Incomplete info on property tax bill

Alexandria said:

What is the name of your state? Texas
In our county (Williamson), we receive our property tax bills in April and have until May 31 to file a protest (due to appraisal too high, incorrect info about the property, etc.). After May 31, the property tax is set in stone, as it were.
When we received our tax bill last April, we thought it was a little high, but nothing looked protestable. Last month (December), my husband happened to find out that we could look at our property tax bill online. The property tax bill was very detailed about what they based our appraisal on - and this detailed information was not included on our bill. One item was incorrect and could have lowered our property tax bill. It listed that we have a concrete pool. We have a vinyl-lined in-ground pool, which is worth considerably less than a concrete pool. If we had known this information, we would have protested last May.
I informed the appraisal district office about this error and that we didn't protest because we weren't given this information in time to protest. The clerk said tough beans, it's too late to change anything for the 2005 tax bill.
Can we sue them to get our 2005 property taxes lowered, based on this incomplete information?

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Alexandria said:

What is the name of your state? Texas

Last month (December), my husband happened to find out that we could look at our property tax bill online.

I informed the appraisal district office about this error and that we didn't protest because we weren't given this information in time to protest. The clerk said tough beans, it's too late to change anything for the 2005 tax bill.
Can we sue them to get our 2005 property taxes lowered, based on this incomplete information?

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Alexandria said:

I don't think that I should have to take more time out of my life to do the appraisal district's job. That shows absolute disrespect for the taxpayer. They work for the taxpayer; the taxpayer does not and should not have to work for them! They should provide complete information on what my appraisal is based on. The information on the website that they did not include in our bill was only 1/4 page long. They could have (and should have) included that information on my bill. They didn't seem to have a problem including which tax entities get my money (and how much goes to each), but they somehow can't include the 1/4-page breakdown of how they appraised my property? That is unfair and wrong.

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Alexandria said:

Did you have nearly two months last year to look into the bill?

We saw no reason to do so because nothing looked out of line. We had no reason to believe that there was any additional information that the appraisal district was holding back from us. Now, it seems that the appraisal district is deliberately providing as little information as possible so we don't have any basis to protest. Pretty underhanded, and I don't think they should be able to get away with it.

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seniorjudge said:

We saw no reason to do so because nothing looked out of line.

Then that means you gave up any rights to complain about it.

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Alexandria said:

Thanks, everyone for your advise and information. You are probably right that I can't do anything about last year's tax bill, but I think it is very underhanded and wrong the way the appraisal district deliberately kept me misinformed. They will find themselves having to deal with me every April in their office demanding to see full disclosure - even if it is morally wrong for them to require me to do it. I am still going to file a complaint with the office about them not providing full information and I am going to contact my state legislator to make the appraisal district provide full disclosure of information on both the annual statements (sent in April) and bills (sent in November).

Thanks for taking the time to advise me. Have a great day.

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