Guide · updated 2026-08-02
Protest deadlines are rules, not dates
Many jurisdictions set the deadline for contesting an assessment as a condition rather than a calendar date — thirty days after notice, or a fixed date, whichever is later. A table printing only the fixed date sends some owners away too early.
The 'whichever is later' shape
Texas is the clearest example. Its protest deadline is May 15 or thirty days after the appraisal district delivered the notice of appraised value, whichever is later. A notice delivered late moves the deadline outward. An owner who reads a table saying 'Texas: May 15', checks the date, and concludes the window has closed may in fact still be inside it. The same conditional shape appears in other states with different anchors — a number of days after a notice, after a mailing, or after a board certifies its roll. The rule is what matters; the date is an output of the rule.
There is usually a second deadline after the first
Filing opens the protest. It does not finish it. Most jurisdictions set a separate window for exchanging evidence before a hearing, and it is typically short. Texas appraisal districts operating an online settlement system commonly require evidence to be uploaded within a few days of an offer. Missing the evidence window does not end a protest, but it can mean arriving at a hearing with nothing admitted — which is close to the same thing in effect.
The route is prescribed too
Most jurisdictions require the protest on their own form or through their portal. A letter alone may not open a protest even if it arrives inside the window, and some offices treat an informal enquiry as something other than a filing. That is why the letter generator here produces a document to organise and support a filing rather than a filing itself, and says so on the page. Check the authority's own instructions for the required route before relying on anything.
Which is why the deadline lookup is a tool
A static table cannot express 'thirty days after your notice'. A tool can: it takes the date on your notice, applies the jurisdiction's published rule, and returns the date that actually applies to you along with the rule it applied and the source it came from. That is the whole design argument for the deadline lookup, and it is why the county packs behind it record a rule type rather than a date.
Official sources for this guide
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