Property Owners Confused By Multiple Appraisal Notices from Maverick County Appraisal District
By: Ricardo E. Calderon, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2022
Maverick County property owners are in shock and dismayed over their receipt of multiple appraisal notices for 2022 on their real properties from the Maverick County Appraisal District, causing confusion and chaos among property owners.
Maverick County Appraisal District Chief Appraiser Maggie Mata-Duran acknowledged the total confusion among property owners as a result of the multiple appraisal notices for 2022 mailed to Maverick County taxpayers by the local county appraisal district.
In a press release issued on Thursday, May 19, 2022, Chief Appraiser Maggie Mata-Duran stated “This year the Maverick County Appraisal District contracted with a private company to process and mail our appraisal notices for 2022. Due to a computer glitch, many property owners received multiple appraisal notices for the same property, thus creating confusion.”
Chief Appraiser Maggie Mata-Duran accepted full responsibility for the error committed by the Maverick County Appraisal District, stating “I respectfully apologize for this occurrence.”
Mata-Duran admitted that “the reason you (property owner) might see differences among the notices you received is because some of these values had not been analyzed and were not supposed to be mailed out yet.”
Mata-Duran added that “if you (property owner) have questions about your property’s value, please call or visit our office, or visit our website www.maverickcad.org, and click on the ‘appraisal notice’ to view the most current value for 2022. If you have any questions or feel there is an error on your property value, I strongly encourage you to come by our office and speak to one of our trained appraisers. Again, I apologize for all the confusion this may have caused.”
The significant and material error committed either by the private contractor hired by the Maverick County Appraisal District or the Maverick County Appraisal District itself has caused total distrust regarding the 2022 appraisal notices sent to property owners (taxpayers) by the local appraisal district.
One taxpayer noted receiving the first appraisal notice of 2022 in late April with a higher appraised value on their property compared to the second notice received in May showing a different and lower appraised value, causing total confusion and desperation. “How can the Maverick County Appraisal District mail its 2022 appraisal notices with property values without being ‘analyzed’,” queried the taxpayer. “What is going on at the Maverick County Appraisal District?”, asked the taxpayer.
Another taxpayer noted that the ‘multiple appraisal notices for 2022’ are not only incorrect with wrong property values, but property owners legal rights are being affected by this material error since a property owner’s right to protest the appraised value was May 15, 2022 or 30 days from the date of the notice, causing potentially loss of a property owner’s legal right or confusion concerning their protest deadline.
Last year, the Maverick County Appraisal District issued appraisal notices with increased values up to 488 percent and last month Chief Appraiser Maggie Mata-Duran issued a press release notifying property owners that the 2022 appraised values would be increased by another 25 percent.
This major error not only affects Maverick County property owners, but also the local governmental taxing entities such as the Eagle Pass Independent School District, City of Eagle Pass, Maverick County, and the Maverick County Hospital District who depend upon the certification of the 2022 appraised value tax roll by Chief Appraiser Maggie Mata-Duran to set their ad valorem property tax rates. Each tax entity appoints one or more members of the Maverick County Appraisal District Board of Directors, who are ultimately responsible for the actions or omissions of the local appraisal district.
Currently, the members of the Maverick County Appraisal District Board of Directors include Lupita Fuentes, Chairperson; Luis E. Sifuentes, Secretary; Hilda Martinez-Caballero, Secretary; Christopher Hiller; and Isidro De Los Santos, IV, according to its website.
A real estate services consultant suggests that Maverick County property owners file a protest of their 2022 appraised value with the Maverick County Appraisal Review Board due to the questionable property values assessed in the multiple notices of appraised value for 2022. In addition, taxpayers may file a complaint with the Texas State Comptroller of Public Accounts in Austin, Texas, which oversees all appraisal districts statewide.
