DeKalb Property Value Assessments Still Confusing Residents
Decatur Metro | June 3, 2014 | 11:31 amThere was a lot of talk on FFAF this past week as property owners around Decatur and DeKalb County received their annual property tax bills for the coming year, many reporting large increases in the value. You may recall all the hubbub back in 2012 when county had to do a number of reassessments.
Well things are still confusing for many residents. John wrote in detailing his own recent findings, which show the odd trends that still exist along single streets…
Well, here we are again at property re-assessment time. Based on your prior reporting of a 6% average increase, I was prepared to see something in that range. Alas, being DeKalb County, it has to be something more complicated than that. As was noted a few years ago, the assessors “flipped” the amount for each of the assessment’s components (*previously*, the LAND value was the lower, fairly constant amount among neighboring properties and the IMPROVEMENTS value was the higher, quite variable amount among neighboring properties – these were the components “flipped” a few years ago).
Now, looking at several property values under the new assessments, some of the assessments have reverted back to the previous low land, high improvements values while other assessments remain at the recent high land, low improvements values. In addition to being inconsistent and, frankly, looking haphazard, this makes it very difficult to adequately compare property values among competing properties.
Here are some of the assessments I came across (from properties on same street):
Property 1 LAND 236,300 IMPROVEMENTS 101,900
Property 2 LAND 85,200 IMPROVEMENTS 188,900
Property 3 LAND 184,300 IMPROVEMENTS 49,570
Property 4 LAND 85,200 IMPROVEMENTS 322,700
Nonsensical.
Yup, ours flipped back to the lower land value/higher building value. The net result is an actual (small) drop in total property value.
What a cluster.
A complete disaster. I just got my notice Friday and the county has somehow come to the conclusion that my humble abode rose more then $85,000 in value from last year to this year. As it stands, my place is now worth well more than any previous assessment, and somehow almost $80,000 higher than the selling price of a unit that is now under contract. On my to do list: file an appeal.
I don’t have our notice in front of me, but I think that our assessed value went up 35% and our taxes increased by that same percentage. Any advice on how to file an appeal?
Correction: our assessed value went up 50% and we saw a 50% increase in our taxes.
mine only went up 49%
Our assessment rose by 63% with zero improvements on the property. Seems others in my neighborhood (Medlock Park) have had similar experiences. Is there any recourse to sue the county to get them to stop this ridiculous practice of thowing baseless valuations out and seeing what sticks?
nope. sovereign immunity.
Mine are up 38%. Get ready for the revolt!
This kind of incompetence is expected from DeKalb County government. Equally expected: no county employee will lose their job over any of this. Accountability is for suckers.
I understand the city has basically – “outsourced” valuation to the county. Is anyone going to hold the city accountable?
We all know that real values based have increased significantly in the last couple years. So increases of 20% or even 50% may not be unreasonable. But the real inequity is the variation in values assigned to similar homes.
agreed- increases in value are reasonable for City of Decatur properties, but the inequitable assignement of increases and no increases is really ticking me off.
Agreed. On our street among 7 houses that are almost identical the appraised values cover a $300,000 spread which is insane!
can you check to see if the values that are on the high end also have the break down of low property value and high building value? I’m curious if that trend holds true/is the flaw (see below for notes about my block).
Looks like they all have lower land versus improvement valuations. There are 2 values given for the land on those lots even though each lot is .4 acre (3 houses have one land value, 4 houses have a slightly lower land value).
Just to be sure- you are saying all of the high total valuations have the low land/high building values, or are you saying that all properties on your block have the low land/high building valuation? Thanks for checking!
All seven properties have the same low land/high improvement valuations. No one has a high land/low improvements assessment.
thank you!
In Georgia, property valuations are handled by the county. I don’t think Decatur could do its own assessments, by law.
COD did their own assessments until about 20 years ago, but the law may have changed.
as long as we get the best city resources, school, police, fire, etc in the country …
And, in total confusion, we did a permitted addition that added 276 square feet and our value dropped $17,600.00. Someone explain that…..we now have the largest house on the street with the lowest tax bill.
Best to stay confused.
My FMV somehow rose from $99k to $220k – a $120,000 jump – even though there were no improvements or changes to the property. I’ve been pulling up my neighbors’ as well and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to any of it. Does putting your house on the market (even if it doesn’t sell) affect the assessment? I’m unincorporated Dekalb, so don’t even get the best city resources…
Only actual sales are supposed to affect the assessment. Merely listing your house has nothing to do with it.
