Georgia Property Tax Appeal Settlement Offer: What to Check
By Vien Ha · Published
Signing a Georgia value agreement ends your appeal. Check the value, tax years and option marked first, then keep a copy signed by both sides.
Key Takeaways
Signing a value agreement with the board of tax assessors ends your Georgia appeal on the date it's signed.
For a homestead residence, a signed agreement at a lower value keeps the assessors from raising it for the next two years unless both sides waive that in writing; a no-change agreement starts no hold.
Before you sign, check the value, the tax years listed and which option is marked; afterward, keep a copy signed by both sides.
Not answering a change notice isn't a signed agreement, so ask for one in writing if you want the hold on a homestead.
If the offer is still too high, send one written counter with recent sales of similar homes, not an acceptance and a counter together.
# Georgia Property Tax Appeal Settlement Offer: What to Check
Signing a Georgia property tax appeal settlement offer ends your appeal on the date the agreement is signed, and the value in it becomes the value the county records. Before you sign, check three things on the paper: the value, the tax years listed, and which option is marked; then keep a copy signed by both sides.
For your home (a homestead residence), a signed agreement at a lower value does one more thing. It keeps the board of tax assessors from raising that value for the next two years, unless both sides waive that hold in writing. This guide covers the home you live in; rentals and commercial property are outside it.
What does a settlement offer from the county look like?
A settlement offer usually reaches you in one of three forms, and only two of them ask for your signature.
A change notice. When the board of tax assessors reviews your appeal and adjusts the value, it mails a change of assessment notice. The Georgia Department of Revenue's template for it is the PT-306-30, and the department's property forms page says this notice tells owners about "any real or personal property changes in value or exemptions after the original PT-306E has been mailed out." It has no signature line.
A written value agreement. Some assessors' offices send an agreement on the fair market value for you and the board to sign.
A county waiver and release form. Some counties put a settlement on their own form, often called an appeal waiver and release. A 2022 policy template from the Georgia Association of Assessing Officials names a "PT-311W waiver of release." It isn't a state form: the department's forms page lists the PT-311A appeal form and the PT-306-30 change notices, and no PT-311W.
County forms can offer one option that fixes the value for the appeal year and the next two years, and another that leaves the value open to change later, which gives up the hold. The wording and the order of those options vary by county, so read the form in front of you, not a copy someone posted from another county.
What does signing the agreement change?
Signing ends your appeal. Georgia law says that if you and the board of tax assessors "execute a signed agreement as to valuation, the appeal shall terminate as of the date of such signed agreement" (O.C.G.A. 48-5-311(e)(2)(B)). The same Code section has the board enter the agreed amount "in all appropriate records as the fair market value of the property under appeal, and the appeal shall be concluded."
That's why you can't take the same appeal on to the county Board of Equalization after you sign. Once the agreement is signed, there's no appeal left to hear.
What else signing does for a homestead residence depends on whether the value went down:
Signed at a lower value. Under O.C.G.A. 48-5-299(c), a value reduced from the one on your annual notice and set by "written agreement signed by the board of tax assessors and taxpayer" (or the taxpayer's authorized agent) "may not be increased by the board of tax assessors during the next two successive years, unless otherwise agreed in writing by both parties." Section 48-5-311(e)(8) adds that this hold applies "to the agreed-upon valuation unless otherwise waived by both parties." People often call this the three-year freeze (the appeal year plus the next two), and it applies only if the value is reduced.
Signed at no change. A no-change agreement still ends the appeal, but it starts no hold. The 2024 amendment (HB 581) deleted the words "or is unchanged" from 48-5-299(c) for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2025, so the hold now follows a reduced value only.
The same hold applies to a lower value set by a decision of the Board of Equalization, a hearing officer, an arbitrator or superior court. For the full story of what changed in 2025, see how Georgia's 299(c) hold works after the 2025 law change.
Even a signed agreement's hold can give way in three cases:
You file a return at a different value during the next two years. A return here is a property tax return, a statement of your property's value filed with the county, not your income tax return. If you don't file one, this exception doesn't come into play.
You file a new appeal during the next two years. The value can then go up or down on the evidence, unless both sides agree otherwise in writing.
The assessors find substantial changes to the property, or errors in their records about it, after a visual on-site inspection.
Before you sign, check three things on the paper itself, not the phone call or email that led to it; then keep a copy signed by both sides. These are practical habits, not legal requirements, and each one catches a way a form can differ from what you expected.
The value. Find the fair market value on the agreement and make sure it's the number you discussed. If you want the hold, it has to be lower than the value on your annual notice.
The tax years listed. The agreement should name your appeal year. If a county form lists later years too, read what it says about them.
Which option is marked. If the form offers a choice between keeping the value in place for the next two years and leaving it open to change, see which one is marked before you sign. Don't assume an option's number means the same thing in every county.
After you sign, a copy signed by both sides. The agreement is between you (or your authorized agent) and the board of tax assessors, so the finished copy should carry both signatures. Ask for that copy and keep it.
