SURPRISED BY YOUR PROPERTY TAX INCREASE?

From our initial review of the DeKalb County records, it appears many homeowners in our neighborhood and the surrounding area experienced an increase in 2012 as high as 50% in the assessed value of our houses and property. Property taxes should be based on actual fair market value.

The right to appeal this assessment ends July 13, 2012. Each homeowner needs to file a separate appeal, but unfortunately these appeals can take over a year to resolve and each of us will still be required to pay taxes on 85% of the assessed home value during the appeal process, this is too long for such an obvious mistake in home assessments. Our neighbors in the Northlake area were successful in compiling information and lobbying the local tax assessors office for mass reappraisals, something that needs to be done for our our community as well.

What to do:

• A group of like-minded neighbors are trying to organize a meeting. A few tax attorneys who live in our area plan to attend, and will be happy to answer questions about the appeals process. We will post information about the meeting and share all of our findings with you on this blog:
  www.DekalbPropertyTax.blogspot.com
• Call the County. Stress that the most efficient and cost-effective way for the County to resolve this matter is to re-assess the Brookhaven area instead of having to process appeals for the hundreds and hundreds of homes which are still dramatically over-valued for tax purposes. Advise them that we all intend to file appeals if the County won’t take immediate steps to correct its mistakes.
  • Deputy Chief Assessor, Donna Rosser: 404-371-2522
  • County Commissioner, Jeff Rader: 404-371-2863
• Please post any questions or useful information you hear; share your experiences contacting the commissioners and tax assessors office on the blog above. You can also email or call me with the information and I will post it. As a group, we can work together to compile supporting documentation to show a more accurate & reasonable valuation for each of our properties.
• As fellow homeowners, we plan to speak with the Assessor’s Office and review the county’s records used to determine the new assessed values (if any exist), and compile information critical to our efforts. We will share any useful information we acquire.
• File your property tax appeal by the deadline, if the county refuses to reassess your property.

Several individuals from our neighborhood have helped with this initiative. Thank you to everyone for working together to make sure no one is paying more than their fair share.