However if you did list your house at a value significantly higher than your current (now previous) assessment it would be reasonable to assume that there were sales in your area which could justify that listing and therefore your new assessment could be justified. That being said the consistency with assessments in DeKalb is horrendous.
Our increase seemed somewhat reasonable until I looked at the other houses on our block- half seemed to have little to no increase in value, while the other half had some big jumps. There is no reason to any of the jump vs. static- there seems to be no correlation to recent improvements, square footage, or recent sale price. However, I also observed that only half had been converted to the smaller building value/bigger land valuation model– and those that had not yet been converted to that model were the homes that had the big assessment increases. Seems like the uneven assessment growth is tied to a flaw in whether or not the County has converted the lot to the new assessment valuation method or not, at least for our block. Does that hold true for others?
Your DeKalb County government at work. Question – given the incompetence from CEO to Water Department clerks, why does the city rely on this mismanaged organization to determine property values, hence our property tax?
Here’s something people may not realize as they do comparisons with their neighbors.
If your neighbor appealed a reassessment in the last year or two and won their appeal, their assessment is fixed for three years. I’m not sure if that shows up when you look up values in the database.
Just an FYI (and an incentive to appeal if you feel your assessment is way out of whack).
Excellent point, Anna.
I appealed my property tax last year and had it successfully lowered. The thing is – the mis-evaluation showed me exactly how screwed up their software is. The Georgia legislature had signed Senate Bill 346 into law, which provides that the property sales price establishes the Fair Market Value for next tax year. In other words, you can’t legally be taxed $200,000 in 2012 for a property that you bought for $140,000 in 2011. The software should have been adjusted to automatically set the sales price as the maximum threshhold for properties that had been sold in the previous tax year. I spent hours preparing my appeal, only to have the board tell me “Oh yes- that’s a mistake. Sign here and we’ll reset the value to your sale price.” That should never have happened in the first place.
I doubt it is accidental. What percentage of owners do you think actually appeal? And it isn’t like the “officials” in the tax office care about increased operating costs of dealing with extra appeals. If nothing else, they have an excuse to increase the size of their jobs program.
I’m sure someone here knows the answer to this: are property taxes handled the same everywhere, that is, does a local government periodically assess “fair market value” and then levy a tax based on that? I’ve long thought there has to be a better way.
My idea is to tax based on a formula that is part based on most recent selling price, part based on square footage. Each year after the most recent sale, the assessed value is tied to some sort of real estate inflation index ( surely there is one). Improvements only increase the tax bill if the square footage is increased. An assessor would only have to visit the property if there were a dispute over square footage. I would think this would be a more stable system, with more predictable bills and more predictable revenue. But I’m probably missing something.
Don’t think that would yield “fair” results, either, because it would ignore what’s inside the square footage. Under that program you could completely gut an outdated house, add in the most luxurious fixtures imaginable, and it would have no effect on the assessment. Or am I misunderstanding what you are suggesting?
Assessors do not see the inside as it stands now.
That’s pretty much the case now, as Sharron points out. But I’m actually fine with someone improving their home or yard and not being hit with a tax increase except in the case of living space additions. The increase in value would come into play when the place sold. Yes, I realize this benefits existing homeowners over new residents to some degree, but I think it also has the benefit of increasing stability.
It is an ad valorem tax based on value (only in theory; obviously not in practice). If one significantly increases the value of his/her home, why should one get a pass just b/c they didn’t add a square inch to their footprint? If they don’t sell quickly after a major reno, they would get a windfall for years. And, except for flips, most people don’t do major renos unless they plan to stay for a while.
Yes, you’re right, but I guess that’s what I’m questioning, whether pure ad valorem is the best way. For example, it hardly seems fair that a person’s assessed value jumps because some other people down the street sold for big bucks, while that person’s home is exactly the same. I guess what I’m proposing (and this is purely spitballing here, nothing serious) is a system that sees smaller increases for existing homeowners over time, but also one that’s less arbitrary.
There is no perfect system. As to your last point, houses appreciate all the time without any changes/improvements. Although you may do nothing to yours, if your neighbors start selling for 10% more than last year, what would you list yours for? The old value? So, it isn’t as unfair as it may seem – you have more equity as a result of your neighbor’s sale.
