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Georgia is one of the best states in the country to appeal, and there’s a clock on it.
We check individual addresses here. No license of any kind is required, sale prices are public, and 122,174 appeals were filed statewide in the most recent reported year. A value won by appeal is frozen for three tax years under O.C.G.A. 48-5-299(c), so one win pays three times. Georgia's HOME Act, signed 11 May 2026, caps homestead assessment increases at inflation from 2027 with no local opt-out. That cap limits how fast your assessment can rise. It does nothing about whether today's number is right, and it never covers rentals or second homes.
So Georgia decides these on market value, which means the evidence is recent sales of genuinely comparable homes. What really matters is whether that whole set of sales sits below your assessed value. If they bracket your assessment instead of falling under it, boards usually side with the assessor, because nothing's been clearly disproved.
Now a few things lose almost everywhere. Comparing your assessment to a neighbor's assessment usually doesn't count where the argument's market value. One sale on its own can pretty easily be dismissed as an outlier. And the size of your increase, or the size of your bill, isn't really evidence about what your home's worth.
45 days from your annual notice. Fulton County mails mid-June with a July 31 deadline.
Miss it and you generally wait a year, so honestly the date matters more than the paperwork does.
And wherever you are, the single most useful thing you can actually do today is go find your assessment notice and read the date printed on it. That's what starts your clock, it's usually a much shorter window than people expect, and there's no getting it back once it's gone.
Our free check works for Fulton County, including Atlanta, and for Gwinnett and Cobb counties, where we've measured how sales compare with the 2026 values town by town. We've also written about the three year freeze a win gets you.
First, look up your own record. Every Georgia county mails an Annual Notice of Assessment, and your county tax assessors' website shows your home's record. The notice also shows an estimated tax, which is handy, because it's what you'll use to work out what a reduction's really worth.
Next, know where to file. You appeal on the state's form PT-311A within 45 days of the date printed on your notice, and filing's free. You choose how it's heard on that form and you can't change it later, and for most homeowners that means the county Board of Equalization. If you settle with the assessors, don't accept it verbally: get it in writing and signed.
Then bring the evidence that wins here. Georgia decides these on market value, so the evidence is sales of genuinely similar homes. And here's the best part: a value you win is frozen for three years, so one win basically pays three times. You keep that freeze by attending the hearing or sending written evidence, and appealing again during those years can reopen the number.
Also, check your exemptions. It's worth checking you've got the homestead exemption on the home you live in. It's what qualifies you for the new statewide cap on homestead increases starting in 2027, and most counties add their own senior exemptions. You apply with your county tax assessors.
Fulton County, including Atlanta. Georgia decides these on market value, so we compare what homes genuinely like yours actually sold for, using the county's own records of size, year built, bedrooms and bathrooms. Two things make a Georgia win worth more than anywhere else we cover: the value you win is frozen for three tax years, and from 2027 a statewide cap limits how fast assessments rise, measured from whatever base you are sitting on when it starts.
So type your address into our free check and we'll read the county's own records, work out whether the evidence actually supports an appeal, and tell you straight. Most people who use it get told not to bother, which is the point.
We've screened all fifty states and DC on the same two questions. Does winning a lower market value actually lower your bill, or is there a cap sitting in between? And can you even put the evidence together from public records?
This comes from our own fifty-state screen, where we checked each state's cap, whether sale prices are public, whether there's an argument based on assessed values, and how many appeals actually get filed. Where we've quoted an appeal count, it's from the state or county that published it. If you spot an error, please write to hello@propertytaxbuddy.com and we'll correct it and say what changed.