Dallas County Appraisals Will Be Late, Deadline Pushed Back

January 2023’s catastrophic cyberattack on the Dallas Central Appraisal District is still wreaking havoc as Dallas homeowners won’t receive their property tax appraisals by April 15.

Dallas County expects to send its appraised value notifications a week later — April 21, instead of the typical notice date of April 15. That means Dallas County homeowners’ 2023 deadline to file a protest will be May 22. There’s also a different set of deadlines and procedures for business personal property.

That’s still a feat — DCAD sending notices only a week late after being completely shut down for more than two months, but it’s unclear if Dallas homeowners were notified of the delay.

We got word of the change not from the county, but from Glenn Goodrich of propertytax.io, a property value software and protest service, who sent an email to his clients giving them the heads up. Propertytax.io officials said they verified the dates in a Dallas CAD document posted on its website, but we found the website’s server to be intermittently down or overloaded Wednesday afternoon.

Other tax expert companies such as Ryan Accounting have posted detailed information on their websites and sent out information by email.

Why is Dallas sending out delayed notices this year?

DCAD is still recovering from a catastrophic cyberattack that severely impacted operations from November 8, 2022, to January 19, 2023. The cyberattack effectively stopped the Dallas appraisal district’s online operations for more than two months as a cyberterrorist organization held the county’s tax data for ransom. DCAD says it has since recovered most of its operations but has incurred some major setbacks.

“Our information is limited to what Dallas has publicly stated, which isn’t much,” Goodrich told homeowners in an email. “The public was told that no private information was jeopardized in the hack. Our own take is that Dallas will have some administrative issues this year. We are expecting this, and have systems in place to track our actions with Dallas CAD should any issues arise. We encourage you to track all your emails and phone calls with the appraisal district this year if you are not using our agent protest service.”

Important Dates for Dallas County Homeowners

April 21 — DCAD will mail the first batch of residential notices of value to Dallas County property owners, with a valuation of your property as of Jan. 1, 2023. You can wait to receive your notice in the mail, or lookup the valuation online within a day or two of that April 21 mailing date.

May 22 — Homeowner deadline to file a written protest of valuation.

June 10 and 24 — Protest hearings are tentatively scheduled on these two Saturdays.

October 1 — Payment deadline for property taxes

What is the 2023 tax deadline for Dallas County Businesses?

Business personal property value notices (without rendition extensions) will be mailed on May 9, with a protest deadline of June 8. Business personal property value notices will be mailed May 26, with a protest deadline of June 26.

How Does a Property Tax Protest Work?

Every year, county appraisal districts evaluate or assess properties in their county for their taxable value, or assessed value. You have the right to protest how much the county appraisal district says your property is worth, which directly affects the amount of property taxes you are required to pay.

1. The appraisal district mails Notices of Appraised Value. You receive a notice from your local appraisal district each year, which provides information about the assessed value of your property. For Dallas County, the notices will go out April 21.

2. Review the notice. If you agree with the value, no action is required. If you disagree, make note of the deadline to file a protest if they want to contest the assessed value. In Texas, the deadline is typically 30 days after the date the notice was mailed. In this case, the Dallas County deadline is May 22. It’s important to note that if you miss this protest deadline, you lose the right to protest for that tax year.

3. Gather evidence. To support your property tax protest, property owners should gather evidence that demonstrates their property’s assessed value is incorrect. This may include recent comparable sales of similar properties (or comps), evidence of any physical damage or deterioration, or evidence of any other factors that affect the property’s value.

4. File a protest with the appraisal district by May 22 or sooner. This can be done online with a program like Dallas County’s uFile, by mail, or in person. The protest should include the property owner’s contact information, the property’s identification number, a statement of the reasons for the protest, and any supporting evidence, including comps and photos.

5. Once the protest is filed, the property owner will undergo an informal protest hearing online or may be scheduled for a formal hearing with an appraisal review board (ARB), which is an independent panel of citizens that hears property tax protests. The property owner may present their evidence and arguments to the ARB in support of their protest. The ARB will then make a decision and notify the property owner of their decision.

6. If you are dissatisfied with the ARB’s decision, you may further appeal to a district court or a state agency, depending on the specific circumstances and the amount in dispute.

7. Pay your taxes. Regardless of the outcome of the continuing property tax protest, the property owner is typically required to pay their property taxes based on the ARB’s decision. If the protest is successful, the property owner will receive a refund for any overpaid taxes.

2023 Property Tax Advice for Homeowners

Goodrich encourages homeowners to begin the protest process as early as possible with Dallas CAD.

If you happen to be a propertytax.io customer, Goodrich says they’ll file their first round of Dallas County protests on April 26, and they’ll send homeowners an email with confirmation they’ve done so. If you’re new to propertytax.io, Goodrich says there’s still time to sign up for their agent service.

“We expect that Dallas will have some administrative challenges this year, so the sooner we have you in our system to file a protest, the better,” he said.

If you are protesting the value yourself, Goodrich says they are told Dallas CAD will have the online protest system up and running.

“No matter if you plan on signing up for our service or protesting the value yourself, avoid waiting until the last minute,” he said. “Take action early in case there are any issues you have a window to address it before the May 22 deadline.”