This isn’t the first time I and others have said this, but if you aren’t planning on moving anytime soon, you don’t want to see substantial appreciation. Only if you are moving (or cashing out equity) are you happy your value has increased.
A little more spit balling: assessed values are the same as the purchase price for one full tax year. After that an inflation index is applied to calculate assessed value. Maybe this index would simply be a comparison of all sales in a tax district for one year compared to the previous year and using the percentage increase (or decrease). So everyone would get the same percentage increase (or decrease) in assessed value. The index would be applied retroactively to existing properties that haven’t changed hands recently (again, I’m just throwing this out there. I know it wouldn’t ever happen)
The other part would be a square footage multiplier. To give a simplified example, let’s say 1000 sqft is “revenue neutral” and has a multiplier of one. So a person who owes $5000 for the year would pay $5000 on a 1000 sqft. home. A person with a 2000 sqft home and a $5000 tax bill would pay the 5k plus a multiplier, say it’s 1.1 for a 2000 sqft. home, resulting in a tax bill of $5500.
It also has impact on home owners who are long time residents and haven’t made improvements to their property in a number of years. A coat of pait is maintenance, not improvement, as far as I’m concerned. I live in Lenox Place neighborhood and there have been 3 new builds on my street alone. My assessment came back $120,000 higher than last year. So my value is based on the sale of larger new construction homes. This isn’t right.
I live in Lenox Place neighborhood. My assessment went up 25% = $120000 and I have made no improvements to my property in 10 years. However, there have been 3 newly constructed houses on my street alone, I think close to 10 in the last year for the neighborhood – so I am being appraised on the sale price of the new construction. This isn’t right.
We removed an old addition that was falling off our house and replaced it with one 45 square feet larger and our tax assessment increased $80,000. Those were some expensive square feet! So yes our house was improved, but had we done nothing a good portion our house would have collapsed eventually (and maybe our taxes would have gone way down though if that happened?).
So what is an improvement and what is maintenance?
Get this. Years ago, after purchasing our home, our taxable value increased (about $25k above the price we paid). When I went to talk with the county appraiser, to find out on what the increase was based, she very glibly replied the MLS listing from when our house was on the market. She pulled our property file and produced full color copies of the photos from when our house was listed for sale. I was pretty shocked…..and I asked her, if she were selling a car, would she take pictures of the dings, or would she take–and publish–the best possible photo of the vehicle? The house was well staged when on market and looked lovely in the MLS listing. She remarked the floors were in excellent shape (this opinion based on the ONE photo of visible flooring, which in that particular room was relatively new). I invited her over to see the home, promptly pulled back the large number of rugs we have down to cover 60 +years’ worth of wear and tear, and viola! Our assessment was lowered to the price we paid. Meanwhile……the current assessment presents its own issues…..
My big complaint is not the 50% increase in the house we live in, but the 50% increase in our previous home (now a rental). That house is smaller, faces a major street, and OUTSIDE city of Decatur and is assessed almost the same as our Winnona Park house in the city limits.
When did you move? Could this be due to losing the homestead exemption on the old house?
I am wondering if it is some kind of “divide and conquer” strategy from the assessors office. On our street, most houses stayed the same or even went down a bit, while a few got staggering increases for no reason. The majority of the property owners are saying “phewww, dodged a bullet, mine went down, ha.” While the minority like me are getting hit with a 54% increase. Maybe I could sell it for that, but it shouldn’t be that much higher than my neighbors that could sell theirs for the same thing. There has to be a better way to do this, people.
I agree. Ours went up significantly, probably fair based on recent appreciation, but the house behind us which is newer (3 years old) and 60% larger is assessed at less than half of our assessment.
“Ours went up significantly, probably fair based on recent appreciation, but the house behind us which is newer (3 years old) and 60% larger is assessed at less than half of our assessment.”
Under something like the formula I had in mind above, such a scenario wouldn’t happen because values would be more closely tied to recent sales (a three-year old home would be a recent sale and new, so a higher sale price) and include a multiplier for larger square footage that would affect the net tax due.
The house behind us was a tear-down. Owners bought and tore down, then rebuilt. So I think the breakdown is that the county is still “unaware” after several years, that the old 2br 1 ba brick has been replaced with a 5,000 sq foot modern mcmansion.
Yeah, that’s a problem of poor coordination. Permits should be be part of the tax file on a property.
