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| | | SPECIAL/www.northfulton.com (click for larger version) | |
May 06, 2008
FULTON COUNTY - The first comprehensive revaluation of Fulton County's 23,800 parcels of commercial property has hit property owners large and small like a Holyfield haymaker, but the shock, says one lawmaker, is only the residue of years of neglect by county assessors.
Republican Fulton County Commissioner Tom Lowe, said the county had for years made the residential property owners pay a disproportionate share of the property taxes because so many commercial properties were undervalued. Now that has all changed, and now the commercial property owners are doing the yelling and one class action lawsuit has sprung up.
Fulton County Chief Tax Appraiser Burt Manning went into the lion's den April 23 to speak to the Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation, the watchdog group dedicated to reducing Fulton's taxes, at a luncheon in Buckhead.
There he told the members that the commercial property revaluations were going up an average of 44 percent. But the county has sent out 18,500 notices to commercial property owners, and 3,000 properties did have their values reduced – which was not good news for property owners whose values increased. That meant many properties saw increases well over the 44 percent average increase.
More than a quarter of residential properties were reassessed downward, but most of these were townhomes, condos and lofts – the canary in the coalmine for residential real estate – they feel the effects of a downturn in the economy first and see the biggest swings in value.
"During revaluation this year, we have been cognizant of the downturn in real estate values this year, but Atlanta is still a strong market, and values have not dipped much," Manning said. "There have been pockets where foreclosures have been severe, and there are lots of properties the market will have to absorb. But building permits are still being issued, but at a lower volume."
One area of concern comes from commercial property owners who recently appealed commercial assessments and won. Normally, their properties would be free of reassessment for at least two years, but the county says that is not so, and has reinstated values determined by the 2008 comprehensive revaluation.
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That prompted prominent Fulton County real estate attorney Bob Proctor to file a class action lawsuit against the Fulton Tax Assessors Office claiming state law prohibits the county from changing the revaluations won by property owners in court.
"Although Fulton County says this is a new assessment, all commercial properties have been reassessed repeatedly. Once the consent order has been handed down, the properties should hold their value in 2008 in my view," Proctor said.
Rising taxes on commercial property does not help the county, its businesses or its taxpayers, because the buildings don't pay taxes, their tenants do, and they pass along increases to their customers, Proctor said.
"And the tenants have no appeals," he said.
Manning and the Board of Assessors disagree with Proctor's interpretation of the consent decrees.
"The assessments are not frozen by the agreements," Manning said. "But they cannot be changed if nothing else changes. In our case, that means if the county inspects the property and finds changes. In this case this is what we have done is inspect all the [commercial] properties."
In this case, the county has a legitimate reason to change the valuations agreed upon in the appeals.
"And even in 2006 and 2007, we saw commercial property continue to rise in value," Manning said.
Meanwhile, residential properties have stayed closer to fair market value, so Manning does not see huge valuation increases in that sector anytime soon.
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