FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Malyndia Brown says her family’s Southwest Atlanta home is more than a piece of property.
“If I lose this home, to me it’s not a property, it’s a home,” Brown said.
Brown sat in the three-bedroom brick home her parents purchased in 1977. She shared stories with Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Ashli Lincoln about how her stepfather took pride in the home he provided for his family.
“He paid double his mortgage so he could pay it off early,” Brown said.
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In 2010, Brown moved in with her parents to be their caretakers as their health started to decline. Her stepfather passed away in 2011 and her mother in 2018.
“After taking care of my parents, my health started failing,” she said.
After their deaths, Brown says she started the process of transferring the property into her name.
But earlier this month, Brown says she received not one, but four letters from the Fulton County Tax Assessor’s Office demanding she pay more than $10,000 in back homestead taxes and penalties, or a lien will be placed on her property.
“I am on pins and needles every day,” Brown said.
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In Fulton County, homeowners who live in the homes they own receive a significant tax break, called a homestead exemptions.
In Brown’s case, that’s the difference between a $800 and a $3,000 payment.
“It makes it more likely that foreclosure will happen more quickly,” said civil rights attorney Wingo Smith.
Smith represents two clients in situations like Brown’s.
“Both of our clients are senior citizens,” Smith said.
He says civil rights attorneys are seeing an increasing number of descendants who’ve been refused tax breaks by the county.
“We have not heard of any other counties doing this,” Smith said.
He filed a lawsuit claiming the county is illegally retroactively removing homestead exemptions from heir’s properties.
“We think there’s likely hundreds of other families since 2020 that have experienced this loss,” said Smith.
Under Georgia law, heirs are eligible for property tax breaks even while they finalize parent’s estates.
The county has not responded to Channel 2′s request for a comment.
Brown has already received a notice that the county intends to sell the property tax debt to a collections company. This is the first step in a foreclosure process.
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