Fulton County Tax Assessment Errors Lead to Residents Overpaying

“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” – Benjamin Franklin

No one likes taxes, but they’re an inescapable part of life. In order to have a functioning government, even on the local level, taxes must be assessed. Fulton County taxes come in several forms, including sales tax and property tax. The problem here is that inaccuracies in the mass property appraisal method used by Fulton County tax assessors lead to over assessment and errors, costing you more each year in property taxes. What’s the problem?

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Atlanta Property Tax Consultant Sees UFO

While doing research for a property tax appeal on a warehouse/production facility a field visit was performed. The building is in an older industrial part of town and was built early in the last century. By looking at the exterior you can see that the improvements are old and suffer from physical deterioration. Undisclosed Functional Obsolescence was also discovered, which if taken into consideration by the tax assessors would lower the taxable value of the improvements further.

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Foreclosed and Concerned Citizens Needed at GA Capitol 2/13/14 3:00PM

Did you know that in most cases mortgages in default are paid off by private or public insurance and yet the bank still takes your property? The banks have never made more money than during and after this mess they created. 

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Fulton County Tax Assessors 2013

The Fulton County tax assessors have begun work on the 2013 property tax appeals. Some Fulton County property owners have received no change letters from the tax assessors regarding their 2013 appeals while some have been offered reductions in what is called a 30 day letter. After you receive a reduction offer from the tax assessors you have 30 days to either accept the reduced value or appeal to the second level of appeal, which is the Fulton County Board of Equalization.


Recently, some of the 2013 property tax appeals have been scheduled to be heard by the Fulton County Board of Equalization. As recently as last month, the Board of Equalization was continuing to work on 2012 property tax appeal hearings and even a few 2011 property tax appeal hearings were being heard. They are not done with 2012 hearings, however. It appears that the Fulton County Tax Assessors staff is frequently using the board of equalization hearing as a tool to gain access to properties.

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Fulton County Tax Assessors Are Digging a Big Hole

The Fulton County Tax Assessor's staff just can't get enough of being one year behind on their property tax appeal work. Twice in the past month I have been at Fulton County Board of Equalization hearings for tax year 2012 and the staff appraisers have requested a "field check." Once the appraiser produced an aerial photograph of the property in appeal and proclaimed that the size of the building in the County record must be wrong based on the photo alone. The other time the appraiser just seemed unprepared and wasn't willing to present what he had and let the Board make a decision. Again, he claimed that he needed to inspect the property before making any recommendation. 

This would be a reasonable request if this was July of 2012 but it is July of 2013. The worst part is that the Fulton County Tax Assessors have really just begun the process of pushing all of the 2012 appeals through to the BOE. Just like the Fulton County Board of Equalization was hearing 2011 property tax appeals earlier in 2013, they will be hearing 2012 property tax appeals in 2014. 

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Fulton County Tax Assessors "Perfect" Sale Ratios

The Fulton County tax Assessors have posted some sale ratios statistics on their website showing how well they have done with their 2013 reappraisal. At first glance, these statistics look stellar given that Fulton is such a large, diverse county. Take a look:

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Atlanta Real Estate - Atlanta Office Values

Today we are looking at the trend in office values in the Atlanta metro area. Based on information from LoopNet sale price per square foot has been on an uptrend for approximately six months. The median sale price at the start of this year was approximately $70/SF.

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Atlanta Real Estate - Atlanta Commercial Real Estate

The Georgia tax assessors are sending out 2013 tax assessment notices and it is time to take a look at Atlanta commercial real estate values. Below is the sale price per square foot trend for retail real estate in metro Atlanta. It appears we are still bouncing along the bottom:

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Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation Lives!!!

The bells were tolling for the Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation in December of 2012 when the AJC reported that the nonprofit was on the verge of collapse. Apparently spending exceeded donations by a large margin and heads needed to roll. I reported in this blog that they had ended property tax appeal work at the Foundation. 

However, I have spoken to two members of the Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation this week and the property tax appeal work has not ended. The problem was the Foundation was short on cash and unable to pay the appraisers that were working the appeals. The Foundation kept asking the Fulton County Board of Equalization to reschedule the appeals so they wouldn't incur the monetary obligation to the appraisers.

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Residential Property Tax Appeal Options

You asked for the best and you got it! Property tax appeal options. In our continuing efforts to be the property tax appeal resource center we have established several options for single family residential property tax appeals. We know that some of you don't have the time or resources to develop a property tax appeal case and aren't all motivated by the same cost/benefit profile. As a result of numerous inquires on what we charge, and the desire for other payment options, we now have four different single family residential tax appeal services options.

For those that are averse to contingent fees because you dont know, ultimately, how much you will pay, we now have a Gold Level flat fee option. For a one-time $350 fee Fair Assessments will perform the work it is known for. Regardless of tax savings generated there are no additional fees (unless you want to file your appeal to court).

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