Watch Out: Scam Alert!

Watch out, friends—there seems to be a new homestead tax exemption scam going on in Travis County. I received the form below in the mail yesterday, and it’s the first time I’ve heard of a “Homestead Designation.” Basically, this whole offer from “Homestead Designation Services” is a total rip off.

First things first: there is no charge to file a homestead tax exemption.

While this “faux official” form is clearly trying to confuse people into thinking they need to pay money to file for a homestead tax exemption, it actually doesn’t even make a claim as to a benefit of the services the company offers. But tell all your friends, there is no charge to file for a homestead tax exemption. The legitimate forms to do so are available online, at no charge, from your county appraisal district, such as traviscad.org or hayscad.com.

What do these scammers want you to do?

1.     Mail them a check or money order—they won’t accept a credit card as those charges could be reversed later.

2.     They claim they will then prepare a document. They don’t specify what this document is or what it will say.

3.     Then mail them another $52, and they’ll record this mystery document with the county for you. It’s worth noting that anyone can record anything with the county. The county doesn’t do anything with that information, it is just on the public record.

They sit on a throne of lies.

It would be easy to go through this form and pick apart all the vague, meaningless, and misleading information on it, except it would be a long, boring list since that would include everything except for my name and their disclaimer at the bottom that clearly states that this document will not put a homestead tax exemption in place, is not required by law, and is only and advertisement of services.

As with anything else with your home, if you have questions about it, please call me.