When was the last time that you took a good look at your property taxes? Most people only pay cursory attention to this tax bill. They pay it when it is due, but they do not always take the time to examine the assessment of their home, and for this reason, they might be paying too much for their taxes. While the Cobb County tax assessor who provides the valuation for your property strives to provide an accurate assessment, there is always the chance that errors that could creep into the paperwork.
It is a good idea to look at your assessment letter when it comes in from the Cobb County tax assessor. You will want to see if it seems as though you are paying too much for your taxes based on what you know about your property. If there are problems, and you do not check for them and appeal them, you could be overpaying on your property taxes for years. You could surely put all of that wasted money to better use.
Why Could You Be Overpaying?
The Cobb County tax assessor is not going to charge you too much on your taxes on purpose. However, if they are not using the latest or most accurate information on your property, or if there is a typographical error on the property information, it will cause an incorrect valuation. You also have to realize that most of the time, the assessor is not going to come out and inspect each property individually. They simply do not have the ability to do this. Instead, they use mass appraisals and data that is already on record to value your home. It’s easy to see just why there could be errors.
Some of the types of elements that are used in the valuation for the home include the overall square footage of the building, whether you have any outbuildings or a swimming pool, whether you have a finished basement, and the amount of land you have. They will also consider the condition of the property. Errors could occur in any of these areas, which would mean an incorrect valuation for your property.
Always Check the Assessment Letter
Because there are a range of areas where the valuation of your property could be incorrect, you will always want to check the assessment letter carefully when it arrives. If you worry that you are paying more than you should based on what you believe the value of your property to be, you will want to make sure that you get in touch with the assessor’s office to get more information on how they came to that valuation. Go over the information to see where you might find some discrepancies.
If they have an inaccurate number of rooms or the square footage is off, they could provide you with a valuation that is quite a bit off from the actual value of the home. If that is the case, you will want to make sure that you ask for a review and an appeal if they don’t make the changes. Be sure to follow the information on the assessment letter regarding your deadlines to file for an appeal. You want to stick to those deadlines and make your appeal well before the deadline approaches.
Get Help With the Appeal
While you could try to handle the appeal on your own, there are some problems with this. First, if you’ve never done this before, you probably do not know the type of information that you are going to need to as evidence for the appeal, and you may not remember to adhere to those deadlines. It also takes up your valuable time when you are trying to get an appeal taken care of. Therefore, you will want to consider working with the professionals from Fair Assessments, LLC., who can help you with your appeal. The pros can help you through the entire appeal process, and they strive to make it as easy as possible for you.
It Is Worth It to Appeal With the Cobb County Tax Assessor?
You might be wondering whether you should really bother appealing your property tax with the Cobb County tax assessor. Consider for a moment just how much money you could possibly be losing if your valuation is not correct right now. Even if it is off by only 10%, or less for that matter, you could be losing hundreds of dollars a year. There are plenty of things that you could be doing with that money instead. Sure, it takes some time and effort to appeal and get the evidence that you need for your case, but when you work with the pros, they can handle it all for you, allowing you to take care of other aspects of your life.
Now, what should you do if the valuation works out to be less than the real value of your home? Even though it might seem like a nice treat to be able to pay less in taxes because of a valuation mistake, it could cause problems for you. If you later decide that you want to sell your property, the value of the home is going to be less, at least according to the information that potential buyers are going to be looking at.
Simply put, it means that they are going to be far less likely to want to pay any more than that lowered valuation number for your home. Even when the Cobb County tax assessor values your property too low, you should probably have it fixed. It is going to be better for you in the long run.
Working with a professional is the easiest way to take care of this issue. Find those with experience in the field and who can help you through the review and the appeal. You will have everything taken care of with far less effort from you.