Permits are part of the file, but I am not sure how long it takes for them to be added. I did a reno 3 years ago and all prior permits are listed on the tax assessor’s website.
If they appealed in the past 3 years, there will be 2 assessments on the assessor’s website. i.e. 2012 – Notice 1 and 2012 – Notice 2. Take a look at your neighbors to see if that is the case. They may have known how to work the system and saved themselves tens of thousands of dollars.
One would think that subsequent renovations nullify the three year lock. Does anyone know if that is the case?
In the permitting process, is estimated cost of the renovations a part of the permit application? What I’m wondering is how the county determines the value of renovations, other than by actually visiting the property.
Yes, you have to estimate the cost for a building permit (I believe that is the amount reflected on the county’s website). I also looked at the (Georgia) Code and it states that appraisers are not supposed to base the change in value solely on that estimate. I’m not sure how DeKalb does it, but I am aware of a number of renovated homes that do not reflect the updates in the county’s records even years after the renovation is completed.
We have lived in our house in Oakhurst since 1998. It was crackhouse, pitbull breeding den and honest to goddess children were sleeping in wooden pens in the unpurposed attic (we found 2 pens with bedding and and toys). It took us years to renovate because we could not figure out how to redesign the interior (we finally ripped out the original fireplaces which were actually ugly and gave up on preserving what was in reality a poorly designed interior, though I lost one of my bay windows). We uncovered two giant windows, under abestos siding, filled in with concrete (we also uncovered pristine original siding from around 1920. Yeah toxic siding from 1955!). Those giant windows were boarded over since our interior renovation came first.
Long story short, those boards were up for over a year since we had to get windows and matching wooden siding custom made. At some point our assessment was done and our house was deemed in poor to nearly condemned condition because of the boarded windows, yet was pristine inside and had an addition of two rooms and a two story garage . Our permitted extra square footage never seems to have made it into records. For three years, two after the boards came off, our city taxes were $700 a year. I have no idea what the theory is behind assessments.
Oh, you better hope the assessors don’t know who you are and where you live, baby!
This 10 years ago, so I am sure the statute of limitations is up! And I did call them about it – they said the exterior is how they judged!
A recent flurry of emails in WP shows that some assessments went way, way up, some went up a reasonable amount, some stayed the same, and some–inexplicably–went down significantly.
Talk about weird.
I tried appealing my Dekalb property taxes several years ago and I found the process pretty awful. I spent an entire weekend trying to pull together comps and sales in the neighborhood. I sent everything off and a few weeks later I received a notice saying that the county would not budge on the value. The next option was to appeal to the Board of Equalization or BOE. This requires that you go in person down to the tax office and state your case why you disagree with the value. Since I had not been particularly successful in my first attempt in getting the value fixed I found a local person (that lives in Decatur) that went before the BOE on my behalf and got the valuation fixed. Once they fix the value at a lower level it is locked there for three years. The hiring of this individual cost me hundreds but ultimately saved me thousands over the past three years. I would definitely recommend using this service if you’re not sure exactly how to proceed. http://www.taxappealatlanta.com/
Greg, are you an employee or shareholder of that company?
Not involved with the company at all, just a happy customer. I found the entire process so frustrating and to do the BOE appeal you have to appear in person. It was worth more to me to have someone go in my place than use a day of paid time off waiting in a small room with 45 other people.
” Once they fix the value at a lower level it is locked there for three years. ”
Greg, do you have the URL for this rule, so I could take a look at it? Thanks, much, Fred
It sounds like a state law dictates this freeze (which is two years but is technically three because your current valuation would be frozen and that would extend for the next two years as well) http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/home-value-appeals-tricky-leave-some-feeling-duped/nQT86/
Can anyone here provide a link to how a home’s square footage is calculated for the purpose of property assessments? For example, do screened porches count? Or permanent utility sheds?
Not positive, but usually residential sq. footage is usually based on “conditioned” space, which would exclude porches and utility sheds. But, that said, I don’t know if DeKalb actually does it that way.
That is correct. Heated/cooled space only. Even a drive-in attached garage does not count.
I had a successful BOE appeal a few years ago. I took the approach of “any data I present compiled by me could be suspect as cherry picking.”
I presented them with two pieces of data.
