In Fulton, many unhappy returns

By D.L. Bennett

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Monica Callier figured the value of her townhouse in East Point had dropped by at least $40,000. The question was whether Fulton County’s tax appraisers would agree, and Callier was pretty sure she knew the answer.

So she did something early this year that relatively few Georgia taxpayers had ever done, or even heard of. She sent the county a property tax return, an official form stating what she thought her home was worth.

The county reviewed the return and set the 2009 value at $180,600, a drop of $9,300. Callier had asked for a reduction of 21 percent; Fulton gave her 5. She’s headed to appeal.

“I figure if I have to suffer through this, Fulton should have to suffer along with me,” Callier said. “I need to have my property re-evaluated.”

The property tax return is a little-known provision in Georgia law that enables taxpayers to try to influence the county’s valuation of their property. Last year, property owners in the five largest counties in metro Atlanta filed fewer than 15,000 residential returns.

This year, residential property owners in Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Gwinnett and Clayton filed about 56,000. As word spreads about the form, which is relatively easy to complete and free to file, that number could leap again in 2010. The 56,000 returns filed in 2009 represent just 5 percent of residential parcels in the five counties. There are 1 million more parcels.

Fulton was at the center of this nascent taxpayer revolt. Property owners there filed more than 22,000 returns challenging the county’s values, about 40 percent of all returns in the five counties.

The numbers were so high that Fulton had a difficult time processing all of the paperwork, said chief appraiser Burt Manning.

Taxpayers had to submit returns by April 1, and Manning said his staff worked into July just to enter all the files into the county’s computer system. Assessors will be processing the appeals well into next year.

‘I’m angry as hell’

Callier believed she had a strong case for cutting her tax appraisal substantially.

She paid $193,900 for the new townhouse in 2006 only to see the builder go belly up during the real estate collapse and leave the project unfinished. Eleven units remained unsold until a bank completed them and began selling them for at least $70,000 less than Callier paid two years earlier.

Other units were foreclosed on and were sold for less than the ones the developer initially left unfinished. The nearly identical townhouse next door went into foreclosure and then sold for just $80,000, she said.

Given such numbers, Callier’s self-stated value of $149,000 looks pretty generous, and the county’s $180,600 pretty suspect. She expects her higher tax value means she’ll overpay in 2009.

“I’m angry as hell,” Callier said. “There’s nothing you can do. I’m at the mercy of the assessors. What can you do?”

What you can do is what she did: File a tax return. She learned of the form from a local news broadcast.

Unfortunately for taxpayers, filing a return is no guarantee that the county will change your property value.

As part of its unprecedented study of tax appraisals vs. actual home sales in metro Atlanta, the Journal-Constitution examined tax returns by ZIP code. In Callier’s East Point ZIP of 30344, owners of 726 properties asked for a median reduction of 48 percent. The county granted a median reduction of 5 percent.

The news for return filers was just as bad or worse in other Fulton County ZIP codes. Manning said most returns were rejected without much consideration because the county had so many it couldn’t begin to investigate them all. Assessors in other counties also rejected nearly every filing and gave homeowners the option to appeal.

Why in Fulton County?

Returns in Fulton so outnumbered those in the other counties for several reasons.

Fulton has about 80,000 more parcels and is about a third larger than the next closest county. But the county also has a history of anti-tax activism. The Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation — which contests taxes — files returns and handles appeals for homeowners unhappy with the assessors’ work. And two private companies formed last year in Fulton to encourage homeowner appeals.

The newspaper found that a number of return filers were real estate investors with multiple properties — people with more money at stake who tend to be more savvy about property law.

Landlord R.J. Morris bought a 2-bedroom, 1-bath Craftsman home in East Point for $22,000 in January 2009 — the time when values are set.

Fulton’s 2008 value? $85,300. The county’s 2009 number? $82,500. That’s just 3 percent off the 2008 number and is nearly four times what Morris paid.

Morris said there are dozens of similar cases across the 50 properties he bought this year. The properties, Morris said, have a combined $85,000 tax bill for 2009, which Morris said should be closer to $20,000. He has filed returns on every one.

“I don’t have a problem paying taxes,” Morris said. “I believe you need government. I like paying taxes. I want to pay taxes.”

But he adds that the county doesn’t seem interested in recognizing the real market value of property. “No one really wants to understand,” Morris said. “It’s worth what you paid for it.”

Kurt Johnson owns about 30 houses in ZIP code 30331, where residents filed the greatest number of returns at 1,640. He estimated his properties lost $2 million in value during the downturn and that his tax bill could easily be $30,000 too high this year.

Johnson said he filed returns on every property. Most, he said, got only token decreases for 2009.

“Our houses are worth collectively a third less than they were,” Johnson said. “Because they couldn’t figure anything out, they just taxed us at the same value. They were just testing our resolve to see what we would do.”

‘Change the law’

Tax officials fear that returns in 2010 will set another record that may well dramatically exceed this year’s total. If that happens, they say some tax assessors’ offices may struggle just to process them all. A flood of returns would also mean a flood of appeals, which could delay tax collection next year.

Meanwhile, a state study committee looking at property tax reform is already getting suggestions to either reform the return process or eliminate it.

James Roberts, a property tax consultant, said Georgia could get rid of returns by sending every property a notice every year.

Roberts and other tax consultants, plus tax attorneys, chief appraisers and others, are part of an industry group that plans to propose changes to the committee as soon as Tuesday.

Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) said he’d like at least to see the time frame changed for filing. Now, owners have to file by either March 1 or April 1, depending on which county they live in. However, counties don’t typically approve values until April or May.

He contends that’s confusing and tends to limit the filings.

“Everything I can find in the property tax system in Georgia,” Rogers said, “is weighted against the property owner and in favor of the government. We need to change the law to make it more fair.”

Should we just walk away?

Veverly Prayor would love to sell her home for the value Fulton has put on it.

The county valued her small brick home on Plainville Drive in southwest Atlanta at $108,800 in 2009. That’s slightly down from its 2008 tax value of $118,700.

Prayor filed a tax return valuing her own home at $70,000. Some of her neighbors filed returns valuing similar homes as low as $24,000 and as high as $80,000.

Just a few doors down, a nearly identical home is for sale for $30,000. Another nearby home is listed for $40,000.

Prayor said the foreclosure crisis and real estate collapse has wreaked havoc in her neighborhood. She feels trapped.

“I’ve been so disgusted,” she said. “You can’t move because you can’t sell your home. My appraisal is way too high. I can’t sell my home for that.”

Prayor said many homeowners she knows have just given up and walked away from their houses when the values tumbled well below what they owed on their property.

She said friends have advised her to do the same.

“I don’t want to walk away,” Prayor said. “I’ve got pretty good credit. So, right now we are stuck.”


-- Database specialist John Perry contributed to this article.

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About the series

In an unprecedented comparison of actual sales values vs. county tax appraisals, the AJC examined recent records for every residential property sale and every change in tax value in Cobb, Clayton, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties in 2009 — about 550,000 documents.