Lee County homeowners have until Aug. 1 to claim property tax exemptions

LEESBURG — Lee County homeowners have until Aug. 1 to apply for homestead and other property tax exemptions for the 2026 tax year, a deadline members of the Lee County Board of Tax Assessors highlighted Monday as they encouraged eligible residents to take advantage of available tax relief.

The board postponed action on a batch of exemption applications during its July meeting to allow members additional time to individually review each request before the filing deadline passes. Chairman Philip Husain said the board wants to ensure every application receives careful consideration while still allowing residents time to submit new exemptions before the Aug. 1 deadline.

The meeting also focused extensively on educating property owners about the county’s appeals process, particularly addressing concerns that have surfaced following last year’s countywide property reassessment.

Chief Appraiser Doug Goodin explained that while most taxpayers file appeals because they believe their property’s value is too high, the appeals process occasionally reveals information that results in a property’s assessed value increasing rather than decreasing.

That possibility, board members emphasized, is not a penalty for filing an appeal.

Instead, it is the result of the Tax Assessor’s Office fulfilling its legal responsibility to maintain accurate property records.

“When someone files an appeal, we have the right to inspect the property,” Goodin explained. “If we discover something that’s not reflected on the property’s record card, we’re obligated to correct it.”

Examples include swimming pools, detached garages, workshops, additions, enclosed porches or other improvements that may have been constructed after the property was last reviewed. In other cases, inspectors may find that structures listed on the property’s record card have been demolished or removed, resulting in a lower valuation.

Board member Amanda Wiley said the board recognized that homeowners sometimes perceive those discoveries as retaliation for filing an appeal, even though the discrepancies simply reflect outdated property records.

To address those concerns, the board discussed implementing a more transparent notification process.

Rather than updating a property’s value without explanation, the Tax Assessor’s Office will first leave a door hanger notifying the homeowner that an item differing from the official property record was observed during the inspection. The office will then mail a letter identifying the discrepancy, estimating its impact on the property’s value and inviting the homeowner to discuss the findings before the information is officially added to the property’s record card.

The goal, Husain said, is to ensure property owners understand why a change is being made before receiving an updated assessment notice.

“We’re trying to avoid someone feeling like because they appealed, suddenly their value increased,” Wiley said during the discussion. “We’re just trying to make sure what’s on the property record is accurate.”

Goodin encouraged residents to periodically review their own property record cards through QPublic, the county’s online property database, where records for every parcel are publicly available.

Each property record card contains information used to calculate a property’s value, including square footage, construction details, outbuildings, pools and other improvements. Homeowners can compare that information with their property and notify the Tax Assessor’s Office if something is incorrect.

Officials noted that errors occur in both directions. Some records may include improvements that no longer exist, while others may fail to include additions that have been constructed over the years.

“If it’s simply incorrect, call us,” Goodin said, explaining that factual errors often can be corrected without requiring a formal appeal.

The meeting also offered insight into one of the most common questions county residents have asked since last year’s reassessment: Why did property values increase so dramatically?

Goodin said the increases were necessary to bring Lee County back into compliance with Georgia appraisal standards after property values had lagged behind the rapidly appreciating real estate market for several years.

Under Georgia law, the Department of Revenue annually analyzes property sales to ensure county assessments closely reflect actual market value. Counties that consistently assess property well below market value can fall outside the state’s required appraisal ratio and be cited for noncompliance.

According to Goodin, Lee County had remained below the state’s acceptable standards because values were not keeping pace with market sales.

One example discussed during the meeting involved agricultural land. Goodin said many categories of farmland had been assessed at less than $2,000 per acre even as verified market sales frequently ranged between approximately $5,000 and $7,000 per acre. Those sales, he said, required reassessments to bring values closer to actual market conditions.

Among those asking questions was lifelong Lee County resident and landowner Michael Stevens, whose family’s property on Stocks Dairy Road has been part of the historic Stocks Dairy for generations. Stevens questioned whether rising sales prices for recreational tracts and plantations are artificially inflating the value of long-held working farms.

“We have a heritage farm. We’re part of Stocks Dairy’s farm, and we’ve been there forever. It was my granddaddy’s property,” Stevens told the board. He later added, “It just seems to me that there’s other farms that have sold that have driven up the price tremendously. … But it just seems like that shouldn’t be the case if it’s a heritage farm or something like that.”

That exchange also gave Goodin the opportunity to explain that conservation-use properties are taxed differently than fair market value and that the agricultural reassessment was driven by multiple verified sales reviewed by the Georgia Department of Revenue, not isolated transactions.

The compliance issue affects more than residential property owners. Goodin explained that Georgia uses county appraisal ratios to determine how public utilities — including railroads, telecommunications companies and electric utilities — are taxed.

When a county’s appraisal ratio falls below state standards, utility companies receive a reduced assessment ratio, lowering the amount of property taxes they pay locally. If a county remains out of compliance for an extended period, it can also face financial penalties from the state.

“Our job is to present a tax digest that’s in compliance with the regulations of the state,” Goodin said. “Nobody likes the Tax Assessor’s Office — I get it — but that’s what we’re required to do.”

Board members stressed that while the Tax Assessor’s Office is responsible for determining fair market values, it does not determine how much property owners ultimately pay in taxes. Those decisions are made by the county commission, school board and other taxing authorities through the annual millage rate process.

Husain and Wiley both noted that an increase in assessed value does not necessarily produce an equal increase in a tax bill because local governments may reduce, or “roll back,” their millage rates as property values rise.

The board also discussed Lee County’s floating homestead exemption, which limits annual increases in taxable value for qualifying homeowners on county taxes. In Georgia, homeowners who own and live in their home as their legal residence can apply for a homestead exemption through their county tax assessor’s office. Once approved, the exemption reduces the taxable value of the home for one or more taxing authorities, lowering the annual property tax bill.

Officials encouraged residents to learn about the homestead exemption and other available property tax relief programs before the Aug. 1 filing deadline, which was extended this year from the state’s traditional April 1 deadline to give homeowners additional time to apply.

Property owners seeking a homestead exemption or wishing to review their property record card may contact the Lee County Tax Assessor’s Office or visit the county’s QPublic website.