Georgia's statute names the taxpayer or property owner. Who signs for an LLC, trust, estate or parent, and when a letter of authorization goes with it.
# Who Can File a Georgia Property Tax Appeal, and What to Sign
Georgia's appeal statute says "any taxpayer or property owner as of the last date for filing an appeal" may file a property tax appeal, and the state's appeal form is signed by the property owner or an agent. When an agent signs, a letter of authorization goes with the appeal, and each county decides what that letter must show. For a company, a trust or an estate, the county may ask for proof of who can sign.
This guide takes the usual situations one at a time: co-owners, an LLC, a trust, an estate, a parent's home, a recent buyer, a property manager and an appeal service. For each one it says who usually signs, what goes with the form and what to ask your county. Throughout, "your county" means your county's board of tax assessors, the office that receives appeals.
The statute names the taxpayer and the property owner. Subsection (e)(1)(A) of O.C.G.A. 48-5-311 opens with these words:
"Any taxpayer or property owner as of the last date for filing an appeal may elect to file an appeal from an assessment by the county board of tax assessors"
A written objection that identifies the property counts as an appeal, and the state publishes a uniform appeal form, the PT-311A. The PT-311A has one signature line, labeled "Signature of Property Owner or Agent," and a note right under it: "If the appeal form is signed by an agent, a letter of authorization must accompany the filing of the appeal." Douglas County's 2024 appeal form prints the same note.
So the form gives two ways to sign: as the owner, or as the owner's agent with a letter of authorization. The image below marks both on the blank state form.
The form has one signature line, for the property owner or an agent, and the note right under it says an agent's filing needs a letter of authorization.
What the form and the Department of Revenue's PT-311A page don't say is who signs as the owner when the owner is a company, a trust or an estate. The page says only that the state provides the form "for use by property owners." That part is a question for your county. Our guide to filling in the rest of the PT-311A covers the other boxes.
It depends on who owns the property, and in every case the county may ask for proof of the signer's role. The table below sums up eight common situations, and the notes after it add the detail.
Every row ends with a question for your county, because neither the statute nor the state form says who signs for a company, a trust or an estate.
If the property is in your own name, you sign as the owner, and no letter of authorization is needed. If you own it with a spouse or another co-owner, the state form has room for one signature, so ask the county whether it wants every owner to sign.
The company is the owner, so someone who can act for the company signs for it. The state form doesn't say who that is, and the county may ask for proof, so ask what proof it accepts that the signer can act for the company. Write the company's name exactly as it appears on the notice, with the signer's title beside the signature.
When a trust or an estate owns the property, the state form doesn't say who signs for it. Someone who can act for the trust or the estate signs, and the county may ask for proof, so ask what document it wants that shows the signer's role before you file.
Your parent can sign as the owner, or you can sign as their agent with written authority from them. Bartow County's appeal page says that if you're not the owner, you attach a letter of authorization signed by the owner, and that this "is required for attorneys, agents, family members, etc." If you already sign other papers for your parent, ask your county what written authority it accepts for an appeal.
A property manager who signs your appeal signs as your agent, so a letter of authorization goes with the filing. An appeal service works the same way: you sign an authorization so the county will deal with the service as your agent, and the letter goes in with the appeal. With AppealAlly's Full-Service Appeal, you sign an authorization and we file your appeal as your agent. Either way, ask the county what the letter must include and whether one letter may list more than one parcel.
It needs whatever your county asks for, and counties ask for different things. Three county appeal pages and forms show how far apart they are:
Notarization is Columbia's rule; the state form and Bartow's page don't mention it. A letter that works in one county may not work in the next, so read your own county's form or appeal page, or call the board of tax assessors, before anyone signs one.
The statute's words name a "property owner as of the last date for filing an appeal." Those words cover whoever owns the property on the last day to file. Chatham County's form asks whoever signs to check one box, and the choices are owner on January 1, agent, or new owner after that date. If you bought the property this year, ask your county how it wants a new owner to sign. If the notice went to the seller, ask the county right away for the date it was mailed, because the filing window counts from that mailing, not from your closing, and the 45 days Georgia law sets may already be running.
Confirm with your county before you file.
Yes. A house you own in your own name and a rental your LLC owns have different owners on the county's records, so each appeal is signed by, or for, the owner of that property.
If you have more than one property under appeal, the Board of Equalization (a panel of local residents that hears appeals) will, at your request, hear them together in one hearing and decide each one separately. The statute's words are "more than one property of a taxpayer." It doesn't say whether your own parcel and your LLC's parcel count as one taxpayer's, so ask the Board rather than assume they'll be heard together. Our walk-through of what happens after you file covers how an appeal reaches the Board.
Yes. When an owner authorizes an agent in writing and the county has a copy, the county sends its notices to both the owner and the agent. Once the agent files, ask the county to confirm in writing that the agent is on record for your appeal, so you know the county has the letter of authorization on file.
Not AppealAlly's. Our authorization covers the appeal rather than exemptions, and AppealAlly handles property tax appeals only, not exemption applications. If another agent files for you, ask the county before assuming that agent can take up an exemption question for you.
The Department of Revenue's homestead exemptions page says that to receive the homestead exemption for the current tax year, the homeowner must have owned the property on January 1. Our guide to Georgia's homestead exemption explains how owners apply.
Check these six things, whoever signs:
Confirm with your county before you file.
This article is general information drawn from public sources: O.C.G.A. 48-5-311, the Georgia Department of Revenue's PT-311A form, PT-311A page and homestead exemptions page, and the appeal forms or pages of Bartow, Chatham, Columbia and Douglas counties, all read on September 29, 2026. Dates and windows here are estimated, and county practice varies. It is not legal or tax advice. Check your own dates on your assessment notice, and ask your county's board of tax assessors what authorization it accepts.