Georgia counties mail assessment notices between April and June, and from the date printed on that notice you have 45 days to file a written appeal. Miss the window and you wait until next year. What an appraisal contributes is supported evidence of what the property was worth on January 1 of the tax year.
What this assignment is scoped to do, stated before you engage.
The appeal is filed on Form PT-311A, Georgia's standard property tax appeal form, used statewide. It requires you to state your own proposed value and to select how the appeal will be heard.
Attach your assessment notice and file it with the county board of tax assessors before the deadline printed on the notice. The 45 days run from the date on the notice, not from the day you opened it.
This is the correction most appeal advice gets wrong, and it is worth stating plainly. January 1 of the tax year is the statutory valuation date in Georgia. That makes every ad valorem appeal a retrospective assignment.
What the property would sell for today is not the question in front of the board. If a report analyzes the current market, it is answering a question nobody asked, and a competent county appraiser will say so.
Compare the county's proposed value to what you believe the property would have sold for on January 1. If the gap is small, the appeal may not be worth the effort. If it is significant, it usually is.
An appraisal does not automatically lower anything. It gives you supported evidence of value on the statutory date. If the assessment sits above that, you have a real argument. If the assessment turns out to be reasonable, you have an answer, and I would rather tell you that before you spend a day at a hearing.
Form PT-311A asks you to choose. The options are the county Board of Equalization, arbitration, whose decision can still be appealed to Superior Court, a hearing officer, which is open only to non-homestead property valued over half a million dollars, or Superior Court directly, which needs the county Board of Assessors to agree. They differ in cost, in formality, in what kind of evidence carries weight, and in what happens if you lose.
Which one suits a given appeal depends on the size of the gap and on your appetite for the process. It is worth a conversation before the form is filed rather than after.
I attend Board of Equalization hearings. It is a separate assignment from the appraisal, billed at an hourly rate with a minimum, arranged in advance under its own agreement, and it is not included in the appraisal fee.
Billing starts when I leave my door, because a hearing takes the day whether I am testifying or waiting to. That separation is deliberate: it keeps the appraisal fee tied to the appraisal, and it makes clear that nothing about my compensation depends on how the hearing comes out.
Ad valorem work is confirmed county by county at intake, because an appeal is only as good as the local data behind it and the local procedure it is filed under. If your county is in the service area, ask, and I will tell you straight whether I am the right person for that particular board.
Who does the work. I have been in the business since 1997 and licensed as an appraiser since 2000. I have been a field appraiser and Chief Review Appraiser at two national appraisal management companies, I ran an appraisal desk reviewing other appraisers' work, and I have done litigation work. That is what I bring to your house and to the report.
The walk-through. Most appraisers photograph a house and leave without speaking to anyone. I walk it with you, tell you what I am looking at and why it moves the number, and answer your questions on the spot.
I measure the house myself, to the ANSI standard, and never use the county's square footage. From those measurements I draw a professional floor plan sketch, and it is yours to keep and use at no extra charge. Most owners have never been given one.
Your privacy. The report goes only to you and anyone you name. It is not submitted to any data portal, it is not reported to the county, it does not affect your tax assessment, and it never appears in MLS or the public record.
No need to clean. Whether the dishes are done does not touch the value. I am appraising the structure and the quality of its finishes. Interior photographs are taken in every room because a credible report requires them, and personal photographs, religious items and anything personal are blurred or cropped out.
A narrative, not a form. Most people get a six to ten page checkbox form. The numbers are there but the reasoning is not: you cannot tell why a comparable was chosen or where an adjustment came from. Mine covers the same nuts and bolts with the reasoning written out, held to the standard that another appraiser could follow the work and arrive where I did.
Counties mail assessment notices between April and June. From the date on that notice, you have 45 days to file a written appeal using Form PT-311A. You state your own opinion of value and choose how it's heard: Board of Equalization, arbitration, a hearing officer, or Superior Court.
Miss the 45 days and you wait until next year.
It's Georgia's standard property tax appeal form, used statewide. It requires you to state a proposed value and select your hearing method.
Attach your assessment notice and file it with the county board of tax assessors before the deadline printed on the notice.
January 1 of the tax year. That's the statutory valuation date in Georgia, which makes every appeal a retrospective assignment.
What the property would sell for today is not the question in front of the board.
Not automatically. An appraisal gives you supported evidence of what the property was worth on January 1. If the assessment is above that, you have a real argument.
If the assessment turns out to be reasonable, you have an answer, and I'd rather tell you that before you spend money on a hearing.
Compare the county's proposed value to what you believe the property would have sold for on January 1. If the gap is small, the appeal may not be worth the effort. If it's significant, it usually is.
I'll give you a straight read before you engage me.
Yes. It's a separate assignment from the appraisal, billed at an hourly rate with a minimum, and arranged in advance under its own agreement. It isn't included in the appraisal fee.
Billing starts when I leave my door, since a hearing takes the day whether I'm testifying or waiting.
That separation is deliberate. It keeps the appraisal fee tied to the appraisal and makes clear that nothing about my compensation depends on how the hearing comes out.
You will reach Scott directly. Expect questions about intended use and effective date before a fee is quoted.
Discuss a tax appeal