Who's actually deciding your case
The Appraisal Review Board, or ARB, is a group of citizens authorized to resolve disputes between property owners and appraisal districts. It is not the appraisal district — it's a separate, independent panel.Members are appointed locally and serve two-year terms, and in counties with more than 1.2 million residents, complex cases can go to special panels whose members are required to hold specific credentials, such as a law degree, an MBA, a CPA license, or a real estate license.Hearings generally run May through July, with larger counties sometimes extending past that window.
Those special panels exist by statute — counties with 1.2 million or more residents are required to expand their ARB so certain complex protests can be referred to a panel of members meeting one of a specific list of qualifications: a law degree, an MBA, a CPA license, accreditation from the American Society of Appraisers, an MAI or certified assessment evaluator designation, at least ten years of property-tax appraisal or consulting experience, or a real estate broker's or sales agent's license. If a county can't find enough qualified applicants, it can fall back to appointing a special panel member who holds a bachelor's degree in any field.Most residential protests never reach one of these panels — but if a hearing notice mentions a special panel, this is what that means.
Before the hearing: the informal conference
You don't have to go straight to a formal ARB hearing. Property owners can request an informal conference with the appraisal district to try to resolve the protest before it ever reaches the board.This is usually a conversation with an appraiser, not a panel — you present the same evidence you'd bring to a formal hearing, and the appraiser can agree to adjust the value on the spot. If you can't reach an agreement there, your protest simply continues on to the ARB — you don't lose anything by trying the informal route first.
The notice you're owed before the hearing
The board has to send you written notice of your hearing at least 15 days before it happens. That notice has to include the date, time, and place of the hearing; a description specific enough to identify what's actually being protested (the value itself, denial of an exemption, or a special-appraisal qualification, for example); and a statement telling you that you're entitled to a postponement.
Separately, at least 14 days before the hearing, the chief appraiser has to tell you that you can request a copy of the data, schedules, formulas, and everything else the district plans to use at the hearing to establish its position — by mail, electronically, or through a secure website — and the district can't charge you for it, no matter how the copies are prepared or delivered.Asking for this is one of the more underused rights in the whole process: it tells you exactly what you're arguing against before you walk in.
How you can appear
You don't have to show up in a room to have your protest heard. Texas law lets you appear in person, by telephone or videoconference, or entirely by written affidavit without appearing at all.If you want a phone or video hearing, you can request it either in your original protest notice or up to 10 days before the hearing date.You can also designate an agent under Tax Code § 1.111 to appear for you.
If the scheduled date doesn't work, a property owner who hasn't designated an agent is entitled to one postponement to a later date without having to give a reason. Beyond that first one, further postponements need good cause or the chief appraiser's agreement. The board also has to postpone if you have a conflicting hearing scheduled with a different appraisal district.
| Right | Timing | Source |
|---|---|---|
| ARB schedules your hearing | Not later than the 90th day after the board approves the year's appraisal records | § 41.45 |
| Written hearing notice | At least 15 days before the hearing | § 41.46 |
| Request district's evidence | At least 14 days before the hearing | § 41.461 |
| Elect a phone/video hearing | In your protest notice, or up to 10 days before | § 41.45 |
| New hearing after missing one | Request within 4 days, with good cause | § 41.45 |
Sources verified via§ 41.45,§ 41.46, and§ 41.461on texas.public.law.
What happens in the room
The board hears both sides — you (or your evidence, if you appeared by affidavit) and the appraisal district — and then makes a determination on the issues raised in your protest.For most ordinary value protests, the appraisal district carries the burden of establishing the property's value by a preponderance of the evidence; if it can't meet that standard, the outcome favors the property owner.That burden can shift further onto the district under specific conditions — seewhat evidence actually persuades an appraiser for what those conditions are and how to use them.
If you don't show up at all and didn't file an affidavit, you're not necessarily out of options — you can ask for a new hearing within four days of the missed one, if you can show good cause for missing it.
After the decision
An ARB decision is binding only for the tax year it covers — it doesn't lock in a value for future years.If you disagree with the outcome, Texas law gives you further options: you can appeal to district court, generally within 60 days and usually requiring at least partial payment of the tax due; you can go to binding arbitration if your property is a homestead or is valued at $5 million or less; or, for properties over $1 million meeting certain criteria, you can go to the State Office of Administrative Hearings.Each of those paths has its own rules and its own deadline running from the date of the ARB's order — worth confirming directly with the appraisal district or a Texas attorney before you rely on any of them.
Who's actually in the room
It's easy to conflate the ARB with the appraisal district itself, but they're separate. The person presenting the district's case at your hearing is typically a staff appraiser from the appraisal district, arguing for the district's value. The board deciding the outcome is the independent citizen panel described above — not district staff, and not employed by the district. Neither one sets your tax rate or collects your tax bill; both are strictly about the appraised value and related determinations on the roll. Seewhat evidence actually persuades an appraiser for why that distinction matters to what you should actually argue.
LoneStarLower's tool is built to prepare exactly the materials this process calls for — the comparable-property analysis behind an unequal-appraisal argument, and a filled-in protest form — for a homeowner to review and bring to the hearing themselves. It isn't live for every county yet; the waitlist below is how you hear when it covers yours.