2025 Texas sessionsRegular and both called sessions have ended. This index covers House and Senate bills, not resolutions. Statuses come from official reports.

2025 · Regular session · House bill

HB4809

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Official caption: Relating to the authority of an owner of property that qualifies for an exemption as a historic or archeological site to protest the allocation of the appraised value of the property between the land and the improvements to the land.

Signed by governorSource-checked explanation published

Official report lists House author(s): Meyer. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.

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Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.

Bill highlights

Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.

HB4809 expressly lets owners of property qualifying for the historic or archeological-site exemption challenge the appraised value of the structure or site separately from the land, and challenge how the total appraised value is divided between them.
The law concerns property covered by Tax Code Section 11.24, which permits local taxing units to exempt some or all of the value of qualifying designated historic or archeological property and necessary access/use land.
It took effect June 20, 2025, and applies only to protests whose notices are filed on or after that date.

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What does it do?

HB4809 expressly lets owners of property qualifying for the historic or archeological-site exemption challenge the appraised value of the structure or site separately from the land, and challenge how the total appraised value is divided between them. It adds those specific grounds for a protest before the appraisal review board. That division can matter when the exemption treats the structure and land differently. Final law

The law concerns property covered by Tax Code Section 11.24, which permits local taxing units to exempt some or all of the value of qualifying designated historic or archeological property and necessary access/use land. HB4809 does not itself designate a historic site, create a new exemption for every old building, or guarantee a lower appraisal or tax bill. Historic-site exemption

It took effect June 20, 2025, and applies only to protests whose notices are filed on or after that date. It updates both the version of the protest statute applicable before January 1, 2027, and the version applicable from that date, so the added historic-property protest grounds are included in both. It does not reopen previously filed protests or replace ordinary protest-filing deadlines.

What changed along the way?

The introduced bill would instead have directed the chief appraiser to consider restrictions on altering, improving or repairing historic property when setting its market value, with a January 1, 2026, effective date. The House committee substitute replaced that approach with the separate-value and allocation protest rights and the new applicability/effective-date provisions. The introduced valuation instruction is not a new requirement enacted by HB4809. Introduced version

The House-passed and Senate committee versions kept the substitute’s substance. The final text changes the spelling “archaeological” to “archeological” in two places, without changing the operative rights. No separately numbered amendments appear in the official index. The governor signed the bill after House passage 140–1 and Senate passage 30–1. History · Text versions · Amendment index

For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.

Official bill versions

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?

Owners of qualifying historic or archeological property gain an explicit route to contest the land/building split, rather than only arguing about the overall appraisal. Appraisal districts and review boards must address those specific disputes. A successful protest could change taxable value, but neither a value reduction nor a particular dollar saving is assured.

The latest fiscal note anticipates no significant state or local-government fiscal impact. It does not estimate how many owners will protest or the result of individual cases.

Official sources

Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.