The clock is ticking for Liberty County property owners who want to appeal their assessments.

Chief appraiser Keith Payne said the deadline to file an appeal of a property assessment is July 20, and the tax assessors office will have additional office hours to handle the potential appeals. The office will be open Saturday from 8 a.m.– noon and will extend its hours Monday, the final day to appeal, to 6 p.m.

Payne urged all property owners who have questions about their assessments to contact his office.

“Come to our office,” he said. “Come to the office, and we can explain it.”

Payne, who addressed Midway City Council on Monday night to discuss the mechanisms behind a millage rate, added the office may find exemptions for property owners.

“We’ll try to find you every exemption you qualify for,” he said. “Just bring yourself — we have all the information we need.”

Some senior citizens, based on age and income, may qualify from additional exemptions from school property taxes.

Payne detailed his office’s role, telling Midway City Council members the assessors office lists and values all the property in the county. Once that is completed, assessment notices are sent out. Assessment notices, Payne emphasized, are not tax bills but rather are the county’s valuation of the property.

“From that an assessment notice, you have 45 days to let us know if you are not happy with the value or you can apply for a homestead exemption,” he said.

Once the appeals are heard and completed, the assessors office waits 180 days to see if any changes are needed. That list of properties is sent to the tax commissioner, whose office checks to make sure the homestead exemptions are correct.

The assessments also are sent to the state Department of Audits and Department of Revenue to be tested to see if the local assessors office is in compliance.

“If you want to know anything, please, come to my office,” Payne said. “Every process we do is being done in all 159 counties in Georgia.”