If you are like most people out there, you are not a fan of your property taxes. Sure, you know they are necessary and you pay them when they are due. However, it sometimes feels like the taxes are a bit higher than they should be. This might not just be your imagination. You may actually be paying too much in property taxes. While the Fulton County tax assessor does not make mistakes on purpose, mistakes will nevertheless show up from time to time. If you feel that your property has been valued too highly, and that your tax bill is going to be too high, you need to do something about it.
How Does the Fulton County Tax Assessor Value Your Property?
While most know that their property is going to be valued by a tax assessor, they do not always know how this occurs or what type of information the assessor uses. In the vast majority of cases, the assessor is not going to come out to your home to do a full walkthrough and provide you with a personalized valuation for the property. It is not possible to do this because there are so many homes out there that are going to need to have their values assessed.
Therefore, they use mass appraisal and other techniques instead to make the job faster and easier… even though it is not always accurate. Some of the different types of information that the Fulton County tax assessor is going to use when they are assessing a residential property include the size of the lot, the square footage of the buildings on the property, the number of bathrooms in the house, and whether you have a finished basement or not. They are also going to look at the conditions of the building.
Most of the time, they are going to use comparable properties to help them determine a value for your property. A comparable property, commonly called a comp, is simply a home that has features similar to your own in terms of size, number of bathrooms, location, and other characteristics. They look to see how much that property sold for, and when they have several properties that sold for a similar amount, it can give them a better idea of the value of your property.
If the information that they receive is not accurate, it is going to affect their value of your property, naturally. This is not something that you want to have happen because it means that you could be paying quite a bit more in taxes each year. The assessments for residential properties often only occur every couple of years, so you could end up paying thousands more than you should if you are not careful.
If you believe that there is an error on your taxes, you are certainly going to want to make sure that you take the time to inspect your assessment and question how the Fulton County tax assessor came up with the value for your property. Check their work and see if there were any errors made and let them know. Keep in mind that you are going to need to let them know quickly, as you will have a deadline for filing your appeal.
Check the assessment letter that you receive in the male to learn more about the appeal deadline and what you need to do to file your appeal.
Information to Gather for the Appeal
You are going to try to challenge the Fulton County tax assessor on the value of your property, and even though this sounds scary, it is certainly possible. People do it all the time and many of them are successful. However, you do need to make sure that you have all of the evidence needed to prove that their valuation of your property is not correct.
Sometimes, a simple review will be all you need, and they will be able to sort out the problem. Other times, you will need to have a full appeal, and you will have to provide evidence.
How do you gather this evidence? The type of evidence you need will often depend on how and where the mistake was made. For example, if you want to prove how many acres you have, a land survey is generally a good idea. Keep in mind that it is better to be too thorough and to include more than you need rather than not enough.
Some of the different types of evidence that be helpful include reports from contractors, architectural drawings, photographs, a third-party appraisal of the property, and land surveys.
Should You Do the Appeal on Your Own?
There are always some who wonder whether it is going to be worth all of the hassle to go ahead with an appeal or if they should just pay a bit more in their property taxes. No matter how much more you might be paying, or less for that matter, you should always challenge an incorrect value on your property. You deserve to pay the proper amount for your taxes and not a penny more.
The appeal is not going to be an affair that is fixed in a day in most cases. Often, it can take weeks or even months for the appeal. You need to make sure you are using your time wisely, and that you are getting all of the information you need for the appeal, and that you meet all of the deadlines.
There are quite a few things to consider and remember when it comes to appealing with the Fulton County tax assessor. If you are worried that you may not be able to take care of it all on your own, don’t worry. You can always work with a professional who can take care of all of the hard work for you. Fair Assessments, LLC. has a lot of experience helping people just like you, and they can make it much easier to appeal your assessment and maybe even lower your taxes.