1) I hired an appraiser. This provides both an appraisal of your home and, as part of the process, homes deemed comparable by the appraiser. Also, my appraiser offered an “online appraisal” (no visit to house, just using public and MLS sales data) for much less – I think $135 or so. This helped establish a market value and provide comparable houses.
2) I asked my real estate agent neighbor (we all have one, right?) to provide a listing of every single home sale in the neighborhood for the last 3 years. I turned that into a table listing square footage, # BRs, # Baths, and lot size, sale date, and sale price. I emphasized again to them that this was every home sale in the neighborhood, and I wasn’t being selective with the data.
So like Greg, it takes some $ to make a strong appeal, but it is often worth it.
A couple of comments here mention that a successful appeal freezes the assessed value for 3 years. Does anyone have the URL for this rule? Thanks.
Read on page three “Recently Appealed Real Property” 1 (I) where it states for the next two years cannot be changed … That is in addition to the year it was appealed and decided thus the three years.
Will try to post URL in a quirky way so this doesn’t get stuck in moderation.
Insert http:// in front. Add .pdf to back end.
rules.sos.state.ga.us/docs/560/11/10/09
Thank you, Sharon – you’re awesome!
Just curious – who here does not think they could sell their home in today’s market for at least the assessed value?
I honestly think I could sell mine for $275,000 more than the assessed value/
Me, me! I absolutely could not sell my home for its newly assessed value. Last year valued at $385K. Added 225-s.f. addition (just a room; not bedroom, bathroom, or kitchen) and this year my property is assessed at $594,500. An increase of $209,500! The only house close to selling for that in my neighborhood is twice the size of mine and brand new. Yes, definitely appealing.
WTF????? That is craycray. Did you tell Joanie?
Sounds like they might need to call Uncle Arthur.
“Just curious – who here does not think they could sell their home in today’s market for at least the assessed value?”
I think a lot of the complaints here are based on the fact that some received higher assessments than properties that clearly have greater market value. Which means they will shoulder a greater share of the tax burden, contrary to how the system is supposed to work. It’s an understandable complaint.
Agree. Our assessment went up quite a bit, and I believe it is fair. Problem is houses around us are still assessed at their pre-tear down / rebuild values. So in our case an appeal would do no good, and we continue to subsidize those who were lucky or knew how the system worked.
I think the city should be ashamed at the inequity of having elderly people in non-renovated 2br houses paying, in a lot of cases, more property tax than people living in $800k++++ new builds. And I don’t see much outrage about this.
FWIW, the City of Decatur has additional homestead exemptions for low-income, elderly property owners. They are taxed on a lower percentage of their property’s assessed value than people with a standard homestead exemption.
Correct, except the percentage of assessed value is the same (50%), instead they are given an additional offset of the assessed value (similar to the homestead exemption), and, in the case of school taxes, it’s an abatement where the taxes are still due, just not on a current basis. The accumulated abated taxes are due when the property is sold.
Here are the details: http://www.decaturga.com/index.aspx?page=681
Per documents from city hall, the average dollar reduction is about $200.
+1 to brianc. Lack of equity and the almost complete opaqueness of the process are the problems here. Under the current system numerous luxury homes seem to be flying under the tax radar. We have an absurd system going where the middle class or at least less wealthy households are subsidizing the rich. You shouldn’t get a 10k+/year tax break because you know how to work the system or because local government is incompetent.
Pretend that money were an object. What would be a better use of government tax dollars- Hiring a competent person or group in house to handle property taxes, and perhaps they could spend other available time studying population growth, or hiring an arborist to manage new regulations for problems that aren’t problems?
Mine went up 49%. I have never appealed, but am considering it for the first time. Is this going to be a big waste of time and money or worthwhile? Are the majority of you in the 50 percent range appealing or is this simply the new reality of living in the City of Decatur?
Maybe they could do both, if parking meters are enforced on weekends (I believe Saturday enforcement starts this month).
Oooooh. Now that’s a biggie! I’ve had a moral dilemma ever since my children were little and saying “Mommy, how come you’re not putting money in the meter this time….” But when I did, I was pretty sure I was the only person in the whole City doing so. In fact, I even asked about it at some meeting with City staff and got a vague response of “Well, we don’t enforce it yet….” Now I don’t have to walk the fine line between parking meter immorality and being the lone sap who pays on Saturdays.
I meant to say that I believe Saturday enforcement starts next month, not this month. Though I’m not sure about that.
