WESLACO – A Rio Grande Valley woman is trying to get her property back after it showed up under her father’s name.

Celina Leal has goals to accomplish with a deed passed down by her dad. The document is for a two-acre plot in the outskirts of Weslaco.  

She currently lives in an apartment shared by four people.

“I’m running out of room here, I have two children. It’s a two bedroom/one bath,” she said.

Leal said she dreams of building a home there and has paid taxes for 10 years. When she paid again this year, she said the return paperwork showed her father was the owner.

The Weslaco resident said she asked the Hidalgo County Tax Office to correct the name. She was told the system would automatically reevaluate her property’s agricultural status and she wouldn’t qualify for it anymore.

It would cause her taxes to go up and she’d have to pay rollback taxes.

“Based on the two acres and the $25,000 that it’s worth, it’ll be about $3,500 more or less. That was her ball parking it,” she said.

After visiting both the appraisal district and the tax office, she still had no resolution.

“I don’t even know if this land is really mine anymore. It’s so easy for them to just change the name. They just… I’m sorry but I don’t how they can do that without proper paperwork or even to explain why it even happened,” she said.

CHANNEL 5 NEWS reached out to the Hidalgo County Tax Office and Appraisal District. Both offices said the name change appeared to be a mistake.

They’re working out the issue and reviewing it to see if Leal will have to pay the rollback tax.

Count on us to bring you any updates.