Primary purpose must be good faith production of agricultural or timber products, environmentally sensitive, residential transitional, historical or landmark historical.
Landowners may enter up to 2,000 acres into a land use covenant, thereby dedicating the land to a specific qualifying use for a period of 10 years. While no minimum size tract is specified, uses of the property are restricted and tracts of less than 10 acres shall require "additional relevant records." Also, any event that causes the covenant to be broken will trigger a significant penalty based upon property tax savings.
Application for Conservation Use Valuation may be obtained in the Assessor's Office. Upon approval of the application by the Board of Assessors, there is a $25.00 charge for filing said covenant with the Clerk of Superior Court, Fayette County, GA.
Application for Conservation Use Assessment of Agricultural Property (PT283A)
Sonya Kennedy
140 Stonewall Ave West
Suite 108
770305-5268
In November 2020, Fayette County voted in favor of HB 1166, an additional homestead exemption applicable to the BOE portion of the property tax bill. A similar bill, HB 581, was approved by voters in November 2024. HB 581 provides an additional homestead exemption that applies to all taxing entities, except for bonds. The Fayette County BOE opted out of HB 581 in favor of the existing HB 1166 exemption. Both are floating exemptions, meaning that the amount of the exemption is determined based on the difference between the current value and a base year value. Both of these are included in addition to your Basic Homestead Exemption Application.
Research: The appraisal staff researches approximately 3000 sales each year, determining which are fair market, foreclosure, sales between relatives, or adjacent property owners. Zoning, deed restrictions, and use of the property are researched as well. These sales are also analyzed to value components of properties such as location, age, construction type, basements, porches, patios, lake frontage, road frontage, etc.
Measure and Evaluate: Each house in the county is measured and evaluated by a member of the appraisal staff. The appraiser prepares a field card, which contains notes about the structure, a sketch of the floor plan, and a photograph. The staff measures all homes from the exterior and adjusts for interior walls as needed.
Apply uniform method: The specific characteristics of each property are applied to a building and land schedule valuation system, which has been developed from the above-mentioned market research. It basically costs out the value of the components, such as location, age, quality, etc.
Commercial and Industrial properties comprise approximately 5% of the county's total real property parcel count. Each year, sales of these types of properties are reviewed to determine market values.
Valuation Process: Commercial and Industrial properties are valued using cost, market, and income information. Each improvement to a property is measured, and the pertinent data is collected to calculate a value using the cost method. Sales are then analyzed to support the valuations. In valuing these properties, the Assessor's Office is required not only to place a fair market value on the property, but must also value uniformly and equitably.
Fayette County voters have approved Freeport Level 1 for Businesses located in the county. The county does not currently offer Freeport Level 1, Category 4 or Freeport Level 2.
Any application submitted for Freeport Level 1, Category 4 or Freeport Level 2 will be considered an invalid application and will be returned as such.
Pre-printed forms are mailed just after the first of the year. They are also available upon request from the Assessor's Office: 770-305-5892 or you may download a blank form from this webpage using the link titled Personal Property Tax Returns.
Local municipalities provide business license listings to this office. We also obtain lists from the Department of Natural Resources showing boat owners registered in this county. We receive the same type of listing from the Federal Aviation Administration for aircraft.