When you are paying your property taxes, you want to make sure that they are always accurate, of course. However, the truth of the matter is that most people do not bother to look closely at their property taxes because they believe that the GA tax assessors are not going to be making any errors on them. That’s not true though. The accessors are just as prone to making errors as anyone else, and when they make an error, it could be costing you. Therefore, it tends to be a good idea to double-check their work and make sure that your taxes are correct.
Check Your Assessment
You are going to need to make sure that you check your property tax assessment information to see if there might be some issues with the information from the GA tax assessors. There are many different ways that mistakes could be made on these assessments.
Often, the GA tax assessors are not going to physically visit the property for the assessment. It is simply not feasible today, given the sheer number of properties out there and the limited number of assessors. Instead, they will utilize data to perform their assessment, and it is this data that could be incorrect, as could previous information that has been reported about your property.
Examples of Types of Problems
The amount of land that you own and that is contained in the property assessment might be incorrect. Perhaps you own 2.5 acres and not 25 acres. There is quite a bit of a difference there, and that decimal point could mean that you are paying a lot more in your taxes than you should be. Another one of the things that you will need to look at is the square footage of the building. Even little errors here can be costly.
The building might also have some poor conditions that you know about, such as flooding, but that the county might not know about. This would affect their perceived value of the property versus the real value after the damage. If you do not have a finished basement or a pool, for example, but the assessment says you do, then it will cause your taxes to be incorrect. The number of rooms in the house, including the number of bathrooms and bedrooms, will affect your taxes, as well.
There are many different things that can cause discrepancies in the actual value of your home versus the value that is perceived. You want to make sure that you double and even triple-check the information to ensure it is correct.
Keep in mind that these are simply mistakes, so when you speak with the GA tax assessors about your property taxes, you will want to stay as calm as possible. They did not do it to target you. They were simple mistakes, and there are ways that you can fix those mistakes to get your property taxes back in order.
What Should You Do?
There are processes in place where you can have your tax assessment reviewed, and you can even have an appeal if they do not agree with your assessment. On the assessment form that they sent, you will find instructions on how to get a review, and the deadline that you will have to apply for your review.
They might find that you were correct, and the GA tax assessors were in error with the assessment, and they may fix the problem for you quickly and with relative ease. However, that’s not always the case. You need to be as prepared as possible with your review, and if you need to have an appeal for your property tax assessment, as well.
Some of the different types of forms that you might want to have include a survey of the property, architectural renderings, photos of features in the home and lack of features if they think you have a pool and you don’t, for example. You might also want to get contractor’s official reports, and even collect some information on comparable properties in the area.
The comparable properties are what many GA tax assessors are going to be using for determining your assessment. You will want to look for the prices of real estate sales in your area and gather that information if it is different from your taxes. Make sure that you are looking for comps that sold during the time the GA tax assessors were working on your property, of course. This ensures that the market conditions were the same for the comps at the time. Ideally, you will want to have information from at least five different comparable properties.
The idea is that you want to have as much documentation as possible so you can combat the GA tax assessor errors that are on your assessment. The more information you have on your side the better off you will be. It will give them less of a reason to deny your review or appeal.
The last thing you want to do is pay more taxes than you truly owe because someone made a mistake when they were assessing your property. It is well worth the time and effort to make sure that you are paying the correct amount of taxes now and in the future. Many people never think twice about the cost of their property taxes. They just pay them… and that means many people might be paying far more than they should.
Getting Help from Professionals
If you find that you need to appeal, and you need some help, you will want to consider working with Fair Assessments, LLC. The company has more than 20 years of working in his field, and even experience working with a tax assessor’s office. Working on getting reviews and appeals can take quite a bit of time and energy, and you will find that it just tends to be much easier when you have help from the pros.
