Six Decatur Properties Received Inaccurate Tax Penalty Notices
Decatur Metro | July 26, 2010Late last week, we received a few reports of Decatur residents receiving penalty notices on unpaid 2008 property taxes that were claimed to be incorrect. After looking into it this morning, Assistant City Manager Andrea Arnold provided us with this reply…
Of the roughly 1,500 late notices that were mailed out last week for open balances, we’ve identified 6 properties so far that appear to have inaccurate penalties & interest. This includes the person that you reference in your email. Her situation was resolved this morning. The other property owners that we have spoken with have legitimate outstanding balances, many due to assessment changes. Nonetheless, we are working with the software vendor to determine what caused penalty and interest to accrue on these accounts that were paid in full.
If property owners have a question about their tax bill, the City’s revenue officers will gladly research their bill. The revenue office can be reached at 404-370-4100 and taxes@decaturga.com.
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I think that the City might be skewing their numbers. I also got a tax bill dut from 2007 which was in error and was corrected…
In my case, I don’t think the City was in error as far as being owed money, from an assessment change; I was just frustrated because not having received any notice and not seeing any indication on my regular tax bills in 2008, 2009, or 2010 of a past due amount, I was unaware that my mortgage holder hadn’t handled it properly.
I got a tax bill too. From 2006, which was two owners ago. I was told my options were to 1) write a letter to the city manager, or 2) just pay it. Seems like since we had nothing to do with why this tax wasn’t paid, we really shouldn’t be responsible. True it should have been caught when we purchased, but really it should have been caught back when the owner before us purchased. The whole situation just stinks, IMHO.