Evidence for a Protest

"You cannot go to the hearing and just say the appraisal district is wrong." That is the Comptroller's own framing: it is up to you to have what you need to prove your case. The full guide — including what each evidence category is, when it helps, and what it does not prove by itself — lives in our property tax protest evidence guide. This page is the short version for the protest sequence.

The categories the state names

In its guidance on ARB hearings, the Comptroller lists the kinds of information owners should gather to establish value: property photographs (yours and comparables'), receipts or estimates for repairs, sales price documentation such as listings and closing statements, calculations of median level of appraisal (for unequal-appraisal protests), affidavits, newspaper articles, architectural drawings or blueprints, engineering reports, property surveys, and deed records. Each of these has its own page in the evidence guide, drawn from the same official sources.

Organizing evidence around your grounds

Match evidence to the ground you are protesting. A market-value protest leans on sales documentation and comparable properties. An unequal-appraisal protest leans on comparisons of appraised value against market indicators across comparable properties. A condition-based argument leans on photographs, repair estimates, and engineering or contractor documentation. Evidence that does not speak to the ground you selected mostly adds noise.

Exchange rules

Before or at the start of the hearing, each side must give the other a copy of the written material it intends to offer to the ARB, in the manner and form prescribed by Comptroller rule. Plan your packet so it can be shared and retained as the hearing record requires.

Build your packet

Our assessment checker produces a preparation checklist you can bring to an informal conference or hearing, organized by evidence category.

Worked example: sorting a packet for one ground (illustrative)

Illustrative scenario — not advice on what your protest should claim, and not a prediction of any hearing outcome.

1. Scenario: you plan to protest on market value only. Your folder currently holds a closing statement from your own 2019 purchase, three neighbor opinions, a contractor's roof estimate, and a comparable sale from last year at $455,000 against your $520,000 assessment.
2. Step — filter by ground: the 2019 closing statement is six years old and speaks to what you paid, not what a buyer would pay now; the neighbor opinions are not sales documentation. Both go to the bottom of the folder.
3. Step — keep what speaks to the ground: the recent comparable sale is your primary exhibit; the contractor's estimate stays because condition can affect what a buyer would pay, and you can present it as a secondary factor.
4. Step — prepare for exchange: the material you intend to offer must be shared with the other side at or before the hearing, so make two identical packets and label every exhibit.

What this tells you: a smaller packet where every exhibit maps to your stated ground reads better than a large folder of loosely related documents — and matches the exchange rule you must follow anyway.

What it does not tell you: whether the comparable you chose survives the comparability test (see market value), or how the ARB will weigh each exhibit.