A deadline for appealing property tax valuations is looming for more than 20,000 property owners who have received assessments notifying them of the value of property on the tax books.

For most, the deadline is July 18, 45 days after the mailing of 23,000 notices by the Colquitt County Tax Assessor’s office. About 400 of those were returned because the property owners apparently had moved since last year.

The state requires that each county send out notices to all property owners each year, even those whose property values did not change or decreased from the previous year. The notices, which also give the estimated 2014 tax amount, are not tax bills, and residents should not mail in checks for payment. Tax bills will be mailed in October.

Residents who do not receive an assessment in the mail should contact the tax assessor’s office, Colquitt County Tax Commissioner Cindy Harvin said.

Another deadline is looming for mobile home owners. Those who do not purchase new stickers by July 1 could have their mobile homes sold to satisfy the tax bill.

Advertisements are placed in the newspaper for four weeks prior to the sale, but once the process starts mobile home owners are hit with additional fees at the time they pay the tax.

“If they don’t have their sticker, they need to come in and get one,” Harvin said. “Some of them are just $30 or $40; it’s just a matter of doing it.”

Taxpayers wishing to appeal a property assessment can do so by visiting the tax assessor’s office, located in the Colquitt County Courthouse Annex, 101 E. Central Ave. Office 135 or request one by mail at Colquitt County Assessors, P.O. Box 880, Moultrie GA 31776. Office hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday. Mailed forms must be postmarked by July 18.

Any resident who did not get an assessment notice due to a change of address has 45 days from the date is mailed to file an appeal, interim Chief Appraiser Johnny Spooner said.

Most appeals are filed over homes and land lots but residents also are allowed to appeal valuations of some personal property, he said. Those who do not receive an assessment can pick up one at the assessor’s office or call (229) 616-7425.