What happens when property taxes go unpaid on a Georgia house?
In Georgia, a county or city tax commissioner can record a lien against a property when the yearly property tax bill isn't paid on time. Once the lien is recorded, the tax commissioner can send notice and then sell the property at a public auction to pay the tax bill.
After a tax sale, there's a twelve-month period in which anyone with a legal interest can undo the sale by paying back the buyer's bid plus added taxes, special assessments and a 20% premium. That redemption puts the title back in the owner's name and brings back the other liens that were on the property at the time of the tax sale.
Chatham County, for example, holds its tax sales at the Savannah Civic Center on the first Tuesday of the month at 10 a.m. when a sale is scheduled. Twelve months after the sale, the buyer can move to cut off the right to redeem for good. Until that right is barred, the tax deed isn't full ownership, and the buyer can't evict the previous owner or take possession.
When a tax sale brings in more than the taxes owed, the extra money is called excess funds. Georgia law (O.C.G.A. 48-4-5) has excess funds paid to the rightful claimants, as the law determines them. In Chatham County, the owner at the time of the sale, an heir or beneficiary of an owner who died, or a lienholder or anyone else with a legal claim on the property can ask for them.
Chatham County also holds judicial in rem tax sales, approved through a Superior Court case: title passes to the buyer outright at the sale, with no later step to bar redemption.
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How does a Georgia county deal with an abandoned, blighted house?
Macon-Bibb County is one example: for an abandoned structure it sends the owner a nuisance per se letter, and the owner can repair or demolish it or let the county demolish it.
An owner who chooses to do the work has to show a good-faith effort to improve the property within 60 to 90 days.
The county's code enforcement officers find abandoned structures and photograph them, and the county attorney decides whether a case goes the nuisance per se route or the blight tax route.
For the blight tax process, the property has to be vacant; the county's attorneys review the inspection and send the owner a blight designation, which the owner can appeal. Properties declared blighted go on the Community Redevelopment Tax Incentive Program list sent to the Tax Commissioner each year in August.
How can a Georgia city force action on an unsafe vacant house?
Savannah's Code Compliance Department, for one, responds to unsafe structures and unsecured homes, along with overgrown lots, debris and abandoned vehicles. Officers give owners time to fix problems, and when that doesn't work, a case can be sent to the Recorder's Court of Chatham County.
When an officer finds a violation, a Notice of Violation is posted on the property and mailed to the owner or other interested parties. For urgent safety problems, the city sometimes hires contractors to secure vacant properties, demolish structurally unsound buildings or clean up overgrown lots.
Augusta handles open, vacant and dilapidated structures through state nuisance abatement rather than its 60-day unsafe building abatement code. The city says that route is quicker and gives it a legal process for getting rid of those buildings sooner.
Georgia's current permissive codes include the International Property Maintenance Code, 2018 Edition, with Georgia amendments from 2021. With the state's amendments, that code is Georgia's official minimum standard property maintenance code. A permissive state code applies in a Georgia city or county only if that local government adopts it, by ordinance or resolution.
Do Georgia counties keep a registry of vacant and foreclosed houses?
DeKalb County runs a Foreclosure Registry and a Vacant Property Registry, set up to keep neighborhoods from turning blighted when vacant properties aren't maintained or secured.
The county notes that it's often hard to find the person responsible for keeping up a foreclosed property.
What does a Georgia land bank do with abandoned property?
Columbus's Land Bank Authority, for one, acquires vacant, abandoned, tax-delinquent and run-down properties, clears their liabilities, and passes them to responsible owners.
It was set up in 1992 as a public authority under state law, run by a board of directors.
In Savannah, the Chatham Savannah Land Bank Authority was created by an agreement between the city and Chatham County. Its main job is to take tax-delinquent properties in the city and county and get them back on the tax rolls.
How do you report a blighted vacant house in Georgia?
Start with the local code enforcement office. In Macon-Bibb County, for example, it takes blight complaints by phone, mail or email and assigns an officer to inspect the property.
In Savannah, residents can report a problem property by calling 311, using the Savannah 311 app, reporting online, or calling Code Compliance at 912-651-6770.
DeKalb County's Code Compliance office takes violation reports online, by phone at 404-687-3700 or by email, and first inspections typically happen within three business days.
Property deeds in Georgia are recorded in each county's Superior Court clerk's office, where anyone can ask for a copy of a property's deed. A county tax assessor's website is a free alternative: search the property address and it shows the owner's name.
You can also tell me where it is. I'll find out who owns it and reach out about buying it and fixing it up.