Aug 27, 2026 · 4 min · 6 segments
Harris County’s appraisal district acknowledged a control failure and promised corrections; the next test is whether the public can verify the fix.
Charles BlainHost
For months, I've been reviewing public appraisal records for properties owned by business entities that still carried residence homestead exemptions.
But the work was narrowed and refined and refined again and checked again and given to appraisal districts to review themselves.
And on August 19th, the Harris County Appraisal District reported back in public.
Chief Appraiser Adam Bogard told the board that the two-role analysis we did was correct.
And he described the accounts that we looked over and he said some of them were qualifying trusts, but the remaining, the majority of them, he said,
had been set aside because HCAD would have to fix them.
This is just proof that they need to be reviewed even more deeply or be removed from the roles.
HCAD said the problem arose when ownership changed, but the exemption did not roll off at the year end as it should have.
Bogart said management had not ensured proper training or quality assurance, and HCAD created a special project team, began preparing letters and workflows, and promised monthly updates until the issue is handled.
For months, I've been reviewing public appraisal records for properties owned by business entities that still carried residence homestead exemptions.
But the work was narrowed and refined and refined again and checked again and given to appraisal districts to review themselves.
And on August 19th, the Harris County Appraisal District reported back in public.
Chief Appraiser Adam Bogard told the board that the two-role analysis we did was correct.
And he described the accounts that we looked over and he said some of them were qualifying trusts, but the remaining, the majority of them, he said,
had been set aside because HCAD would have to fix them.
This is just proof that they need to be reviewed even more deeply or be removed from the roles.
HCAD said the problem arose when ownership changed, but the exemption did not roll off at the year end as it should have.
Bogart said management had not ensured proper training or quality assurance, and HCAD created a special project team, began preparing letters and workflows, and promised monthly updates until the issue is handled.
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