If you lost a spouse who served and you live around Fort Worth, or anywhere in Texas, you may have home benefits nobody has walked you through. There are two separate systems here. The VA home loan is federal. The property tax exemptions are Texas law. They use different tests, so a yes from one does not mean a yes from the other, and the wrong move, like selling before you file, can cost you. I will go slowly.
Remarriage works differently in each system.
For the VA home loan, the VA's page says a surviving spouse can qualify if the veteran died in service or from a service-connected disability and the spouse did not remarry, or did not remarry before age 57 or before December 16, 2003. Spouses who remarried before that date had a separate application deadline that has passed.
For the Texas total exemptions, the test is simple and strict: you must not have remarried since the veteran's death. There is no age exception written into those sections. So someone who remarries later in life could keep one benefit and lose the other. Ask before you assume.
You may qualify for a Certificate of Eligibility if at least one of these is true:
The paperwork depends on whether you receive Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, or DIC.
Here is the downside. A Certificate of Eligibility is not a loan approval. A lender still has to qualify you on your own income and credit, and the home has to be where you will live.
The good part: the VA says a surviving spouse receiving DIC is exempt from the funding fee. On a zero-down purchase that fee is 2.15 percent of the loan for first use, so it is real money. Here is how the fee works.
If you were denied DIC in the past, the PACT Act may have changed your answer. The VA says survivors can seek re-evaluation, and that a PACT Act claim must say so clearly on the application. Ask a veterans service officer to help with this one.
These are listed by the Tax Code section that creates them, because your appraisal district will ask which one you are claiming.
Texas voters approved this on November 4, 2025, and House Bill 2508 made it law for tax years starting in 2026. It gives a total homestead exemption to the unremarried surviving spouse of a veteran who died from a qualifying condition, whatever the veteran's rating was, and regardless of when the veteran died.
The limit: "qualifying" has a specific meaning. The statute points to conditions presumed service-connected under the 2022 PACT Act and its regulations. It does not mean any illness connected to service. And it applies to tax years 2026 forward, so it does not reach back to earlier bills.
One useful difference from Section 11.131: the text of 11.136 does not require that the home was your homestead when the veteran died. Your appraisal district makes the call, so confirm that with them.
What proves it? The law does not spell that out. Bexar Appraisal District, for one, publishes a list: your application, Texas ID with the home's address, marriage and death certificates, and a VA letter confirming DIC and that service connection for cause of death was established. Bexar is not your district. Ask yours what they want before you gather everything.
This is the expensive one. If you move, a total exemption usually does not stay total. Under Sections 11.131, 11.133 and 11.136, a spouse who has not remarried can carry an exemption to a new homestead, but it is capped at the dollar amount of the exemption on the old home in the last year you received it. If the new house is worth more, the rest of the value can be taxed.
That number comes from the exemption you received. So if you may qualify under 11.136 and have not filed yet, talk to your appraisal district before you sell about filing and how the exemption would carry. The statute also provides a written certificate from the chief appraiser of your current district, so ask about that before you move. I would want that in hand before you go under contract on the next house.
I covered this trap in the statewide exemption guide, and your appraisal district can confirm the numbers for your home.
The standard deadline is April 30, on Form 50-114 for the homestead exemptions and Form 50-135 for Section 11.22. If you missed it, you may still have time.
When a late homestead application is approved and the tax was already paid, the collector refunds it to the person who owned the property then. You do not have to apply separately for the refund under Section 11.431.
File with the appraisal district for the county your parcel is in. If you are in Burleson or Southlake, check that first, because both cities sit in two counties.
I am a REALTOR, not a lender, attorney or tax professional. Confirm your situation with your lender, your appraisal district, a veterans service officer or a tax professional.
Yes, if you meet one of the VA's conditions, such as the veteran dying in service or from a service-connected disability and you meeting the remarriage rule. You request eligibility with VA Form 26-1817 if you receive DIC, or VA Form 21P-534EZ if you do not. A lender still has to approve you on your income and credit.
The VA says a surviving spouse receiving Dependency and Indemnity Compensation is exempt. Ask your lender to confirm that your Certificate of Eligibility shows the exemption before closing.
Usually only up to a cap. Under Sections 11.131, 11.133 and 11.136, a spouse who has not remarried can carry an exemption to a new homestead, limited to the dollar amount received on the old home in the last year. Ask the chief appraiser of your current district for the certificate the statute provides before you move.
If you want someone to go through this with you, send me a note. I will help you figure out what to ask your appraisal district and your lender, and if a move is on the table we will get your exemption questions in front of your appraisal district before anything goes on the market. The funding fee post is a good place to start on the loan side.
REALTOR® · BHHS PenFed Realty Texas
I help buyers and sellers across the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex — Fort Worth, Burleson, Southlake, Crowley and Keller, and the surrounding Dallas area. I write these because they are the questions I answer on the phone every week, and most people never get a straight answer to them. If you have one I have not covered, ask me — I will probably turn it into the next post.
