Most commercial property owners accept the appraisal review board value.  For example, in 2019, of 382,407 commercial accounts with an ARB hearing, only 16,033 (4.2%) elected to continue to pursue property tax reduction with a judicial appeal.  However, 90% of those property owners who continued the appeal effort received additional property tax relief. Why Do So Few Continue the Appeal? We believe there are five reasons commercial property owners do not continue the appeal beyond the appraisal review board (ARB):

• They are concerned the costs of additional appeal will exceed the tax savings;
• They are skeptical the additional appeal will be successful (i.e. the you can’t beat city hall line of thought);
• They are not aware ~90% of judicial appeals generate meaningful property tax savings;
• They are not aware of the magnitude of additional property tax savings available through judicial appeals. For example, for judicial appeals settled in 2019:
  1. Total property tax savings were $1.47 billion.
  2. The average savings per case were $123,745 (based on 11,911 cases settled in 2019, according to Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar).
• They are concerned the costs could exceed the savings. If the case further reduces property taxes, with O’Connor, the only cost is a fraction of the property tax savings beyond the appraisal review board level.

O’Connor is not a law firm but has successfully coordinated more than 50,000 judicial appeals.  We coordinate judicial appeals on a contingency fee basis.  You pay nothing unless your property taxes are reduced below the appraisal review board level.  Clients realize savings beyond the ARB level in 9 of 10 cases. For a free review of whether evidence supports a value lower than your ARB value, call 713-290-9700.