Contact the tax assessor
Property owners can visit the Tax Assessor’s Office at 341 W. Main St. in Lexington, call 706-743-5166 or go to qpublic.net/ga/oglethorpe. The window to appeal property value assessments is open until Aug. 29.
Assessed property values increased in Oglethorpe County this year.
“We’ve seen the assessments go up and up and up … the values just have been continuing to rise,” said Kem Caldwell, Oglethorpe County’s chief tax appraiser. “It really has kind of surprised me that it’s continued this long. We’ve had some indication this year that maybe things are starting to level off, and I don’t know if they’ll go back down, or if this is going to be the new normal.”
The assessments were sent out on July 15, later than usual due to changes in state laws, including HB 581 and HB 92.
Georgia Mass Appraisal Solutions and Services, the firm that partners with the Oglethorpe County Tax Assessor’s office to assess property values throughout the county, informed the office in May that the property value assessments, which normally are mailed in late June, would be delayed this year.
The window to appeal property value assessments is open until Aug. 29. Appeals can be made in person at the tax assessment office in Lexington or can be mailed to the office and will be accepted if they are postmarked before Aug. 29.
Caldwell attributes the increasing property value assessments to people moving from more expensive, urban areas to Oglethorpe County.
“We have a lot of people that come here from Gwinnett County,” Caldwell said. “Just trying to get out of there. You know, it’s just gotten crowded.”
GMASS first had to figure out how to comply their systems and software with the state regulations and then the Oglethorpe County Board of Assessors had to approve the changes to the value assessment laws, which they did on July 7, greenlighting the assessments.
“Alongside the homestead change, the state also provided new forms, new assessment notice forms, and a lot of people have called about that because it just looks different,” Caldwell said. “We’re trying to jump through hoops and make sure we’re complying with what the state says we have to do.”
Caldwell said he’s seen fewer appeals this year than usual.
When people appeal their property value assessment, they first can address it with the tax assessor’s office, which can go back to the property and revise the assessment, if necessary.
If the secondary assessment is still not what the property owner expects, they can appeal to the Board of Assessors and then the Georgia Board of Equalization.
“Just to appeal because you’re not happy with the value going up, or your tax bill, that’s not much of an argument,” Caldwell said before adding that an appeal doesn’t guarantee a lower value assessment.
“I mean, everybody can argue that they don’t like taxes. Nobody likes seeing the taxes go up. But you know, we can’t justify giving you a lower value just because you filed an appeal.”