You may not be in the market to buy or sell a home, but rather you’re wondering what the recent economic turmoil has done to the property value of your Smyrna Vinings home. As a general rule, the answer is that the value has declined.
As a result, one thing that you can do to potentially save some money is to request a re-valuation of your property. If your property is re-assessed at a lower value, you’ll benefit from a reduction in your property taxes.
Cobb County does not do a new assessment each year for every property. Since we’re in a declining market, it is doubtful that they’ll voluntarily send re-valuations out since it would only serve to reduce their tax revenues. The only option is to appeal your property appraisal/valuation.So to kickstart the process you have to file a “Taxypayer’s Return of Property.”
This form can be found on the Cobb Co. Tax Assessor’s website (www.cobbassessor.org) or simply by clicking on the link above.
Complete sections A, B, C and D and have notarized. Section A information about the parcel ID, etc. can be found on the same site by doing a Property Appraisal Search.
Once they receive this form, they’ll send you a Notice in late May or early June and that potentially starts the “appeal clock.”
Bottom line is that if you don’t take the initiative to lower the assessed value of your home given the current market conditions, you’re probably going to be paying property taxes on an inflated value. Homeowners could potentially realize a savings on their property taxes for years to come!
Deadline is April 1, 2009, which is next Wednesday, so don’t delay if you want to have your property re-assessed.
I’d like to thank one of our readers, John Williams, for providing us with this information and giving us the heads-up to get this out to all of our readers.
Don’t forget, deadline is next Wednesday.
[tags]Cobb County, Property Taxes, Smyrna Vinings homeowners[/tags]
[where: 30080]
[where: 30339]
I will be purchasing a home in Cobb on April 23rd for less than it’s appraised value. Because of these circumstances do you know if I can appeal even though it is after the April 1st deadline
You can check with the Cobb County tax assessors, but my assumption would be no. You obviously can’t appeal before the deadline since you don’t own it and since we’re dealing with the government, deadlines are usually pretty strict. You will want to go ahead and file for your homestead exemption, which will reduce your property taxes in 2010.