In 2019, El Paso attorney Sergio Saldivar built a 2,900-square-foot home in El Paso’s Upper Valley. Over the years, he’s added a pool, a jacuzzi and a canopy. Because of an oversight by El Paso’s Central Appraisal District, he’s never paid any property taxes on the improvements he’s made to his half-acre lot – including while seeking election as county attorney.
The failure to assess Saldivar’s home for property tax purposes occurred in part because the property is in an unincorporated area and didn’t require the building permits that are a key means for identifying new construction, said David Stone, the deputy chief appraiser for the El Paso Central Appraisal District.
“We typically identify new improvements through building permits that are issued by the county’s municipalities. This property is outside of the boundaries of any municipality and did not have a permit,” Stone said. “We do try to inspect areas of development outside of municipal boundaries, but almost all of the properties on the street had been built several years before this one and construction on the street wasn’t particularly active at the time. It looks like we missed this particular property.”
Stone said EPCAD misses a “handful” of new homes built each year, mostly in the unincorporated areas of the county.
Saldivar, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for county attorney in 2024, didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment from El Paso Matters about whether he knew he was paying far less in property taxes than he should have over the years.
EPCAD did not include the home and other improvements in its annual valuations until this year, records show. It is now valued at $534,732 – $91,738 for the half acre of land and $442,994 for the improvements.
Saldivar paid just under $8,000 in property taxes on the property in the 800 block of Neyla Drive – all on the value of the land – between 2020 and 2024, tax records show.
If the property valuation from the El Paso Central Appraisal District had included the home, the tax bills in those years would been about $48,000, according to recent reappraisals by EPCAD for 2022-2024 and El Paso Matters’ estimates for 2020 and 2021 based on what Saldivar paid to build the home, valuation increases in nearby houses in that time period and property tax rates.
Stone said state law will require Saldivar to pay taxes owed from 2022 to 2024. “Unfortunately, state law prevents us from back assessing years prior to 2022,” he said.
EPCAD has now appraised the property at $439,843 for 2022, $498,168 for 2023, and $534,732 for 2024. Saldivar has protested the appraisals, which would require him to pay more than $22,500 in additional property taxes for those years.
The El Paso Matters estimate suggests that Saldivar would have paid an additional $17,500 in property taxes in 2020 and 2021 if the home had been included in the valuation.
County property records show that in July 2017, Saldivar purchased a half-acre lot in the Pars subdivision in an unincorporated part of El Paso County’s Upper Valley, near the intersection of Upper Valley and Borderland roads. The purchase amount wasn’t listed in the records.
The records show that Saldivar received a $260,348 loan in July 2019 to build a home on the lot. The builder, Icon Custom Home Builder, placed a $254,000 mechanics lien on the property at the time to ensure payment.
El Paso Central Appraisal District records show that the main living area of 2,900 square feet was built in 2019, along with a 484-square-foot garage, a 306-square-foot covered patio, a 90-square-foot courtyard and a 72-square-foot open porch. Saldivar added a pool and jacuzzi in 2022, and a 640-square-foot canopy in 2023, the records show.
None of those improvements have been subject to property tax until this year, records show.
County property records show that Saldivar transferred the property in February 2024 to Saldivar Texas Holdings, a limited liability company he established a month before, according to state records.
Once final appraisal amounts are set by EPCAD, the property tax bill for the previously omitted appraised value will be sent by the Consolidated Tax Office overseen by the city of El Paso. The taxpayer who owes the money would have 180 days to pay the bill, the tax office said in a statement to El Paso Matters.
Property owners should review appraisals and tax bills to ensure that they account for all of the property, including recent improvements, the statement said. That can avoid the buildup of years of back taxes.
“It is best if the taxpayer notifies the appraisal district of the erroneous tax bill instead of waiting for EPCAD to discover the issue,” the tax office statement said.
The post An El Paso attorney hasn’t had to pay property taxes on an Upper Valley home he built in 2019 appeared first on El Paso Matters.
Read: Read More