Sunday, June 26, 2011

TUCKER PATCH ARTICLE: Appealing Your Property Appraisal: The Cell Tower Factor

If you're debating whether you should appeal your property taxes and you live near one of the 12 schools set to receive a DeKalb County Board of Education pine scented cell tower this holiday season, you might want to consider how one might affect the other:

What happens if I appeal?
  • The amount of your tax will return to the level you are accustomed to paying.
  • The services you enjoy will not have to suffer the consequences of under-funding.
  • The tax hike that is being considered will not be justified and most likely will not pass.
The cell tower factor: In addition, if you have been following school board news, you may have heard something mentioned about the plans to install cell towers at 12 schools in our county. If your home value is stable now, but declines after a tower goes up near your home, you will have evidence that supports the fact that the tower has contributed to your loss of equity or inability to sell for a reasonable price.

You can object to the cell tower proposal by writing to the school board or speaking at the July 11 meeting when it is likely to appear on the agenda. But, if you do not do that and the towers go up, at least you will still have the ability to monitor the value of your home and determine if the experts are correct in their predictions that your value will decline. Without accurate data, you will not really know the true impact of the cell tower decision.

What happens if I remain silent?
  • Your home will be grossly UNDER-VALUED.
  • YOU LOSE equity or even end up upside-down in your loan.
  • You will have trouble selling at the price you deserve.
  • You may have the false hope that you will have to pay less in taxes.
  • The tax rate increase will pass and you will be paying close to what you always have.
  • Your home value will slowly improve as the bad data falls off the calculation list, but the higher tax will remain.
The cell tower factor: If the school board successfully installs a cell tower at your local public school, like the 12 that they may vote on at the July 11 meeting, you may have extinguished your own chances to have the tower removed if at any time over the next 15 years you decide that it is hurting your property value or creating health problems for you. Why? Because the only permissible reasons to protest a cell tower are related to property value and aesthetics.

If your value is falsely reported at its all-time low right now, you will not have proof down the road that a cell tower contributed to your property’s decline in value. Some people might even try to tell you that the 150’ monstrosity might have caused your property values to go up, when it will really be due to the fact that the faulty numbers will work themselves out of the system over time.

In Tucker, to sign the Brockett Elementary petition to stop the cell tower, go to: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Stop-Brockett-Cell-Towers/.

For more information about the potential cell tower vote July 11, visit “Get the Cell Out of Here - Atlanta Chapter” on Facebook, or send an email sayno2celltowers@yahoo.com to sign up for E-blast alerts and updates.

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