Walkthrough for Filing a Protest Online

To file an online (uFile) protest related to your property in Dallas County, simply follow the steps below. You only need your property address or your name (account number not required).

  1. Enter the following URL into your internet browser. This opens the Dallas CAD Property Search webpage. http://www.dallascad.org/SearchOwner.aspx
  2. Click the link at the top of the webpage to choose how you would like to search for your property. The options include by “Owner Name”, “Account Number”, or “Street Address”. “Owner Name” searches must be done with your last namefirst.
  3. Select your property from the results by clicking on your address.
  4. You are now on your property’s “Residential Account” page. To access the uFile Online Protest system for your property, click the link on the left titled “uFile Online Protest”.
  5. This brings up the uFile Online Protest System webpage. To access your account, enter the PIN number from the top left corner of the 2020 Notice of Appraised Value that you received in the mail (under the large “@” symbol) into the box labeled “PIN”. To finish on this page, enter the large security code shown on the webpage into the box labeled “Enter code”, then click “Login”. If you did not receive your 2020 Notice of Appraised Value in the mail (or you lost the letter), you can request for your PIN to be sent instantly to your email (the online version of the Notice of Appraised Value does not have this PIN). To do this, simply click the box next to “Request PIN to be sent by Email”. If you do not receive an email from Dallas CAD in your inbox within two minutes, check your spam or junk mail folders.
  6. Now, you will see you are on the “uFile Notice of Protest for Year 2020” page. In the middle of the page on the left and right are boxes you may check to select the reason(s) for your protest. These are explained below. After you select your reason for protest, you may click “Next” at the bottom. Some of the most common reasons for protesting include: Value is over market value: DCAD’s proposed market value for your home is higher than the recent final selling price of comparable homes. If this applies to your protest, you should mark the box on the form, “Value is over market value.” Value is unequal compared with other properties: DCAD’s proposed market value for your property is higher than the market values DCAD proposed for other houses that are comparable to yours. If this applies to your protest, you should mark the box on the form, “Value is unequal to other properties.” Errors in DCAD data: For example, DCAD may be overestimating your home’s value if the number of bedrooms or other characteristics are incorrect on their website. It is possible more than one of these reasons applies for your protest, in which case you should check all that apply.
  7. Next, you will see the page where you may upload any supporting evidence you would like the county to consider for your protest. This may be a simple hand-written explanation that you can take a photo of (in .JPG format), an explanation you typed into an Excel spreadsheet (.XLS format), or one of the other formats listed on the site. If you wish to receive an informal settlement offer from the county, you must upload a document of some sort. If you do not wish to receive an informal settlement offer, you may simply click “Next”.To upload a document you would like considered by the county for your protest, first click the “Browse” button, then locate the document on your computer. Next, choose the description that you believe best describes your document from the dropdown menu labeled “Document Type”. Finally, click straight on “Upload”, ignoring the box next to it. You may repeat this for each document you would like to upload.
    After the first document is uploaded, a green paragraph will appear on the right side of the screen. At the top of the green paragraph, you should enter your “opinion of value”, which the county will consider when it makes its informal settlement offer. You must include your “Opinion of Value” on your property to qualify for a settlement offer. Enter the value you believe your property was actually worth as of January 1 st , 2020 (this is the date the county’s proposed value is for). After you finish uploading any documents you wish, click “Next” to proceed to the last step.
  8. Final step: On the page that appears, enter your email address, phone number, and name in the boxes provided. These boxes automatically capitalize whatever you type, so do not worry about this. Click “File Protest” when you are ready to submit your protest. A confirmation email will be sent to your email address.