Fighting Your Property Taxes!

Almost a year ago I was notified by the Fulton County Board of Assessors that one of my investment properties was assessed at a much higher value than what it was the previous year, which meant higher property taxes!  The assessed value was almost $70,000 higher than the previous year and I knew I definitely could not sell the place for the value they put it on it.  So, I decided to fight it.  I didn’t really know the entire process and how it worked but with a little research on google I found some helpful hints…

The first step is to notify the Board of Assessors that you want to appeal it, which is what I did, but you have to do that within 45 days of the notice.  During that time, I gathered evidence by compiling a list of recently sold units in my subdivision which listed the sq.ft, # of bedrooms and # of bathrooms.  I sent all this information with my appeal thinking that would be sufficient evidence, however, about 4 months later I got another letter with a one line sentence basically stating that my property was assessed right and the assessed value would stick, however, the letter also stated that I  had the right to go in front of the board of equalization stating my reasons.  After another 3 months, I finally received a letter stating the date and time of my appearance in front of the board.

Before I went to my hearing, I went to the Fulton County Assessor Website, www.fultonassessor.org and plugged in my address in the property tax search.  Since my property was a condo, I knew that there were several other units in my building that had the exact same floorplan with the same features, so I looked up to see what those properties were assessed at and I found out that they were assessed much lower than mine.  I printed out all the information and highlighted the sq.ft, # of bedrooms/baths and the assessed value.  I then looked up to see what comparable units recently sold in the neighborhood in the last 6 months. There were only a couple units that did sell, however they were larger units that sold far less than my assessed value so that was good evidence to bring to the hearing as well.

I was thrilled with the outcome and the bonus is that they are freezing my taxes for 3 years at the assessed value.  For the next 3 years I now won’t have to worry about my property taxes going up! That is pretty big savings, I think I figured it out to be about $3400 that I am saving over the next couple of years. It almost took a whole year to fight this, but in the end it was worth it!

For new property owners, remember that each year you will get a statement in the mail about what your assessed value is, make sure you look at that closely and if you feel that it is too high, fight it!