Dallas Couple Wins Fight with DCAD over Senior Homestead Exemption

CandysDirt.com told the heartbreaking story late last month of a Dallas couple struggling to get a senior homestead exemption despite clearly meeting the age requirement and having lived in the home in question for more than a decade.

The problem, according to the Dallas Central Appraisal District, was that the home was recognized in their records as a commercial building.

Barry Rodenhaver, an 83-year-old retired Southern Methodist University golf coach, and his wife of 27 years, interior designer Cindy Zelazny-Rodenhaver, paid their property tax bill of almost $12,000 ahead of the Jan. 31 deadline, the day this story published on CandysDirt.com.

Dallas Couple Fights for Senior Homestead Exemption, DCAD Says It’s a Warehouse

Toby Toler, a property tax appeals expert, who with his son Will offered to help the Rodenhavers, hosted a DCAD appraiser at the Rodenhavers’ home a few days after the story published and gave us the good news on Feb. 6 that the exemption was granted and will be retroactive back to 2022.

“Diana Munoz at DCAD is both a wonderful person/friend and is the manager of the homestead department,” Toler wrote in an email to CandysDirt.com. “Ms. Munoz called Ms Rodenhaver personally to tell her the District was going to grant the exemption but was going to deduct the percentage of the house’s square footage that represents the home office space.  That’ll be 120 square feet off the total area of approximately 3,300 square feet. The fact that Diana called a homeowner is something I’ve never seen before.”

It was a good day at the Rodenhaver household, Toler added.

“They will get a refund for 2024 for the current bill they just paid, and they will get a refund for 2023 and 2022 based on state tax law,” he said. “It’ll be a nice check.”

Here’s a portion of the story that we published on Jan. 31.

The Rodenhavers’ home at 2303 Farrington St. sits on the Trinity River and offers great views of downtown from a rooftop balcony. Many people live in nontraditional homes in the area, which once was zoned industrial, but the Rodenhavers fought for years to change the property’s classification to “live-work.” They spent about $15,000 on permits and inspections, and a new certificate of occupancy reflecting the change was issued in May 2024. 

“It’s been an emotional strain, particularly on Cindy, to the point where she cries,” Barry said of his wife, who is a cancer survivor. “It seems like it’s so hard to get things done that seem to be so reasonable. They’re just acting like live-work doesn’t mean a bloody thing. Yes, it’s been a commercial area but it’s turning into residential very quickly.”

The Rodenhavers are still employed, Cindy as an art dealer and decorator, and Barry as a teacher. 

“We just want to be able to retire and live peacefully,” Cindy said. 

Her husband added, “We just want to be homesteaded and able to live honorably and legally like everybody else and be part of the City of Dallas.”  

Property Taxes and Homestead Exemption 

The Rodenhavers paid a property tax bill of $11,863 on Jan. 16 that did not include a senior homestead exemption. Their tax bill was $3,600 when they moved in, and their incomes have not increased, the couple told CandysDirt.com. They told us in January that they hoped, with the help of public servants like Laura Cadena, who is running for the District 6 Dallas City Council seat, and Toby and Will Toler, they’d be able to get the records cleaned up with DCAD and get an exemption next year.

Cadena, who until recently worked as District 6 Councilmember Omar Narvaez’s chief of staff, stepped in and recommended the Tolers. 

“Connecting Barry and Cindy with resources to help them stay in their home was something I knew I had to do,” Cadena told CandysDirt.com. “The City is in an affordable housing crisis and we must all work together to help our residents, especially our seniors.” 

Cadena’s opponents in the District 6 race include Tony Carrillo, David Blewett, and Gabriel Kissinger. The filing deadline is Feb. 14. 

DCAD officials have not responded to a request for comment on this story.

The local appraisal district has been through its share of struggles in recent years. DCAD was hacked in November 2022, compromising the personal information of hundreds of customers. Shortly after the hack was resolved, Chief Appraiser Ken Nolan retired and Shane Docherty, a longtime DCAD employee, took the reins. 

2303 Farrington St. 

Cindy Zelazny-Rodenhaver has a shop on Lovers Lane where she meets clients but she keeps a home office at the Farrington property, as many people do now and even more did during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Cindy said an appraiser she spoke to at DCAD expressed a concern that the Farrington home is “definitely a showroom.” 

“It always looked like a showroom,” she said. “I’m an antique dealer. I have been for 48 years, and I have wonderful collections. I’m not apologizing for that to anyone.” 

The Farrington home has a loft with a railing overlooking an open space downstairs. The primary bedroom and kitchen are downstairs with one and one-half baths and the upstairs has two bedrooms and a Jack-and-Jill bathroom. Sounds like a real house, rather than a commercial building, right? 

The Rodenhavers took out dock doors and added egress windows, but upgrades have been minimal. Barry said he could spit in the Trinity River from his parking lot. 

The Rodenhavers have made some lifelong friends through the process of trying to get their homestead exemption. They spent so much time with David Serna of the Dallas fire marshal’s office that he invited them to his wedding last year. 

Cindy said almost everyone they’ve encountered at the City of Dallas has been unbelievably kind.

“We couldn’t have better people fight for us,” she said.