Is Your Gwinnett County Property Tax Out of Line?

Posted by Daniel Jones on Apr 2, 2015 11:30:00 AM

We hear from the residents of Gwinnett County all the time. They tell us that the amount that they’re paying in property tax every year just seems to go up and up, and that it’s often completely out of line with what they feel their property is actually worth. Often, they come to believe that they’ve come crazy with all the property tax in Gwinnett County that they’re liable for. Here’s the thing: they’re not.

The fact is that many properties in Gwinnett County are over assessed every year. You have to remember the property assessment isn’t an exact science, and often the Gwinnett County tax assessor is making subjective judgments when determining the value of your property. For this reason, you should never blindly accept the appraised value of your home that’s offered by the tax assessor. Instead, you should take the chance to conduct research of your own to see if your property has been over assessed.

Investigate the True Value of Your Property

If you want to know whether the Gwinnett County tax assessor’s valuation of your property is out of line, then you’re going to have to do some research. Online, you’ll find a wealth of resources for conducting research about real estate in your neighborhood and general area. You will use these resources to essentially conduct the same kind of research that the Gwinnett County tax assessor conducted.

Gwinnett_County_Property_Tax

What you want to do is look for homes in your neighborhood that are similar to yours and that sold recently. This should give you an excellent ballpark as to what your home’s true value is. If you’re having trouble locating similar homes in your neighborhood, then you can always examine a nearby one, too. If you discover that the value the Gwinnett County tax assessor arrived at is out of line with what you’re seeing, then you should absolutely appeal their decision.

It’s worth mentioning that if your home is valuable enough, you may wish to hire an independent appraiser to look at it. They will be able to be more exact than you’ll be able to. Of course, hiring such an appraiser will require money and there is no guarantee that they will come up with a value that supports a reduction in your tax assessment. So, you’ll have to evaluate the cost of the appraiser against the potential for savings in your Gwinnett County property tax.

Appealing the Appraised Value of Your Property

Sometime in April or May you should receive an assessment notice from the Gwinnett County tax assessor. In it, you’ll find the current appraised value of your home, as well as an estimation of the Gwinnett County property tax that you’ll owe for that year. If you wish to appeal the valuation of your property, then you will have to notify the tax assessor of your intention to appeal within 45 days of receiving the notice. You can do this by sending a letter to the Gwinnett County tax assessor or by filling out an appeal form, which you can locate on their website.

property tax appeals

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