Appeal a Georgia condo or townhome like a house, with evidence that fits it: same-complex sales, common-area value and the county's values for your floor plan.
# How to Appeal Your Condo or Townhome Property Tax in Georgia
Yes, you can appeal a condo or townhome property tax assessment in Georgia, with the same state appeal form and the same 45-day window from the date your notice was mailed that Georgia law sets for a house. What's different is the evidence, because the strongest comparables for attached housing are recent sales of similar units in your own complex or in similar complexes nearby.
Attached homes are a large part of some markets. Georgia REALTORS' 2025 annual report on the state's housing market, built on multiple listing service data, puts the townhome-condo market share for the City of Atlanta at 28.7%.
Confirm with your county before you file.
Each condo unit is its own parcel with its own assessment. Georgia's Condominium Act says each unit "shall constitute a separate parcel of real property," and once any unit has an owner other than the declarant (whoever created the condominium by recording its declaration, usually the developer), "no tax or assessment shall be levied on the condominium as a whole but only on the individual condominium units" (O.C.G.A. 44-3-96).
The ratio is the same as for a house. Georgia assesses most property at 40% of its fair market value, and that 40% figure, less any exemptions, is what your tax rate is applied to (O.C.G.A. 48-5-7(a)). For an illustrative condo the county values at $300,000, the assessed value is $120,000 ($300,000 x 40%).
A townhome may be a condominium unit or a lot in a subdivision with a homeowners association, depending on how the community was set up. The state's appraisal rule on common areas, below, covers both.
Not for a condominium. The common areas are part of each unit's value. The Condominium Act defines the common elements as "all portions of the condominium other than the units," and a condominium unit as the unit "together with the undivided interest in the common elements appertaining to that unit" (O.C.G.A. 44-3-71). Your declaration sets each unit's share, which the Act allows "by percentage, fraction, formula, or any other method" (O.C.G.A. 44-3-78).
The Department of Revenue's appraisal rules tell county appraisers how to handle that shared value. Under the state's rule on valuing common areas (rule .09(4)(d)1 of the Appraisal Procedures Manual), appraisal staff "shall take into account" how much of the market value of units in a residential subdivision, planned commercial development or condominium already includes the value of any common-area interest conveyed with those units. When that common-area value is already inside the unit values, the appraisers "may recommend a nominal assessment of the common area parcel," and the value of any interest not conveyed to the unit owners is appraised, with an assessment recommended to the board of tax assessors.
That's the rule to point to if your association owns a common-area parcel (the pool, the clubhouse, the green space in a townhome community) and it carries a sizable assessment. The association's board can ask the assessors how they applied the rule to that parcel.
Not directly. The county's figure is 40% of your unit's fair market value, less exemptions, and your dues aren't part of that formula. A higher dues bill this year doesn't change your assessment by itself.
Dues can matter through the market, and that's the argument to make. A buyer weighs the whole monthly cost of a unit, dues included, so high dues can show up as lower sale prices in your complex. If recent sales there came in below the value on your notice, those sales are your evidence, and the dues statement only helps explain them.
Start with recent sales of similar units in your own complex, then widen to similar complexes nearby. A unit in your building shares your location, amenities, dues and common areas, so fewer differences need explaining.
Look for units with your floor plan, or close to it, that sold recently. Your county's property records site may list recent sales, and a real estate agent can pull sold listings from the multiple listing service. Several sales that land below your value make a stronger case than one.
The statewide market gives you a reason to look. Georgia REALTORS' 2025 Annual Report on the Georgia Housing Market says townhouse-condo prices were down 1.5 percent in 2025, while single-family prices were unchanged. A statewide number doesn't set your unit's value, but if your notice went up, your own complex's sales are worth checking.
Widen the search to complexes like yours: similar age, unit sizes, amenities and building type (garden-style with garden-style, mid-rise with mid-rise), as close to you as you can find. You can also lean on the county's own values for units with your floor plan, which is the uniformity argument below and doesn't need a sale at all.
Units in one building still differ. Note the floor level, view, renovation, parking (a deeded space or none) and outdoor space of each comparable, and say which way each difference cuts. If a comparable sold for more but had a renovated kitchen and yours is original, say so in your evidence.
You can appeal on uniformity, meaning your unit is valued out of line with similar property. On the state's PT-311A appeal form, the route to the county Board of Equalization (the local board that hears appeals) covers value, uniformity, taxability and denied exemptions (O.C.G.A. 48-5-311(e)(1)(A)). Nonbinding arbitration hears value only, so take a uniformity claim to the Board. Owners of nonhomestead real property with a fair market value over $500,000 on the notice can also choose a hearing officer, who decides value and uniformity.
Condos make this easy to check because floor plans repeat. Look up the county's values for units with your floor plan and divide each by its square footage. As an illustrative example, say your 1,100-square-foot unit's notice shows $330,000 ($300 a square foot) and two same-plan units on your floor show $297,000 ($270 a square foot). With no difference in condition, view or parking, that gap is your uniformity case, and the county's own numbers are the evidence.
Bring the sales, the county's own values and anything that shows the county's record is wrong.
Check the square footage and unit details on the county's record line by line. If the record shows more space, a feature you don't have or the wrong floor plan, that error flows straight into the value.
