HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — With property taxes in the news, a KHOU 11 News viewer reached out to share a letter that she got in the mail that raised a red flag.
The letter claims to offer homeowners help to get a "homestead designation."
When Janice Edwards first saw the letter, she had a lot of questions.
"The first thing that comes to my head: "Is this some kind of weird thing we're going to have to do?'" she said.
The letter asks homeowners to send $89 to get a homestead designation.
When you couple that with recent headlines about tax relief, you can see why it piqued her interest. She initially thought it might have to do with new property tax legislation.
"I almost thought that, too ... but then I thought, wait, who is the entity that's sending me this letter?" she said.
KHOU 11 News reached out to the company on the letter, Homestead Designation Services. Someone on their customer support team said they help homeowners with the process of homestead designation, not homestead tax exemptions. They confirmed that they are a private, for-profit company that is not associated with an official government agency.
The fine print of the letter even said that if you file for and receive a tax exemption, you will eventually receive paperwork for a designation of homestead for free.
"I could just see the little old people saying, 'Oh, man, I've got to do this or I'm not going to get my tax break," Edwards said.
Both Fort Bend County and Harris County have posted consumer alerts about the letters and the company sending them. The Better Business Bureau said Homestead Designation Services is a private company and it is not BBB accredited. They've given the company a B- rating and it has nearly 25 complaints in the past three years.
If you have a problem you can’t solve, Grace White wants to help. She fights for consumers and is passionate about getting answers and solving problems for Texans.