A pair of proposed class actions claims Fulton County is retroactively revoking some property tax breaks without proper notice or legal authority after a homeowner dies — and then billing the heirs or co-owners for hefty back taxes. The plaintiffs argue the homestead exemption clawbacks have disproportionately harmed lower-income Black residents, depriving them of intergenerational wealth and destabilizing communities.
Filed in Fulton County Superior Court by civil rights law firm Spears & Filipovits, the two lawsuits accuse the county of illegally rescinding homestead exemptions — property tax breaks for owner-occupied homes — and saddling homeowners with surprise bills, liens, and even threats of foreclosure.
If a homeowner dies, the county can remove the homestead exemption, and the new owner must reapply for their own. According to the lawsuits, the rub is that Fulton is removing some homestead exemptions long after a homeowner dies — and then collecting back taxes for years from the new owner. This practice is unlawful, the lawsuits say, because Georgia law bars retroactive corrections to property tax bills unless they benefit taxpayers.
Both Spears & Filipovits and Fulton County declined to comment on the lawsuits.
Rescinding homestead exemption tax breaks for people who inherit property after a death in the family appears to be a common practice in Fulton, said Atlanta Legal Aid attorney Stacy Reynolds, who has represented homeowners in such cases. (Atlanta Legal Aid helped draft the initial lawsuit, but withdrew once it became a proposed class action.) What’s more, the county often doesn’t always adequately notify the new homeowners that it’s revoking the homestead exemption until several years later, Reynolds said.
“Homeowners don’t realize that [the exemption] is there until suddenly they get a notice that it’s being taken away,” she told Atlanta Civic Circle. “And then they get bills for multiple years that often they can’t afford to pay, especially not all at once.”
The new homeowner could be living in the property and potentially eligible for their own homestead exemption, she added. But when they receive a notice for back taxes, she explained, “they’re not able to go back in time and apply [for a homestead exemption], even though the county is able to go back in time and remove it.”
One proposed class action, filed by Phyllis Garrett and Priscilla Hill in January, seeks refunds and injunctive relief for hundreds of impacted residents. The lawsuit claims they received jaw-dropping property tax bills after a homestead exemption was improperly revoked, dwarfing initial charges they’d already paid. According to the lawsuit, Garrett, 70, purchased a home with her mother, and applied for a homestead exemption under both their names. Fulton, however, only registered the exemption in her mother’s name. Garrett’s mother died a few months after the 2018 home purchase, and the county subsequently sent her a tax bill for almost $20,000 in back taxes from 2020 through 2023.
“I couldn’t believe it when Fulton County sent me a huge tax bill for nearly $20,000,” Garrett said in a January press release. “I was going to lose my home if the mortgage company hadn’t paid it. Now I am repaying the mortgage company and cannot afford enough groceries without help from the senior center.”
Priscilla Hill, a 75-year-old widow living on Social Security benefits, says Fulton’s retroactive removal of her homestead exemption after her husband’s death left her struggling to afford her mortgage, food, medicine, and utilities. Although they co-owned their home, only his name was on the homestead exemption.
The other proposed class action, from 71-year-old Peggy Gates, claims she was forced to pay $7,400 — over 60% of her income — in back property taxes on her late mother’s home after the county retroactively revoked the homestead exemption in December 2023.
The plaintiffs claim that Fulton’s practice of clawing back homestead exemptions after a homeowner dies violates Georgia law, which says property tax bills cannot be revised once finalized.
The county has moved to dismiss the Garrett v. Fulton County case, saying it has already agreed to pay back some improperly billed homeowners. Fulton in July filed a motion to exclude 291 taxpayers from the proposed class, claiming it had reinstated their revoked homestead exemptions, refunded people who paid improperly billed back taxes, and removed liens on their property.
But in August, the plaintiffs countered with a filing claiming the county “has not yet repaid any of the illegally collected taxes and the court has not yet considered the issue of class certification.”
Fulton has also moved to dismiss the Gates v. Fulton County case, saying Gates and other proposed plaintiffs weren’t actually eligible for the tax breaks in the first place.
Both lawsuits are still in the early stages, but hundreds of Fulton homeowners could be eligible if the cases survive Fulton’s motions to dismiss and then Fulton Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney certifies them as class actions.
This article highlights a deeply unfair practice targeting lower-income Black homeowners, depriving them of vital tax relief and stability. Its shocking that counties can retroactively take away exemptions and burden new owners with impossible bills. These lawsuits are a crucial fight for justice.