There is a possibility that you could very well be paying more in taxes than you should be for your property in DeKalb County. Tax assessors do not always get the valuation correct for properties, whether they are residential or commercial, for a range of reasons. They are not being malicious, of course. They tend to be simple mistakes and human error, which are sometimes out of their hands.
For example, there is a chance that there could have been paperwork filed on your home that was incorrect when you bought it and no one noticed. Someone might have written down that you have a property with 2.5 acres. However, you might only truly own .25 acres. Whether it is a large mistake or a small mistake, errors happen. That is why you need to make sure you check the assessment letter that comes to your home from the DeKalb County tax assessor. This shows you their value for the property, and you will know just how much you are going to end up paying in taxes.
If you feel that the price is too high, then you will want to dig deeper and do research of your own to find out whether your hunch is correct. You can ask the DeKalb County tax assessor office for the worksheet and information that they used to value your property and you can check that information with the information that you have about your home or business. Sometimes, they do not match up, and this means you could be paying too much or too little in taxes.
What Does the DeKalb County Tax Assessor Use to Value Your Property?
If the DeKalb County tax assessor got the value of your property wrong, it is not really a reason to panic. However, you do need to make sure that you file your appeal before the deadline. You will typically have between 30 and 45 days to file the appeal. The information on when you need to file and how to file will be on the assessment letter that you receive. That is why it is so important to make sure that you look at the letter and do you research as soon as possible. If you miss the deadline, you are out of luck until the next assessment, which is generally a couple of years for residential properties.
When the DeKalb County tax assessor is looking at your property, they utilize a range of different types of data to get a better understanding of what the value should be. They are going to look at the square footage of the building, along with the size of the lot of land. If there are outbuildings, such as a garage, this is going to change the value, as well, and they will look at the square footage of those buildings too. They are also going to look at whether there is a finished basement, a pool, and the number of bathrooms on the property.
They are also going to look at comps that sold in the area. A comp is a home that is in the area near your home, and that has features and a size that is similar to yours. The assessor’s reason that these homes and your home are likely to have a similar value.
Since this is the information that they use to come up with the value of your property, it is with this data that you should begin your research. You can ask the DeKalb County tax assessor what they used to come up with your value, and you can then compare that with facts about your property. Let’s look at a couple of examples of how this might work.
If you have a property that is on 1.5 acres, but the decimal point was entered incorrectly, it would appear that you own 15 acres. Naturally, the amount of property tax that you would have to pay on 15 acres is likely to be substantially more than what you would be paying for 1.5 acres. Perhaps you only have 1.5 bathrooms in the house, but the information the assessor’s office used has it down as 2.5 bathrooms. Even that single room could change the amount of taxes that you have to pay.
These are just some of the different ways that the information the DeKalb County tax assessor has might be incorrect and could have caused their value to be different. In addition, they might have used comps that are not quite as similar to your home in terms of size and condition as you would have used. Therefore, you might want to create a list of your own comps of homes that sold in the area during the same time that the assessor was valuing your property.
In addition, you will want to gather other types of evidence that will help to show the actual value of your property. This could include photographs, architectural blueprints, certified land surveys, third-party appraisal, and contractor’s reports. Consider all of the different types of evidence that might be helpful when it comes to proving the true value of your property.
Be Ready for the Hearing
You must also keep those aforementioned deadlines in mind. Once you file for your appeal, you will be given a date where you can present your evidence to them at a hearing. You need to make sure that you are ready by that date.
Of course, it can be difficult to get all of this evidence on your own in a timely manner, and you might have trouble locating certain types of paperwork. Fortunately, this is not something that you will have to try to handle on your own. Instead, you can work with professionals, such as those from Fair Assessments, LLC. The company has decades of experience helping people with their assessments and ensuring that they are paying only their fair share when it comes to their taxes.