You can ask the assessors for the records behind your value, including their method, the documents they reviewed and the comparable properties they used, and Georgia law requires them to provide copies within ten business days (O.C.G.A. 48-5-306(d)(1)). If their comparables are single-family houses or units in a different kind of building, say so in your appeal.
Georgia law sets 45 days from the date your assessment notice was mailed to file a written appeal with the county board of tax assessors, and the date printed on your notice is the one to count from. Georgia law requires the annual notice to be mailed no later than July 1, although a county can send later notices for corrections and mapping changes. Condos and townhomes get no extra time and no separate form.
A written objection that identifies the property counts as an appeal, and the state publishes a uniform appeal form, the PT-311A, where you also pick one appeal route, such as the Board of Equalization or nonbinding arbitration. A mailed appeal counts as filed on its postmark date. An emailed appeal counts on the date sent where the assessors have a written policy accepting email.
Fulton's and Gwinnett's appeals pages list these filing methods:
For DeKalb, Cobb and other counties, check your county board of assessors' website or your notice for the filing options. If your notice just arrived, start with what to do first when your Georgia assessment notice arrives.
Confirm with your county before you file.
The assessors review your appeal first. Georgia law sets 180 days from receiving your appeal for the assessors to review it and tell you whether they changed the value, and counties with heavy appeal volume can get more time. If you chose the Board of Equalization and they make no change, their no-change notice also sends your appeal on to the Board, so you don't file a second appeal. If they change the value and you disagree, Georgia law sets 30 days from the date the change notice was mailed for you to tell the assessors in writing that you're continuing your appeal.
Confirm the dates on your county's letter.
Sending your sales and the county's own values early gives the assessors something to act on at that first stage. Of Gwinnett County's appeals for the 2025 tax year (all residential appeals, not only condos), about 63% were resolved at the assessor level, and 97.6% of those ended with a lower value. Source: Gwinnett County public records request, 2025 tax year.
If the appeal lowers the value of a condo or townhome you live in as your homestead, by a decision or by a written agreement signed by the assessors and you (or your authorized agent), the assessors can't raise that lower value for the next two years, subject to the statutory exceptions (O.C.G.A. 48-5-299(c)). That protection is the 299(c) freeze, and a no-change result doesn't start one.
The Board of Equalization, a hearing officer, or an arbitrator can lower your value but cannot raise it above what the county assessors set (O.C.G.A. § 48-5-311(e)(9)), except on an appeal filed while a 299(c) freeze from an earlier appeal is in effect. For the stages in order, see what happens after you file a Georgia appeal.
If your county sends bills before your appeal is decided, you get a temporary bill. In most cases it is based on the lower of last year's final value or 85% of this year's value, and it tells you that a refund or an additional bill may follow once the appeal is decided (O.C.G.A. 48-5-311(e)(6)(D)(iii)(I)). If your homestead has had new structural improvements, with or without a building permit, the temporary bill uses 85% of this year's value instead.
DeKalb County's tax commissioner puts it the same way on its tax bill information page: "If you file an appeal and it is not resolved before tax bills are mailed, you will be mailed a tax bill based on a temporary value."
If the final value lowers your taxes, Georgia law requires the tax commissioner to refund the difference with interest within 60 days of the final decision, and a refund paid later earns more interest. If the final value raises them, you get an adjusted bill, and Georgia law sets 60 days from its postmark for you to pay it. Our guide to the second tax bill after a Georgia appeal walks through that bill.
Fulton County's 2026 bills are temporary for a different reason. The county says this year's bills are temporary bills based on the preliminary 2026 tax digest and each taxing jurisdiction's 2025 millage rate, as authorized by the Superior Court of Fulton County, and that once millage rates are set, a refund or revised tax bill "will be issued only as needed" (Fulton County). If you own a Fulton unit under appeal, ask the tax commissioner's office how your bill was figured.
Each owner appeals their own unit, because each unit is a separate parcel with its own assessment. Neighbors can still share the work. The same set of sales and the county's values for units with the same floor plan can support every owner's appeal, and each owner files for their own parcel.
An owner can also authorize an agent in writing. When the county has a copy of that authorization, it sends its notices to both the owner and the agent, and if an agent signs the appeal form, a letter of authorization goes with it. If you own more than one unit under appeal, the Board of Equalization will, at your request, hear them together in one hearing and decide each one separately.
An association's own common-area parcel, if it has one, is a separate appeal question for the association, under the appraisal rule described above.
This article is general information drawn from public sources: O.C.G.A. 48-5-311 and related sections of Title 48, the Georgia Condominium Act (O.C.G.A. 44-3-71, 44-3-78 and 44-3-96), the Department of Revenue's Appraisal Procedures Manual rules, the PT-311A page, the Fulton, Gwinnett and DeKalb county pages linked above, and Georgia REALTORS' 2025 annual housing report, all read in September 2026. Georgia law sets the 45-day appeal window and the other statutory time limits cited here; county dates, such as when notices are mailed, when appeals are processed and when bills go out, are estimated and vary by county. It isn't legal or tax advice. Check your own dates on your assessment notice and your tax bill, or with your county's board of assessors or tax commissioner.