HARRIS COUNTY — The Harris County Appraisal District (HCAD) won the 2018 Distinguished Assessment Jurisdiction Award presented by the International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO).
The award was presented at the annual IAAO conference in recognition of HCAD’s response to Hurricane Harvey by helping flooding victims report property damage.
The district upgraded its mobile app with a damage report feature that allowed property owners to report flood damage to the home, garage or other structure on the property and provide an event damage report to show the amount of water and an estimate of the damage. The upgrade was done within four days – from inception of the idea to the completed product – during Hurricane Harvey.
“We were all sheltering at home during the hurricane and watching the flooding on the news,” said Roland Altinger, chief appraiser. “I was trying to think of ways to make it easier for homeowners to report damage – especially if they were not able to stay in their homes – and came up with the idea of using the app.”
The Distinguished Assessment Jurisdiction award is presented to an assessment jurisdiction that has initiated a technical, procedural or administrative program that is an improvement over prior programs in that jurisdiction. The program and award is generally recognized as a component of a model assessment system and a contributing factor to equity in property taxation.
About HCAD
The Harris County Appraisal District is a political subdivision of the State of Texas established in 1980 for the purpose of discovering and appraising property for ad valorem tax purposes for each taxing unit within the boundaries of the district. The district has approximately 1.8 million parcels of property to assess each year with a total market value of $588 billion. The appraisal district in Harris County is the largest in Texas, serving approximately 500 taxing units, and one of the largest appraisal districts in the United States. For further information, visit www.hcad.org.
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