Homestead Exemption (Atlanta, Decatur: mortgage, new house, closing)

[spearhead3]

I have already file for Homestead Exemption. Now what happens.
How does this process work ? Will I get a refund at the end of the year ?

[chiefs fan]

Which county are you in?

[spearhead3]

We live in Paulding County

[Iconographer]

The next step I believe is that you (and your mortgage company) should first receive an acknowledgement of receipt for your application.
The adjustment should appear on your next bill...your mortgage company should receive this as well so that they can adjust your escrow account.
I filed early this year and just received a rebate check from my mortgage co.
Note that every municipality has different procedures...the city of Decatur, for example, will not send correspondence directly to the mortgagor...so you are responsible for forwarding this information. What a pain.

[plessthanpointohfive]

Decatur doesn't file at the Dekalb Tax Commissioner's Office? My property (city of Atlanta) is filed at Dekalb. I don't have to refile every year. IT's automatically carried over. It's not the same for Decatur.

I can tell you that MY mortgage company has not recognized my homestead exemption. As some of you know, I bought a duplex. It had been the previous owner's investment property so there was no homestead exemption. I bought it after the first of the year so I couldn't file for homestead exemption until 11 months after I bought it. I got a receipt from Dekalb county shortly after. However, not long ago I got a notice from my mortgage company that my monthly payment would be going up to reflect increasing property taxes. I'm thinking...how can that be? Shouldn't it go down significantly since filing homestead exemption?

Anyway, I called the county and they weren't helpful. I called my mortgage company and they told me to get back to them when I got a tax bill reflecting the changes.

I have no idea what's going on (I'm Towelly saying this).

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by plessthanpointohfive

Decatur doesn't file at the Dekalb Tax Commissioner's Office? My property (city of Atlanta) is filed at Dekalb. I don't have to refile every year. IT's automatically carried over. It's not the same for Decatur.

No, I had to file separately with Decatur and DeKalb.

[RainyRainyDay]

pless, mortgage companies seem to put a lot of effort into maximizing escrow payments, because it's to their advantage, since they don't have to pay interest on the amounts held in escrow. Eventually they'll adjust downward, but only when the regulations governing escrow say they have to. Don't hold your breath!

[spearhead3]

Thank you for the positive advise LovinDecatur

[spacelord75]

If you just mailed it in yesterday than it won't be effective until NEXT year (2009). You have to get the application in before March 1 in most counties for it to be effective in that particular year. If you just bought your current residence this year, hopefully the former owners did not move prior to March, so their homestead exemption would still be in effect on your property this year (and they would not be able to apply for their new house this year). Unfortunately, if they had already moved their exemption to their new property, you are kind of screwed this year and should start squirrelling away some money for when you have to pay the difference in Oct/Nov.

Also, if you moved from another house on which you had the exemption, make sure you formally cancel that exemption from that property and submit the confirmation letter with your application for new exemption. You are only allowed to exempt one property at a time and it will usually automatically renew each year on the same property unless you request otherwise.

[rentsto3]

We are closing on a house in Fulton co. in early June. Will we automatically get the filing form at closing, or is something we have to track down separately?
Thanks.