOUS owner's exemption status and however many years of the 10% appraisal cap they had accumulated, not yours. When the actual bill for the year comes in higher than that estimate, the escrow account can run short, and the lender often raises the monthly payment to cover the gap at the next annual escrow review. This is not financial advice — ask your loan servicer directly how they calculated your escrow estimate.

Does it matter if the seller of my home was 65 or older?

It can. Per HCAD's own guidance for new property owners, if the seller was 65 or older or disabled and established a homestead exemption on a different home during the same year, the tax assessor prorates the taxes on the home you bought to reflect the seller's exemption for only the portion of the year they owned it — which usually means a higher bill than expected. If the seller did not establish a homestead exemption elsewhere that year, their exemption stays in place for the entire year and this does not apply.

What is the first thing a new Texas homeowner should do about property taxes?

Update the address on your driver's license or state ID to the new property, through the Texas Department of Public Safety. Texas Tax Code Section 11.43(n) prohibits the chief appraiser from approving a residence homestead exemption unless the address on the submitted ID matches the property, so doing this first avoids a rejected application later.

Just Bought a Home in Harris County? Here's What Happens to Your Property Taxes Next

Q: When is my first chance to protest the value on my newly purchased home?

HCAD generally mails the Notice of Appraised Value around April. Under Texas Tax Code Section 41.44, the protest deadline is May 15, or 30 days after the date on the notice, whichever is later. Your own recent purchase price is often useful evidence, especially if it is lower than HCAD's number.

Closing day feels like the finish line — you sign the paperwork, get the keys, move in. For property taxes in Harris County, it is actually the starting line. Over the next twelve months, at least five things happen that almost nobody warns new buyers about: the previous owner's exemption disappears, the value cap that protects long-time owners has not kicked in for you yet, your mortgage escrow account may be calculated on the wrong number, and then April brings a brand-new figure from HCAD. This page is not another list of exemptions — it walks through what actually happens, in the order it happens, for someone who just bought a home in Harris County.

The one-line version: the homestead exemption and the 10% appraisal cap both belong to the person, not the house — both have to restart under your name, and the cap does not even begin until your second year. Update your driver's license address first, file the exemption as soon as you can, and watch the mailbox in April.

Last updated: July 26, 2026 · Harris County, Texas.

1. Do this first, before anything else: update your driver's license address

This is the cheapest, easiest, and most-skipped step. Texas Tax Code Section 11.43(n) is direct: the chief appraiser may not approve a residence homestead exemption unless the address on the Texas driver's license or state ID you submit matches the address of the property you are claiming. If your license still shows your old apartment or a parent's address, your exemption application gets rejected until you fix it.

Update your address with the Texas Department of Public Safety at dps.texas.gov before you file the exemption — not after. Texas law already requires reporting an address change within 30 days of moving, so this is something you owe DPS regardless of whether you file for an exemption. Section 11.43(p) waives the address-match rule for active-duty service members or their spouses (with a military ID plus a utility bill for the property) and for holders of a confidential license issued to peace officers and prosecutors — but for most buyers, updating your DPS address first is the fastest path.

2. The previous owner's homestead exemption does not transfer to you

This is the single costliest misunderstanding, and it applies to almost every recent buyer. HCAD explains it plainly on its own new-owner page: in the first quarter of each year, HCAD builds a list of properties that carried a homestead exemption in the prior year and were sold to a new owner during that same year, cancels the old exemption as of January 1 of the new year, and mails the new owner an application.

Do not wait for that postcard. It goes to whatever address HCAD has on file — and for someone who just bought a home, that address is almost always the old one, belonging to the seller or an outdated record, not your new address. Plenty of new owners never receive it and assume they already have the exemption, right up until the October tax bill arrives.

The exemption belongs to the person, not the house, so you have to file in your own name. There is one important exception that applies to most recent buyers: under Texas Tax Code Section 11.42(f), if you acquire the home after January 1, you can receive the general residence homestead exemption for the applicable portion of that same tax year immediately on qualifying — but only if the seller did not already receive that exemption for the year. If they did, their exemption stays on record through year end and yours starts the following January. Either way, you still have to apply — do not assume silence means it already happened.

