DEKALB COUNTY, Ga.,None — A DeKalb County homeowner, who is also a lawyer, filed a civil lawsuit Tuesday against the county's tax authorities. Attorney Randie Siegel told Channel 2's Mark Winne that the tax assessments in her Briarwood Hills neighborhood are wildly inconsistent and, in many cases, violate state law.
Siegel told Winne her home's assessed value, on which her taxes are based, went from about $448,000 last year down to under $300,000 in May of this year, then back up to almost $475,000 three months later.
According to Siegel, the law requires tax authorities to assess similar houses in similar neighborhoods at a similar value, but her analysis of more than 200 homes in her Briarwood Hills area shows wild swings in assessed value. Also, for some reason many homes have been assessed twice this year, in both May and July.
"Many of them went too low. Many of them went too high," Siegel said.
Siegel said some assessments even doubled from May to July, including a house on Rosedale Road.
"This particular house in 2010 was assessed at $511,900. They dropped it to $338,880 for the May 2011 assessment and then for the July assessment they raised it to $623,200. It's all over the board," Siegel said.
Homeowner Bernie Testrake told Winne his house just down the street on Hancock Drive dropped from $455,200 in 2010, to $298,440 in May of this year, then up to $484,800 in July.
Winne searched through the county's appraisal records online and found another house on Hancock Drive where the house's assessed value nearly doubled in three months. The house's value dropped from $532,800 in 2010 to $503,400 in May of 2011 and then was reassessed in July of 2011 for $1,044,300.
DeKalb County Chief Appraiser Calvin Hicks, Jr. told Winne he cannot comment on the lawsuit but he said about 6,000 properties countywide were assessed a second time to fix errors.
"The adjustments made were appropriate and within the time frame that's permissible," said Hicks.
Hicks said the county was adjusting to software changes, which may have played a factor.
Siegel said a state law owing to the down economy forbids raising assessed value for tax years 2009 through 2011, except for certain circumstances like major improvements. She alleges DeKalb's tax authorities have violated this law with her house's assessment and many others.
Testrake indicated he did not understand the reason for the drastic increase from May to July, which raised his assessment value higher in 2011 than it was in 2010.
"The last major improvement was we remodeled our kitchen and den and that was [in] 1987," said Testrake.
Chief Appraiser Hicks said he invites homeowners to check the figures and bring forth any concerns.
"Every property owner has an opportunity to contest the values that we send. If there's an issue we address it. It isn't done in an effort to deny property owners any right that they may have, we certainly welcome the reviews of property owners to look at the data and if there's an issue or concern about what they observe to let us know," said Hicks.
Testrake said he filed an appeal.
"We always labor with the imperfections of being humans," said Hicks.
Hicks told Winne late on Tuesday that he was double checking the value of the subsequent assessments for approximately 424 properties where the value was raised.
WSBTV
