The Bexar County Appraisal District in Texas was the target of 962 lawsuits by commercial property owners last year, prompting property owners to sue the county for more than $19.4 billion in appraisal disputes, more than double the amount litigated in 2012.
The rising tide of lawsuits in the San Antonio area comes amid double-digit increases in property valuations that produce correspondingly bigger tax bills. The county’s total appraised value for the current year is $163 billion — up $13 billion, or 8.7 percent, from 2015.
The $19.4 billion appraised value of contested properties was trimmed to $17.5 billion last year, with several cases still pending. Lawsuits are cutting into those appraisals, but commercial property owners fare much better than homeowners.
Commercial properties, which made up the bulk of the legal action, shaved 9.7 percent off their proposed valuations, according to the Bexar County Appraisal District. Commercial litigation jumped from 397 cases in 2012, and during the four-year period, commercial enterprises sliced $4.9 billion off their taxable values.
Chief Appraiser Michael Amezquita said commercial owners outgun his office in court. “They control the docket, and it’s virtually impossible to get sale prices on commercial properties,” he told Watchdog.org, a website run by the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, a nonprofit organization based in Alexandria, Va.
“About half my time is spent on litigation,” Deputy Chief Appraiser Mary Kieke said. “The answer on litigation costs is that there is no clean answer. We use two outside law firms and have one in-town attorney on retainer.”