WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — If you're a senior citizen in Warner Robins, you may be living in retirement right now, like Marjorie Hodge.
At 60, Hodge said she retired to help take care of her mother and father. Since then, she's been surviving off her retirement fund.
When she turned 65, Hodge said she was able to get social security benefits and file for homestead exemption in Dodge County. Neither process gave her trouble. However, after she moved to Warner Robins a couple of years ago, things started to get complicated for Hodge.
As a 75-year-old, Hodge qualifies for homestead exemption as a senior living in Georgia, according to the state. When she asked the city for one, she was told she didn't qualify because of residency requirements.
We VERIFY.
Question:
Can Warner Robins have residency requirements for seniors who file for homestead exemption?
Answer:
Yes, the City of Warner Robins can have residency requirements for seniors who file for homestead exemption.
Our Sources:
- The State of Georgia's Department of Revenue
- Houston County Board of Commissioners
- The City of Warner Robins.
For seniors in Georgia, if you're 65 or over, you can qualify for an exemption no matter how long you've lived in the Peach State.
The same goes for Houston County and Warner Robins, too.
However, one requirement that the international city has that the county and state don't have is you're supposed to have lived in Warner Robins for five years to qualify for homestead exemption as a senior.
Warner Robins City Clerk Mandy Stella said it's been like this since 2010 when the city approved the ordinance to add the five year requirement.
"In 2010, the governing body at that time implemented the required change for residency requirements," Stella said.
We asked Houston County if there's anything restricting Warner Robins from setting a requirement.
In a statement, Chairman Dan Perdue said he didn't want to comment on the city's ordinances. However, "any additional exemptions that are not laid out in state law can have different qualifications than what is in state law."
"Essentially, if it’s not on the Department of Revenue website above, it’s something that local governments are going above and beyond in offering and they can do so according to their own ordinances," Perdue said.
We asked the City of Warner Robins to clarify if they have the power to require residents who are seniors to have lived in the city for five years.
"If there is no state law that requires residential time requirements, it could be something this governing body could discuss to amend," the City said.
To file for homestead exemption in Georgia, you must file by April 1 every year.