Malyndia Brown is working to preserve the home her family has owned since the 1970s in Southwest Atlanta. Although advocates say state law makes her eligible for a homestead exemption, Fulton County has denied her the property tax break and sent her bills totaling about $10,000. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)
Malyndia Brown never imagined it would be so hard to preserve her family’s longtime home.
She first moved back to the three-bedroom brick house in Southwest Atlanta’s Westview neighborhood about 15 years ago to care for her parents. She looked after her stepdad until he died in his 90s and then spent several more years helping her mom as her dementia was advancing.
Brown was so busy with her caretaker role that she didn’t get around to settling her parents’ wills until both had died.
That’s when she discovered the complicated process she’d have to follow in probate court. To get the home into her name, she learned she would have to contact all of her parents’ descendants — a big task when they collectively had 13 children. Because her stepdad had been gone for several years, some of his children had already passed. So she’s had to track down grandchildren too.
Brown has done her best to follow each step.
“You have to have a lot of patience,” she said. “That’s one thing that I do have is a lot of patience.”
But in the meantime, she’s worried her property taxes are going to jeopardize her home.
Malyndia Brown first moved back to her longtime family home to care for her parents. She didn’t know how difficult it would be to hold onto the property after they died. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)
She’s among at least two dozen residents who’ve been working to inherit their family homes and have been locked in an ongoing struggle with the Fulton County Assessor’s office. At the center of that struggle is the homestead exemption, a significant tax break for people who live in homes they own.
For Brown, now 58 and disabled, the homestead exemption is the difference between a $300 tax bill and a $3,000 bill.
But the county continues to refuse to give the tax break to descendants like Brown, who live in their family homes. The first time Brown was denied, she appealed with the help of Atlanta Legal Aid and won the exemption. She thought the trouble was over, but now, two years later, the county has revoked it.
“I don’t understand,” Brown said. “And that part is frustrating because I’m on pins and needles on whether or not I can afford the next tax — because taxes are not going down, they’re going up.”
Atlanta Legal Aid attorney Stacy Reynolds, who has represented heirs like Brown in their homestead exemption appeals, said Fulton County is threatening the stability of these families who’ve owned homes for decades — and for no reason.
In all her cases, the county denied the homestead exemption because the homes were still in the names of their deceased parents. But that ignores state law, she said. Under Georgia code, heirs are eligible for the property tax break even while they finalize their parents’ estates.
“The laws are on the books that would allow them to give the homestead exemptions to legacy homeowners, who desperately need the help, so that they can afford the home while they’re going through this probate process,” she said.
For many of her clients, she said, it can take a long time to get their family homes into their names. In the meantime, while they may be on fixed incomes, their homes are in areas where values and taxes have increased significantly.
Malyndia Brown is among a couple dozen heirs who are trying to preserve their family homes and have been denied the homestead exemption, according to Atlanta Legal Aid. Attorney Stacy Reynolds said the county policy could cause them to lose their properties. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)
The Fulton County Board of Assessors said in a statement that it couldn’t comment on pending matters but said that it takes homeowners’ concerns seriously. The statement acknowledged that state law allows heirs to claim a homestead exemption while they’re working through probate court.
According to Reynolds, however, that acknowledgment hasn’t reached county staff. She said she’s had to appeal every case, sometimes up to Superior Court. Brown’s experience also shows that, even when her clients win the homestead exemption on appeal, the county can still remove it later.
Even worse for Brown, the county didn’t just remove her homestead exemption for this coming year; it also removed the tax break for previous years’ tax bills, retroactively raising her taxes. As a result, she has received updated bills for those years and is now on the hook for roughly $10,000 more in taxes.
“This is not just a property to me, it’s a home. And I’m fighting for my home.”
Malyndia Brown
When a single unpaid property tax bill can lead to foreclosure, Reynolds said the county’s practices are making it more likely these residents will lose their homes.
“If you take away that homestead exemption, all bets are lost. It is probably going to be foreclosed,” Reynolds said.
The county’s practices come at a time when there’s more awareness of the unique challenges some families, especially in low-income and minority communities, face when inheriting properties. If their parents didn’t leave wills or if they don’t know the steps to finalize the wills, that can complicate the legal process to transfer the title of their homes.
Studies have shown that inherited property is uniquely vulnerable to tax foreclosure. That’s why some states and cities have made efforts to ease the burden on descendants. Texas, for example, now has a law outlining how heirs can claim homestead exemptions.
If Georgia already allows this, national advocates are surprised a county would be resistant.
“I don’t know why a local government would not accept that when they are supposedly looking out for the well-being of homeowners,” said Andrea Bopp Stark with the National Consumer Law Center.
Stark said it should be in local governments’ best interest to keep descendants in their homes.
A foreclosure can lead to blight, dragging down the properties around it. That would lead to lower home values and less tax revenue. Not to mention, she said, the county would be forcing a longtime homeowner out of their home and into an increasingly expensive rental market.
It’s taken Malyndia Brown six years to settle her parents’ estates. She said it’s already stressful. By taking away her homestead exemption, Fulton County is adding to that, she said. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)
There are reasons this is more likely to affect low-income and minority families. Estate planning can be unaffordable. Historically, Black families may not have felt they could trust attorneys, Veronica McClendon, an estate planning lawyer in Macon, said.
McClendon, who often advocates on behalf of heirs trying to preserve their properties, said helping families hold onto their homes is helping them stay self-sufficient.
“If people can take advantage of their inherited properties, that just takes more of the burden off of our social services from people needing to depend on government resources,” McClendon said.
While Malyndia Brown’s parents left wills, it was the delay in probating her stepfather’s case that lengthened the process. Adding in a long disruption due to the pandemic, it’s now taken six years to settle her parents’ estates.
Brown said it’s already stressful. With the homestead exemption issue, Fulton County is adding to that.
“It sends a message that they don’t care,” she said. “They’re not looking at the bigger picture that this is someone’s home. This is not just a property to me, it’s a home. And I’m fighting for my home.”
The three-bedroom house that her parents bought in the 1970s was the type of place where anyone in the family could come and stay. It’s full of memories. On display she has her stepdad’s funeral flag and photos of him with her mom.
It’s also the only affordable place where Brown can live on disability income.
She is budgeting, keeping her utilities low and saving what she can for her taxes.
But she said she’ll never be able to afford the $10,000 bill, which she now owes, on her own. She already received notice that Fulton County intends to sell that property tax debt to private third-party collectors — the first step in the process to foreclosure.
