The key to success in just about anything is to be prepared. You’ve already started your preparations for appealing your Gwinnett County property tax assessment, by looking into what you need to do and making the decision to file an appeal. Those are great first steps. So, congratulations on coming this far.
Now, it’s time to get the rest of your preparations underway. The best way to prepare for something is to educate yourself. Find out what all you need to know. The thing is, sometimes it’s hard to know what you need to know because something like this, an appeal on the value given to your property, is pretty foreign to many people. That’s why there are professional experts out there to help you with learning all of the information that you will need to know, for your appeal to result in success.
What Happens When the Office Receives Your Appeal?
Once the Board of Assessors has received your Gwinnett County property tax assessment appeal, it will be put in a queue for processing based on the order of appeals received. Gwinnett County asks that you wait three days before trying to check the status of your appeal online if you submitted the request through the online portal. That’s the average amount of time it takes for the process to start moving, barring any overload of requests.
When the appraisal staff gets your appeal, they will review it to see where any differences are and determine, with the information you’ve provided, if there are grounds for a change in the valuation that was printed on your Gwinnett County property tax assessment notice. If a decision is made to lower the valuation amount, a Change of Assessment Notice will be sent to you in written form. It’s called a 30-day notice. You have that 30 days to decide if you are happy with the new value or if you want to reject it. If you don’t accept the new value, then the appraisal staff will push your file along further to the Clerk of Courts.
After it’s been determined that there is enough information to proceed with the appeal, the Clerk will assign a hearing date. You will be notified of that date in writing, with plenty of time to make any scheduling adjustments that you need to. If, for any reason, you cannot make the date you are given for your hearing work, you are allowed to submit a one-time scheduling change request.
What Happens at the Hearing?
On the day of the hearing, the County will allow you to present the details of your appeal. You will be able to explain the reasons for your decision to appeal and why you disagree with the valuation amount that was printed on your Gwinnett County property tax assessment notice.
Once you have presented your case, the County appraiser, who will be at the hearing, will provide all of the supporting information for why the value of your property was assigned as it was. The information included in this part of the hearing is based on cost and market numbers from the previous year. In areas where there have not been enough sales to get good numbers, the appraiser can use numbers from the previous two years.
When both sides have been given the opportunity to present their cases, the Board of Equalization (BOE) will start to deliberate and discuss what should be done. At this point, the hearing is over. You are free to stay and listen to the board’s deliberations, as is the County appraiser, but neither side is permitted to enter any further evidence or say anything more in support of their respective valuations.
The final decision will be made in private by the BOE. The decision will be given to you in written form, as well as, to the Board of Assessors.
What if You Are Unsatisfied with the Outcome of the Hearing?
In some cases, you may still not be satisfied with the valuation of your property. If that happens, you have the option to push your case further. You can send your appeal up the chain to the Superior Court. This system was built to ensure that property owners are treated fairly, so if you are unhappy with your Gwinnett County property tax assessment, you have every right and reason to keep appealing until you do feel satisfied.
Appealing to the Superior Court
Before your appeal can be heard in the Superior Court, you and the Assessor’s Office have to attend a meeting, called a Settlement Conference, to see if the two sides can reach an agreement. There is no cost involved with this meeting. If no agreement can be reached, then you will have 20 days to pay a filing fee to the Clerk of Courts to have your appeal certified for appealing to the Superior Court.
If you decide not to attend the Settlement Conference, understand that it will still take place. Everything submitted up to that point will still be reviewed, including anything additional that the County side has to offer. Then a decision will be rendered regarding your Gwinnett County property tax assessment appeal. That decision will be sent to you through the mail. If you want to have your appeal heard by the Superior Court after that, you will have 10 days from the date of the Settle Conference to pay the Clerk for further certification of your appeal. You can then have your case reviewed in the Superior Court.
Don’t Do It Alone
The process to appeal your Gwinnett County property tax assessment can be overwhelming to some people. That’s ok and completely normal. The good news is, you don’t have to go through this process alone. In fact, it’s better if you don’t do it alone because you’re far more likely to get the results you want if you work with a professional who works with Gwinnett County property tax assessment appeals all the time.
The experts at Fair Assessments, LLC have been doing what they do for a long time. They’ll help you get your appeal filed and processed as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Then they’ll be there for you every step of the way.
