ATLANTA — A group of taxpayers filed a lawsuit this afternoon accusing Fulton County of overbilling thousands of homeowners. The suit asks a judge to keep the county from sending out its tax bills until the correct property values are determined.
R.J. Morris lives in Fulton County, and also owns about 50 investment properties there. When he started comparing the values and sales prices in different neighborhoods, he found major discrepancies and wanted to figure out why. Morris told Channel 2 Action News investigative reporter Jodie Fleischer, "It's basically taking two plus two and it equals five, it's so incompetent that it is beyond. We used to think it was corruption."
The county's own data shows increases in value for plenty of older homes, even though state law forbids that. It's one of the reasons Morris filed the lawsuit. He wants to question the appraisers directly.
"We're going to come up there and say 'how did you come to this figure, when every single sale the median sales price was 30,000 and you've got 'em at 130,000? I want to know it. Show me in black and white what you did,'" said Morris.
He research caught the county using high-dollar bank transactions as actual sales, even though no money changed hands. And when banks sold off foreclosed homes in a group, the county used the total price for all of the houses over and over again, making each seem like it was worth much more.
That raised the value for all the homes in each neighborhood.
"If you live in Fulton County, you're probably paying $500 a year more in taxes than you should on average," said Morris.
He wants a judge to stop the county from mailing the tax bills until all of the problems are fixed. Any delay in the bills and lower tax values could have a major impact on incoming revenue for Fulton county and its cities to operate their governments.
Fulton County's chief appraiser, Burt Manning, told Channel 2 he cannot comment on the new lawsuit or the impact it could have on the county's budget.
Just last week, Investigative Reporter Jodie Fleischer showed him several errors she found in his records. He vowed to have the property values corrected.
If you're interested in reading more about the lawsuit filed today, or signing up to be a part of the case, click on the links below.
LINK: Fulton County Lawsuit LINK: Fulton County Taxpayers Group