File as soon as possible after you move in, using HCAD Form 11.13 (the Comptroller publishes the identical state form as Form 50-114), online at hcad.seamlessdocs.com/f/Form11_13, through the HCAD Info and Exemptions app, or by mail or in person at 13013 Northwest Freeway, Houston, TX 77040-6305. It is completely free. Our full homestead exemption guide walks through every part of this form.

3. The 10% appraisal cap does not transfer with the house either

Beyond the exemption itself, holding a homestead exemption also switches on the appraisal cap under Texas Tax Code Section 23.23: once you have it, the value your taxes are calculated on cannot rise more than 10% per year (plus the value of new improvements), no matter how much the market value jumps. Over time this is often worth more than the exemption itself, especially in an appreciating market like Houston's.

But that cap does not start right away. In HCAD's own words: the cap applies to your homestead beginning in the second year you have a homestead exemption. If the home you bought had accumulated a capped value over several years under the previous owner, the taxable value — which had been held artificially low — can jump close to true market value the moment the property changes hands, because the seller's old cap does not carry over and your own cap has not started yet. This is exactly why the tax bill in the second year after a purchase often rises more than the first, and why the figure quoted at closing rarely accounts for that jump.

Filing the exemption is step one. Step two is checking whether HCAD's number is too high.
Check your home free — 1 minute

4. If the person who sold you the home was 65 or older

This case works differently, and it can push the purchase-year bill higher than expected. Per HCAD's own guidance for new property owners:

If the seller did not establish a homestead exemption elsewhere during that same year, their over-65 or disability exemption stays in place for the entire tax year, and nothing changes for you.
If the seller DID establish a homestead exemption on a different home in that same year, the tax assessor prorates the taxes on the home you bought, applying the seller's exemption only for the portion of the year they actually owned it. The result: the tax bill for that year is typically higher than the number estimated at closing.
If you yourself are 65 or older, the fix is simple: file for the over-65 exemption in your own name as early as possible — see our over-65 tax freeze guide.

5. Why your mortgage escrow account can come up short

If you financed the purchase, your mortgage company almost certainly set up an escrow account — part of your monthly payment gets held back so the lender pays your property taxes and homeowner's insurance on your behalf when they come due. The problem: at the moment the loan was set up, the lender had to estimate the annual tax amount — and the most common way to estimate it is off the most recently available tax bill for the home, which reflects the previous owner's numbers, not yours.

Said plainly, and this is not financial advice: the seller's old bill usually reflects an exemption and possibly years of the 10% cap that, as the two sections above explain, do not automatically belong to you. When the real bill for the year comes in — potentially in year one if you have not filed your own exemption yet, or in year two once the previous owner's cap no longer applies — the actual amount can exceed what the lender estimated. That shortfall shows up in your escrow account, and lenders typically raise your monthly payment to cover the gap at the next annual escrow analysis. We are not a lender and do not give financial advice — if your monthly payment jumps unexpectedly, ask your loan servicer directly what number they used for your escrow estimate.

6. Your first chance to protest

Around April each year, HCAD mails the Notice of Appraised Value to every homeowner — this is the first time you will see the figure HCAD has set for your newly purchased home. Under Texas Tax Code Section 41.44, the protest deadline is May 15, or 30 days after the date on the notice, whichever is later.

As a recent buyer, you have a piece of evidence long-time owners do not: your own actual purchase price. If HCAD's number is higher than what you just paid — especially when the sale happened close to the January 1 valuation date — that is often useful evidence for a protest. Our full protest guide and ARB hearing guide walk through filing and presenting evidence, step by step.

