A new investigation found that cheating on the Texas Homestead Exemption has become a widespread problem. Especially, in Houston.
After reviewing 20,000 Harris County property owners, Charles Blain with Urban Reform uncovered a lot of fraud.
“There were 600 or so, that looked to be ineligible” Blain said, “Those are a mixture of LLC’s and individuals claiming more than one Homestead Exemption.”
And the problem is, when others cheat, everyone else has to pay for it.
“When you take this off of the rolls, you’re essentially making everyone else pay more because our taxes are not going down, or not staying the same, because they’re trying to fill in a gap.”
It’s a problem that is happening all across the state, with Blain calling on the cheaters to be prosecuted. This new study has brought awareness to state officials.