Some Fulton County residents have been egregiously overbilled for property taxes because the county, contrary to a new state law, appraised their houses for more than their 2010 sale prices.
The scope of the problem is still being determined, but it could make for another embarrassment for a tax assessors office that has struggled to keep up with legislation enacted this year overhauling property assessment and appeals processes in the wake of the real estate bust.
And it has the Senate majority leader fuming.
"I'm flabbergasted. I'm frustrated," said Sen. Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock, who sponsored Senate Bill 346 and is pushing for further changes in the tax system next year. After seeing evidence that Fulton has put tax values on some homes at twice their sale price, Rogers said he's now mulling penalties for counties that stray from the law.
"This is a problem that doesn't seem to be correcting itself," he said.
One of the provisions of SB 346 limited 2011 tax values to the level of 2010 sales. Exceptions are allowed if, after a sale, an owner undertakes new construction or makes major repairs or renovations.
Allyne Bolton bought a new house in unincorporated south Fulton for $147,190 in June 2010. Though she's had nothing done but an interior paint job, the county gave her a tax value of $308,700.
Her tax bill totaled $4,112, which she says she can't afford. Had the house been valued at her sale price, she would have owed about $1,640.
"It's ridiculous. It's unfair," said Bolton, a travel agent out of work since January. "The law says they can't assess me for more than what I paid for the house, and they've assessed me at twice what I paid for the house."
It's the latest in a succession of errors and oversights by the assessors office this year, some widespread, some affecting an unlucky few.
The first round cost taxpayers $140,000 when the county -- forced by Rogers’ bill to send tax assessment notices to every property owner -- had to remail 230,000 of them to correct omitted information and overstated tax bill estimates.
Another problem surfaced in August when some homeowners whose properties were under appeal received bills calculated at 100 percent of their assessed value. Under a separate state law, owners who are appealing should receive temporary bills calculated at 85 percent.
Burt Manning, the county's chief appraiser, said he found only eight cases where appeals had not been entered into the system, which was attributed to a high volume of paperwork from a 70 percent spike in appeals.
How many taxpayers share Bolton's pain -- with 2011 values topping last year's sales -- is unknown at this point, but it could be in the dozens or even hundreds. The problem was brought to light by R.J. Morris, a real estate investor turned activist, who examined nearly 14,000 sales and assessments that he obtained from the county through an open records request.
Morris, president of the Georgia Property Taxpayers Committee, initially found 700 cases of homes assessed at more than last year's sales prices. Three hundred of them, however, were within $100, which Manning said has to do with assessments being rounded upward to the nearest 100.
Manning disputed that his office could have made hundreds of mistakes, and he attributed the discrepancies to new construction, faulty sale data and properties being broken up into separate parcels, among other explanations. He said his staff has looked at Morris' data and has zeroed in on 32 assessments as questionable. But so far it has found only four to six that were truly valued contrary to the law -- all of which have been corrected.
The chief appraiser said the culprit could be building permits being keyed into the system after sales dates, which his staff interpreted as construction occurring after the sale, even if the reverse was the case.
Manning said Fulton residents who believe they have been wrongly appraised should call his office.
"We're certainly investigating, and we've only found a few that need to be fixed," he said.
Morris isn't satisfied. Lacking the resources to delve into 400 sales in detail, he said he spot-checked one-tenth of them and found 27 tax values that appear faulty.
"I've got 13 just on two streets that are wrong," Morris said. "[Manning] has an obligation to investigate every one of those houses where he assessed it for more than the sales price."
Curtis and Mesha Wright bought a home in south Fulton for $165,000 in May 2010. They then spent about $1,500 on an automatic garage door, new security doors, gutters and lawn lights.
Their assessment this year: $325,300.
First-time homeowners, they neglected to file for a homestead exemption on time. With the higher assessment, the tax bill totaled almost $5,000. Had the assessment matched the sale price, even without the exemption their bill would have been $2,500.
"I think they should be penalized for it," Mesha Wright said. "If it's illegal, then why even give us a bill?"
Both she and Bolton said they called the tax assessors office, explained their situation, and were told nothing could be done until next year because appeal deadlines have passed.
"They even said, ‘You'll just have to work out payment plans,' " Morris said. "The problem is, [Manning] is leaving this to the front desk."
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