Your Texas ARB Hearing: What to Bring, What to Say, and the Evidence Rule Nobody Uses

Your hearing notice arrived. Here is exactly what happens next.

If you filed a Texas property tax protest by the May 15 deadline, your Appraisal Review Board hearing is scheduled between now and August. Most homeowners get the notice, feel a small wave of dread, and show up with nothing but a feeling that their taxes are too high. Those homeowners lose, or settle low. The ones who walk in with comparable evidence routinely win reductions. This guide covers the whole process: what to bring, what to say, and the one legal right most homeowners never use.

First, use the evidence right almost nobody knows about

Under Texas Tax Code section 41.461, the appraisal district must give you a copy of all the evidence it plans to use at your hearing, free, if you ask for it at least 14 days before the hearing. Request it through your iFile account or in writing. Two reasons this matters:

1. You see their comps before the hearing, so nothing surprises you.
2. Under section 41.67(d), evidence they did not deliver to you after a proper request cannot be used against you at the hearing.

If your hearing is more than two weeks out, send that request today.

The informal meeting usually comes first

In Harris County and most large districts, you will typically meet one district appraiser informally before the formal panel. Roughly 60 percent of protests settle here. The appraiser can offer a reduced value on the spot. If the number reflects your evidence, take it and go home. If they will not move, you proceed to the formal hearing, and nothing you said informally is binding.

What to bring to the hearing

• A comparable evidence table: 5 to 10 homes similar in size, age, and location with lower assessed values. Quality beats quantity; 5 strong comps beat 20 loose ones.
• Your three numbers, written down: your account number, the district's value, and the value you are requesting.
• Photos and repair estimates for any condition problems (foundation, roof, drainage, dated interior).
• Your hearing notice.

The comparable table is the core. ARB panels see professional evidence packets from paid agents all day; a clean comp table puts you in that category, and a vague complaint does not.

What to say, in order

A formal hearing runs 10 to 20 minutes: three civilian panelists plus a district appraiser. It is not a courtroom. Say four things:

1. State your number first. "My account number is X. The district has my market value at Y. Based on comparable properties, I am requesting Z."
2. Present your comps. "I have 8 comparable homes, similar in size, age, and location, assessed lower than mine." Read two or three aloud with values.
3. Make the equity argument. Texas Tax Code section 41.43(b)(3) lets you win on unequal appraisal alone: if your assessment is above the median of comparable properties, you are entitled to an adjustment even in a rising market. Say: "Under the equal and uniform standard, my assessment is above the median of comparable properties, and I ask that it be brought in line."
4. State condition issues, one sentence each, with photos if you have them.

What not to do

Do not argue that taxes are too high, that you cannot afford them, or that the system is unfair. The panel can only rule on value. Do not get personal with the district appraiser. If the panel offers a number between yours and the district's, you can accept on the spot or ask them to rule; you never have to take the first offer.

After the hearing

The ARB mails a written order. If you are not satisfied, you generally have 60 days to escalate to binding arbitration (deposit typically $450 to $1,550 depending on value, refunded less $50 if you win) or district court. Most homeowners settle at the ARB and bank the savings, which repeat year after year through the homestead cap math.

Get the evidence without doing the work

Two ways we can help, one free and one not:

• The free ARB Hearing Day Kit is a printable one-page script and checklist version of this guide. Print it, fill in your three numbers, bring it.
• The $99 evidence packet is the full ammunition: your real comparable table pulled from county appraisal records with price per square foot and deltas, the equal-and-uniform argument computed for your account, and a hearing script with your actual numbers filled in. It is built from the same public data the district uses, in about a minute, and you keep 100 percent of whatever you save.

Your hearing is one short meeting. Walk in with evidence.

Check Your Houston Address

Free calculator pulls HCAD comps in 30 seconds, no signup. Optional $99 packet pre-fills your iFile protest, and you keep 100% of your savings.