7. The dated first-year checklist

When	What to do
Right after closing	Confirm the deed recorded at the County Clerk's office — the title company usually handles this, but verify it yourself.
Within 30 days	Update your driver's license / state ID address at DPS (dps.texas.gov) — required before HCAD can approve an exemption.
As soon as you move in	File Form 11.13 / 50-114 for the homestead exemption in your own name. Do not wait for HCAD's postcard — it may go to the wrong address.
January 1 – April 30 (if not already filed)	Standard filing window for the following year. Missed it? You can still file up to about two years late under §11.431.
A few weeks after filing	Check search.hcad.org to confirm the exemption landed under your name.
Around April	Watch your mailbox for the first Notice of Appraised Value on your new home.
May 15, or 30 days after the notice (whichever is later)	Protest deadline, if HCAD's number is higher than what you paid or higher than comparable homes.
October	Your first tax bill in your own name arrives. Compare it against your lender's escrow estimate.

The honest limits

Read this part. We are not attorneys, not tax agents, and not a mortgage lender. HCAD decides every exemption application and every appraised value — we cannot influence the outcome and we cannot promise you qualify.

We do not file it for you. The exemption application is free from HCAD and from the Comptroller, and you file it yourself so your own signature and driver's license are on record.
Exemption help here is free. Our $39 kit is the do-it-yourself protest kit, a completely different product. You do not need it to file an exemption.
We are not your lender or a financial advisor. The escrow section on this page explains the general mechanism only — ask your own loan servicer about your specific account.
Amounts and deadlines change by legislative session. Verify with HCAD or the Comptroller before you file anything.

Who to call, and where to send it

What you need	Where
Update your driver's license address first	dps.texas.gov — Texas Department of Public Safety
File the homestead exemption online (Form 11.13)	hcad.seamlessdocs.com/f/Form11_13
Mail or drop off the form	Harris Central Appraisal District, 13013 Northwest Freeway, Houston, TX 77040-6305
Confirm the exemption landed on your account	search.hcad.org
Questions, closing date, the seller's exemption status	HCAD Telephone Information Center — (713) 957-7800
Full homestead exemption guide	Homestead exemption
Over-65 tax freeze guide (if applicable)	Over-65 tax freeze
Full protest guide	Protest guide

Common questions

I just bought a home. Do I already have the homestead exemption?

Almost certainly not in your name yet. HCAD cancels the seller's exemption as of January 1 of the year after the sale, then mails an application — usually to the old address. File your own as soon as possible, and under §11.42(f) you may even get part of the current tax year if the seller had not already received that exemption for the year.

Why did my bill jump in year two instead of year one?

Because the 10% appraisal cap (§23.23) does not transfer with the house — it only starts in your second year holding the homestead exemption. In year one, the appraised value usually resets close to true market value (no longer artificially held down by the previous owner's cap), and only from there does your own cap begin protecting you.

My escrow payment went up. What should I do?

This page does not give financial advice. Contact your lender or loan servicer directly and ask about your annual escrow analysis and how they recalculated your monthly payment, especially after your own exemption or cap takes effect.

Do I need the $39 kit to file my exemption?

No. The $39 kit is for protesting your value — a completely different process for when you think HCAD's number is too high. Filing a homestead, over-65, disability, or veteran exemption is always free, whether you do it yourself or use our guides.

I bought the house mid-year. Do I have to wait until January to file the exemption?

No — file as soon as you have moved in and updated your driver's license address. Under §11.42(f), if the seller had not already received the homestead exemption for that year, you can receive it for the remaining portion of the current tax year immediately on qualifying — no need to wait for the following year.

Does it matter that my seller was 65 or older?

It is not a penalty, but the purchase-year bill can come in higher than expected if the seller established a homestead exemption on a different home during that same year, because the tax gets prorated. If they did not, their exemption simply stays in place for the rest of the year and nothing further changes for you.

Update your license, file the exemption, then check whether HCAD's April number actually holds up.
Check my home — free

Last updated: July 26, 2026. Sources: Harris Central Appraisal District, First Time Property Owner and Property Tax Exemptions for Homeowners (see "Selling or Buying a Home with an Existing Homestead Exemption" and "Homestead Cap"); Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Property Tax Exemptions and Form 50-114; Texas Tax Code §11.42, §11.43, §23.23 and §41.44. This page is general information for Harris County homeowners, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Deadlines and amounts can change — verify with HCAD, the Comptroller, or your lender before you act.