Just checked and our assessment is the same as last year. Pays to have a boring house that has had nothing major done to it in several years. Plus luck since this all seems random. Reminds me that relative anonymity on blogs is important–I wouldn’t post this news otherwise. Don’t want to attract any tax assessment attention.
Read this today, from the Austin, TX newspaper:
“I’m at the breaking point,” said Gretchen Gardner, an Austin artist who bought a 1930s bungalow in the Bouldin neighborhood just south of downtown in 1991 and has watched her property tax bill soar to $8,500 this year.
“It’s not because I don’t like paying taxes,” said Gardner, who attended both meetings. “I have voted for every park, every library, all the school improvements, for light rail, for anything that will make this city better. But now I can’t afford to live here anymore. I’ll protest my appraisal notice, but that’s not enough. Someone needs to step in and address the big picture.”
From the Austin Onion, right?
Ha! That is awesome.
Mine went up about 15% and my taxes about 10%. No reason for it. I have nearly 1/2 an acre in CoD, but the land value barely moved
and maybe if a stronger less developer friendly tree ordinance had passed, we might have been spared future 50% increases based on the huge house on the lot down the street where all those trees used to be… just sayin’
Ya know, if no ordinance at all had been passed, we’d be in a better situation just the same. Just sayin’
Or, even more likely, as supply of new “huge” houses goes down, demand goes up, and thus, so do the prices. If your “logic” allows you to correlate a “weak” tree ordinance with increased home values and ignore the seventeen other legitimate reasons for those new homes, I certainly hope you stay away from the voting booths.
Oh dawgfan, your “logic” never ceases to impress me.
Btw, I always vote. Early and often.
By “often”, do you mean you vote multiple times in each election? “Always” covered your voting in every election.
Why stop there? Pass an even more draconian ordinance and your property values might drop immediately. “Hey, I’m poorer — this is awesome!”
NOTICE to all!! WSB Channel 2 News just interviewed my neighbor and me about this; I had e-mailed WSB a link to this very exchange and Diana Davis immediately asked if she could talk to me on air. She had been interviewing the DeKalb County tax assessor! So, WATCH CHANNEL 2 NEWS today (starting at 4) to see what HE (or she?) has to say. My neighbor and I stressed that it’s the inconsistencies that seem suspicious (and that have us, once again, questioning the competence of DeKalb government at a time when they really need to be working to regain trust. Not sure they’ll cover my whining on that point , but I did include it.)
I’m replying to myself. The double shooting bumped this story to tomorrow. I’ve sent some excerpts from this exchange to Diana Davis; she fully understands that the issue is the inconsistency in the tax assessments.
As posted earlier, you want your property values as low as possible until the moment you want to sell. Also, if your home is your investment strategy, you might want to rethink that strategy.
Dawgfan- ” early and often” – look up Tammany Hall…..
We all need to appeal.
Yes, I have a nice house in Decatur, but not a newly constructed house. Half of my house is from 1920 with plaster walls and no insulation and the rest is a renovation that is 10 years old. My kitchen has not been upgraded, just painted and recycled.
It feels like comparing apples to oranges to hold all assessments up to the most recent sales of new construction homes in our neighborhoods.
Also – a 25% – 30% jump is too much all at once. There should be a limit to how much an assessment can increase at any given time. To suddenly jump $120K is unreal considering I have done nothing to affect that increase. No increase in sqft, no gourmet kitchen. For that amount you could build a garage with apartment over top!
I agree with the comment that you want to keep your house price low until you want to sell – but I’m not selling. I bought here in 1988 when Decatur was a wasteland and plan to hang on to my house – if the taxes don’t drive me out.
As some have stated, the real scandal here is not that appraisals have gone up so much (they have been too low for many years), nor even that similar homes are being appraised differently (that can be corrected through the appeals process, based on equity). The more outrageous scandal is that so many major (300k-1.5 million dollar) “renovations” do not even appear in the county’s database. Is the city of Decatur failing to accurately report permits? Are homeowners trying to evade taxes by not filing for certificates of occupancy after renovations? Are developers actively encouraging this sort of evasion and selling it as a sort of “discount”? It would be great to hear from our elected officials at some point. I for one do not think it is productive to focus solely on Dekalb County. The heart of the problem may lie much closer to home.
Very interesting. I’ll pass that along to Channel 2 News, too.