I missed the May 15 protest deadline and my Collin County appraisal still looks too high — is there anything I can still do before my fall tax bill hits?

I missed the May 15 protest deadline and my Collin County appraisal still looks too high — is there anything I can still do before my fall tax bill hits? Yes. While formal protest options are limited once the deadline passes, McKinney homeowners still have real avenues to review, correct, and plan around an inflated Notice of Appraised Value before the fall tax bill lands.

Every spring, the Collin Central Appraisal District mails out Notices of Appraised Value, and every spring a portion of homeowners either miss the deadline entirely or assume it's not worth the hassle. Then late summer rolls around, tax rates get set, and the bill in October or November feels a lot bigger than expected. If that's where you are right now, take a breath. Missing May 15 closes one door, but it doesn't lock you out of the house.

There are still a few legitimate paths worth understanding: late protest provisions for specific situations, correction motions for factual errors on your account, exemption reviews that can lower your taxable value regardless of the market value dispute, and payment planning strategies that soften the blow even if the number doesn't change. Some of these apply narrowly, and none of them are guaranteed to work in every case, but each is worth a five-minute check against your own notice.

This post walks through what's actually still on the table for Collin County homeowners after the May 15 window closes, what typically doesn't work, and how to think ahead to next year so you're not in this position again. Whether you're in a McKinney subdivision, a rural Collin County parcel, or anywhere in between, the process and the timeline are the same — and there's still time to get informed before the fall bill arrives.

What Missing May 15 Actually Means

In Texas, May 15 (or 30 days after your notice was mailed, whichever is later) is the standard deadline to file a formal protest with the Appraisal Review Board. Once that date passes without a filed protest, the appraisal district generally treats your value as final for the year. That's the hard truth for most McKinney homeowners who let the deadline slip.

But 'final' doesn't mean 'unquestionable.' Texas law carves out a handful of exceptions that let certain homeowners still get a value corrected, even after the window closes.

Late Protest Options That Sometimes Still Apply

Section 25.25 Correction Motions

If your appraisal contains a factual error — wrong square footage, wrong number of bathrooms, a pool that doesn't exist, incorrect lot size — you may be able to file a motion to correct the appraisal roll under Tax Code Section 25.25, even outside the normal protest window. This isn't a market-value argument; it's strictly for correcting clerical or factual mistakes on the property record. Pull your CCAD property detail sheet and compare it line by line against reality. It's more common than you'd think for a McKinney home's records to still reflect a builder's original floor plan or an addition that was never permitted.

Late Protest for Good Cause

If you can show you never received your notice, or had a legitimate reason for missing the deadline, some appraisal review boards will consider a late protest. This is decided case by case and isn't a sure thing, but it costs nothing to ask.

Homestead and Other Exemption Reviews

This is the one homeowners overlook most. If you moved into your Collin County home this year, turned 65, or otherwise became newly eligible for a homestead, over-65, or disability exemption, filing that exemption application doesn't have a May deadline the way a protest does. An exemption won't change your market value, but it directly lowers your taxable value and caps future increases — often a bigger long-term win than a protest would have been anyway.

What Won't Work at This Point

• Calling the appraisal district to 'informally negotiate' after the roll has certified — informal review is generally tied to the same window as the formal protest.
• Waiting for the tax rate to be set and hoping it offsets the value — rate and value are separate mechanisms, and a lower rate rarely makes up for an inflated value.
• Assuming next year's notice will just fix itself — appraised values tend to carry forward assumptions from year to year unless someone actively corrects them.

Preparing for the Fall Bill Itself

Once county and school district tax rates are adopted later in the year, your fall bill becomes fixed for that tax year regardless of how you feel about the appraisal. If the number is going to be a strain, look into installment payment plans through the Collin County Tax Assessor-Collector, which are available to homestead homeowners and can spread the burden across several payments instead of one lump sum.

It's also worth having a real conversation about what your home is actually worth in today's market versus what the county says it's worth. If you're weighing whether current McKinney market conditions support the appraised value at all, that context matters heading into next spring's protest season.

Setting Yourself Up for Next Year

The single best thing you can do right now is mark your calendar early. Collin Central Appraisal District notices typically go out in April, and the protest deadline is usually May 15 or 30 days from mailing. Watch your mailbox (and your CCAD online account) closely each spring so you're not caught off guard again. You can review your account, download comparable sales data, and check exemption status anytime at the Collin Central Appraisal District website.

FAQ

Can I still protest my Collin County appraisal after May 15?

Generally no, not through the standard protest process. However, you may qualify for a late correction motion under specific circumstances, such as a factual error on your property record or a valid late-filing exception.

Ready to make sense of what your fall tax bill will actually look like? Request a quick review of your 2026 Notice of Appraised Value with Jane Clark at Keller Williams McKinney to see what your real fall tax bill will look like and what your options are.