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Gary Adrian was angry when he spoke at April\u2019s Lubbock Central Appraisal District board meeting.<\/p>\n
The founder of Lubbock-based Ace of Texas, which represents citizens protesting their annual property tax appraisal, accused a company called Ownwell of delaying their batch of protests, creating a backlog which led to a settlement.<\/p>\n
\u201cGuys, if I sound a little bit irritated, it\u2019s because I am. We\u2019ve always tried to do the right thing. We\u2019ve always met with our LCAD appraisers,\u201d Adrian said during the meeting.<\/p>\n
Ownwell intentionally overloaded the system, Adrian said, adding his company tried to be fair with LCAD.<\/p>\n
Ownwell got reductions on 4,000 out of 4,800 protests. Adrian\u2019s company had 5,000 successful protests out of 12,000 submitted \u2013 less than half the percentage Ownwell got, said Tim Radloff, LCAD\u2019s chief appraiser.<\/p>\n
But Radloff said the problem was caused by a member of LCAD\u2019s Appraisal Review Board telling his colleagues to only trust Ownwell.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was an instance, and it was overheard by two of our staff members, that the panels were instructed to disregard the district\u2019s evidence and only to go with Ownwell\u2019s evidence to move the process along,\u201d Radloff said.<\/p>\n
Radloff said it\u2019s hard to defend the appraisal values if the Appraisal Review Board (ARB) refuses to listen. Radloff said he feared the district would lose more value if ARB panels were no longer listening to the evidence. That prompted him to negotiate a settlement.<\/p>\n
The problem is over, Radloff said. The person who instructed the ARB to disregard LCAD\u2019s evidence is longer with the ARB. His term ended in December.<\/p>\n
Adrian and Jim Baxa, LCAD board member, believe the problem is not over because it\u2019s bigger than one person on the ARB board.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe appraisal system in Texas is broken at its core,\u201d Baxa said.<\/p>\n
LubbockLights.com reached out to the Ownwell customer service and marketing departments by email. Customer service wrote back just to say we should reach out via email to marketing (which we did). We also tried reaching out by phone, but we were unable to reach the company\u2019s marketing or public relations.<\/p>\n
LubbockLights.com also reached out to Adrian\u2019s company to ask questions about his comments in the LCAD meeting. But our messages were not returned.<\/p>\n
Proposed solutions<\/p>\n
Neither Radloff or Baxa accused Ownwell of violating the law \u2013 or doing anything in violation of the rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t blame them for doing it. They take advantage of a broken system, and they caused a bigger problem that is going to spiral out of control.\u201d Baxa said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only solution is to \u2026 say, \u2018We\u2019re going to \u2026 value the property at either \u2013 the homeowner\u2019s choice \u2013 either the value that they purchased it at. \u2026 Or, if they choose to keep that value hidden from the appraisal district, which is their right, then it can be done at the current appraisal system.\u2019 They get to choose, and then it stays that way forever until they sell it,\u201d Baxa said.<\/p>\n
That solves two problems from Baxa\u2019s perspective. It alleviates the property tax protest volume at LCAD. But also gives homeowners a way to escape the problem of \u201cappraisal creep\u201d where taxable values drive higher tax bills even when the rates stay the same.<\/p>\n
Carl Tepper, state representative from Lubbock, said he\u2019d prefer to keep things simple. He thinks putting a yearly 2.5 percent cap on appraisal values is easier for most homeowners, adding he favors an 8 percent appraisal cap on businesses and rental properties.<\/p>\n
Tepper, as a a commercial agent\/property manager, said he represented a client once with a 53.5 percent appraisal creep. As a lawmaker, he heard stories of up to 200 percent in a single year.<\/p>\n
We asked Radloff if he thinks state lawmakers could offer a solution of gaming the system.<\/p>\n
Radloff said, \u201cI\u2019m not going to go down that road\u201d \u2013 meaning he would prefer not to talk about solutions for lawmakers to consider.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s up to them to do that. I\u2019m just a messenger. I do whatever they do. Whatever they set in statute, I\u2019m going to do no matter what,\u201d Radloff said.<\/p>\n
The problem<\/p>\n
Adrian said Ownwell entered Lubbock in 2021. He claimed Ownwell didn\u2019t just dump a long list of protests onto the LCAD last year. He said the company delayed and stonewalled so LCAD would have no choice but to reach a blanket settlement before the deadlines for protests were up.<\/p>\n
Adrian also said a long list of local companies did not get the same blanket settlement as Ownwell.<\/p>\n
Baxa said, \u201cOwnwell got a deal because they played hardball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adrian said the \u201cdeal\u201d was an 8 percent reduction in taxable value for the vast majority of properties represented by Ownwell.<\/p>\n
Radloff explained why LCAD and Ownwell agreed on an 8 percent reduction for a large group of protest cases.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the case of Ownwell, \u2026 they filed approximately 4,800 protests, and we had approximately 800 of them in the month of June [2025],\u201d Radloff said.<\/p>\n
Roughly a third of them got a reduction from the Appraisal Review Board, Radloff said, \u201c \u2026 anywhere from a high of 43 percent down to a low of 8 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI made the decision, which I have the authority to do as chief appraiser, that we negotiate with Ownwell,\u201d Radloff said.<\/p>\n
For a time Radloff was looking at major losses of the values his appraisers had already set.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to protect the appraisal roll. \u2026 I felt like I had to make a decision, and that\u2019s what I did,\u201d Radloff said.<\/p>\n
Baxa addressed fairness.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he\u2019s going to make such a deal with Ownwell, he has to be ready to make that same deal with Ace of Texas and the other dozen or so tax agents that we have here in Lubbock County,\u201d Baxa said.<\/p>\n
Radloff said outside of the issue with the person on the ARB forcing a settlement, LCAD treats everyone \u201cfair and square\u201d with no favoritism.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that Gary [Adrian] feels the way he does, but it happens throughout the state where there\u2019s negotiations \u2013 whether it be with somebody who files 4,800 protests or 12,000 protests,\u201d Radloff said.<\/p>\n
But when asked if there\u2019s a problem with \u201cgaming the system,\u201d Radloff said that\u2019s already been happening.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, that\u2019s kind of gaming the system where you\u2019re filing protests on everything, whether you need to or not. That\u2019s already a problem where they are overloading the system. That\u2019s happening statewide,\u201d Radloff said.<\/p>\n
Going to get worse<\/p>\n
During that LCAD board meeting, Adrian said, \u201cThis hog that fed at this trough last year is coming back. And she\u2019s going to be a lot bigger and a lot hungrier.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baxa thinks not only will Ownwell do it again in the coming tax year but so will all the other companies representing local property taxpayers.<\/p>\n
\u201cBasically, every large county is having the same exact issue. And it\u2019s even worse in some of the very, very large counties. You could imagine how many tens of thousands of protests a Dallas or Houston or Fort Worth get,\u201d Baxa said.<\/p>\n
Ownwell exposed a flaw in the system, according to Baxa. Everyone else is going to copy the strategy, he also said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s no more Mr. Nice Guy from these guys [the tax consulting companies], and they\u2019re going to do the same thing that Ownwell has done. And it\u2019s actually going to become a worse problem for the district. \u2026 I don\u2019t care if the district hired every possible person to hear protests. There is zero possibility of this getting done in time. And we\u2019re going to end up with an even more severe backlog this year.\u201d Baxa said.<\/p>\n
Correction: Carl Tepper\u2019s profession is a commercial agent\/property manager. This story was corrected and updated. <\/p>\n
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