If any of the first three checks doesn't match, don't sign yet. Ask the assessors' office to correct the form first. The checklist below lines up all four steps.
Each check catches a way the paper can differ from what you agreed. County forms vary, so read the one you were sent.
What if you never answered the county's new value?
Doing nothing isn't a signed agreement. The state's change notice says: "If you agree with the adjusted value on this notice, no action is required. The amount of your final ad valorem tax bill for the tax year shown will be based on the adjusted values specified in this notice."
So the notice treats no reply as accepting the new value for your bill, but nobody signed anything. Whether a value you accepted by staying silent carries the two-year hold is unclear, so don't count on it either way. If you want the revised value held for the next two years on your homestead, ask the assessors for a written agreement signed by both sides.
The comparison below puts the three outcomes side by side.
A signed agreement at a lower value starts the two-year hold unless both sides waive it in writing; a no-change agreement starts none.
Your appeal goes on to the Board of Equalization only if you continue it in writing. The notice says you can continue your appeal "by filing a written request for appeal continuation," and it prints a "Last date to file a written continuation of appeal." Georgia law sets 30 days from the date the change notice was mailed for that written notice. Go by the printed date on your notice, because any deadline you work out on your own is only an estimated one.
If that printed date has already passed, neither the notice nor the statute says what happens to your appeal. Ask the board of tax assessors' office for your appeal's status before you assume it's closed or still open; the notice lists the office's phone number and your staff contacts.
Confirm with your county before you file.
Is the county's offer good enough?
An offer is good enough when the value in it is at or below what recent sales of homes like yours support. How often counties lower values at this stage tells you an offer is normal, not that your number is right.
Gwinnett County's 2025 appeal records show how common this stage is. About 63% of the appeals 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.
Those figures come from one county and one year. They don't say whether your offer is fair, and they don't say how many of those appeals ended with a signed agreement.
To test the offer yourself:
Find a few recent sales of homes near yours that match it closely in size, age and condition. Start with the county property records site your notice lists, and ask the assessors' office for the records behind your value: the state's change notice says "All documents and records used to determine the current value are available upon request."
Compare the value in the offer with what those homes sold for, and note any real difference, such as a finished basement or a smaller lot.
If the offer sits at or below what the sales support, accepting it is reasonable. If it sits above them, make one counter.
How should you answer an offer you think is too high?
Send one written counter with your sales attached, and don't accept and counter in the same message. A reply that does both can be read either way.
Send the counter to the board of tax assessors at the address on the offer. The state's change notice prints that address and names the staff contacts for your appeal.
If the offer came as a change notice, don't rely on a counter alone. To keep disagreeing, file the written continuation the notice describes by the last date printed on it, and send your counter as well.
Turning down an offer doesn't close the door on an agreement later. Georgia law lets you and the assessors "mutually agree in writing on the fair market value" at any time during the appeal to the Board of Equalization (O.C.G.A. 48-5-311(e)(8)).
With AppealAlly's Full-Service Appeal, we file your appeal and handle the county for you, and once you authorize us, the county sends its notices to us as your agent as well as to you.
About this information
This article is general information drawn from public sources: O.C.G.A. 48-5-311 and 48-5-299 as reproduced by Justia, the Georgia Department of Revenue's PT-306-30E template and property forms page, and a Gwinnett County public records request for the 2025 tax year, all read September 29, 2026. Dates in it are estimated, and county practice and county forms vary. It isn't legal or tax advice. Check your own notice, and confirm your dates with your county's board of tax assessors.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I accept the county's offer on my property tax appeal in Georgia?
Accept it if the value in it is at or below what recent sales of similar homes near you support. If it's higher, send one written counter with those sales instead. How often counties lower values at this stage doesn't tell you whether your number is right.
Can I still go to the Board of Equalization after I sign a value agreement?
No, not on that appeal. Georgia law says the appeal ends on the date you and the board of tax assessors sign an agreement on the value. If you want a hearing, don't sign, and continue the appeal instead.
Does signing keep my lower value in place for the next years?
For a homestead residence, it can. If the agreement lowers the value from your annual notice and both sides sign, the assessors can't raise it for the next two years unless both sides waive that in writing. A no-change agreement starts no hold, and a new appeal or a different return value can end the hold early.
What is an appeal waiver and release in Georgia?
It's a county's own settlement form, not a state form, and its wording varies by county. For a homestead, some versions offer one option that keeps the agreed value for the appeal year and the next two, and another that leaves it open to change, which gives up the hold. Read which option is marked before you sign.
The county sent a new value and I never answered. Did I agree to it?
Not answering isn't a signed agreement. The state's change notice says no action is required if you agree, and your bill will be based on the adjusted value. Whether that value carries the two-year hold on a homestead is unclear, so ask for a written agreement signed by both sides if you want it.
Do I have to sign a value agreement to get my reduction?
Not always. If the county mails a change notice lowering your value and you agree, the notice says no action is required and your bill will use the new value. For a homestead residence, a signed agreement at a lower value is what Georgia law ties the hold to, so ask for one if the hold matters to you.