What if my square footage on the record is wrong?

An incorrect square footage on your record is the most winnable kind of appeal, because it's an objective factual error rather than a matter of opinion. Pete Sepp of the National Taxpayers Union, via Bankrate (Oct 31, 2025), uses exactly this example, noting accuracy issues like a record showing "2,500 square feet of livable space when it's really 2,000" — fix the input and the over-valuation often corrects itself.

1. Pull your property record card. Every assessor maintains a record card listing your home's square footage, room/bath count, lot size, year built, and features. Get it from the county website or office and check every line. Sepp's other classic errors: "There are only two bathrooms in your house, not three. It's a one-car garage, not a two-car garage."

2. Document the correct figure. Use an appraisal, builder plans, a survey, or your own careful measurement of the heated/livable area (the standard most assessors use). A few hundred square feet of phantom space can mean thousands of dollars of over-assessment.

3. Choose the right channel. You can raise a record error in a normal appeal, but many states also offer a faster correction-of-error route that doesn't require a full valuation hearing:

• Texas — a motion to correct under Tex. Tax Code §25.25(c) can fix an inaccurate description of the property's size for the current year and up to five preceding years, and §25.25(d) allows a substantial-value-error motion (the one-fourth rule).
• Other states have analogous clerical-error or correction procedures, often with their own deadlines separate from the regular appeal window.

4. Submit clean proof. Attach the corrected measurement alongside the existing record so the assessor can see the discrepancy at a glance. Because the error is factual, these are frequently resolved informally without a contested hearing.

Why this is the best DIY entry point: it requires no appraisal expertise, the burden is light, and the success rate is high. If you suspect any error in your record — size, rooms, lot, condition flags — start here before mounting a comp-based valuation argument.