HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Lynder Whittington stated she had been serving to handle and dwelling together with her dad and mom for years earlier than her dad died in 2018.
The southwest Houston home was in her dad’s title, and when he died, any exemptions on the house that will decrease these property taxes went away.
Exemptions can decrease the worth of your property and restrict the rise of your property worth, however Whittington stated she did not find out about them and wasn’t conversant in the method of protesting her property worth with the appraisal district, which finally determines how a lot she owes in taxes.
The property worth for the house rose from $132,000 in 2021 to $205,000 this yr, and her taxes elevated considerably.
“A number of us have to be educated, and we’re not educated so much with the property taxes as a result of I had no thought about quite a lot of these items,” Whittington stated.
Newly elected Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector & Voter Registrar Annette Ramirez stated that is common.
“There’s only a actual disparity in Harris County on of us who know the way to protest their property values and the way their values have remained form of regular versus of us who do not essentially have the assets or the information to know the way to protest their values,” Ramirez stated.
The tax assessor-collector does not have the precise quantity of people that qualify for exemptions however aren’t profiting from them, however says that it is most prevalent in decrease middle-income communities.
Ramirez took workplace in January, and one in every of her staff’s priorities is to teach residents of Harris County on how property taxes work and the way they’ll maintain their burden as little as attainable.
They’re holding workshops to teach the group.
Ramirez stated she intends to launch a program in January that enables folks to pay their property taxes month-to-month, fairly than having to provide you with a one-time lump sum when annual taxes are due.
“As folks wrestle with their property taxes, they run the chance of dropping their properties, and then you definitely see gentrification taking place and folks coming, builders coming in, they usually purchase these properties at foreclosures, they usually flip them, they usually begin gentrifying the neighborhood,” Ramirez stated.
RELATED: 13 Investigates how property tax disparities impression Houston owners
13 Investigates spoke with Whittington final month as a part of a joint investigation with ABC Information and our owned tv stations.
Our investigation discovered that throughout the U.S., some People are being priced out of their very own properties as property values rise of their altering neighborhoods and property taxes develop into unaffordable.
Whittington beforehand advised us she works seven days every week and took on a second job after she bought behind on the house’s property taxes.
She stated she bought on a fee plan with the county to pay the house’s again taxes, which had been roughly $14,000.
After our story aired, Whittington stated she obtained assist from throughout the town, together with an nameless and beneficiant viewer who spent greater than $14,000 to totally repay the property taxes Whittington owes.
Whittington was in tears when 13 Investigates shared the information together with her.
“That most likely would take me without end. I by no means anticipated that. Thanks,” she stated.
Whittington stated she additionally obtained assist from the Harris County Appraisal District and despatched in paperwork for an heirship exemption that ought to assist her decrease her taxes.
“I’ll proceed to maintain working so I can not fall behind like that,” she stated.
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