Loading ...AB 1042 was introduced to facilitate a means for county governments to streamline the process of property tax reassessment by allowing the County to accept online assessment appeals. The current process requires homeowners to appear at the County in person. With passage of AB 1042, reassessments will be more convenient for homeowners, less paper-intensive, and far more accurate. The total time frame for the reassessment procedure will also be reduced. The Bill has passed both the State Senate and the Assembly and is currently waiting for approval by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Be sure to look carefully at your tax reassessment notice!
In January of each year the Assessor evaluates the value of your property and makes adjustments where necessary. These adjustments are then submitted to the Auditor on June 30th and will be reflected on your subsequent tax bill (July 1 - June 30). Upon receipt of the Assessor’s final tax roll, the Auditor issues notices indicating the new assessment. The notice also provides instructions for homeowners who feel that the assessment is not accurate. “An Application for Changed Assessment” can be filed with the Clerk of the Board between July 2 - September 15th.
In Rancho Santa Margarita and Trabuco Canyon the real estate market has experienced a decline in value in some areas. Homeowners who purchased their property a year and a half to two years ago may find that their home is worth less today than it was at the time of their purchase. It is especially prudent for this class of homeowners to keep track of neighborhood home sales. If the value of your home has dropped considerably, you could be paying more property tax than necessary. Unless you’ve got money to burn, it may be worth considering filing an application for reassessment.
The County has proven in the past to be much more interested in making upward adjustments than they have been in processing reassessments for homeowners facing a decline in value. It has been more-or-less up to the homeowner to file for downward adjustments. Don’t automatically assume that the Assessor will be rushing to reduce your assessment. It doesn’t happen that way.
You should receive your tax notice each July. If for some reason you have not received it by the middle of July, you should contact the Assessor’s Office right away. Contact your local REALTOR® and request that he or she provide you with home sale values for the appropriate period. If the home sale values are lower than your assessed value you may wish to consider filing the “Application for Changed Assessment.” Comp values need to be documented sales. A reassessment will not be made for speculative on projected market changes. Please note that in most circumstances these applications need to be filed between July 2 and September 15th.
If you miss the deadline, the reassessment will most likely not be processed in time to be reflected on your next tax bill. The homeowner is obligated to pay the full amount of the tax currently showing due - whether there is a reassessment in process or not. You pay the whole enchilada up front and then, when the assessment is complete, you can file for a refund. As you can probably imagine, refunds are processed even slower than the reassessments - so don’t miss the deadline!
More information on Property Tax can be found at the Clerk of the Board website.
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5 responses so far ↓
1 Vicki // Aug 29, 2007 at 6:50 pm
This is great news! I’m going to link this to my blog so I don’t have to write it myself.
I got a reduction on my property taxes for tax year 1996, but it took until late in 1997 to find out that it was approved and get my $400 refund. By the time it finally came thru, I had missed the deadline for the next year’s filing, and hadn’t realized that you need to appeal each year, or it goes back to the original valuation!
2 Property Tax Assessment Appeal Deadline - September 15th! « Live Lake Forest! // Sep 3, 2007 at 10:54 am
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3 Property Tax Appeal In OC, CA - Dogpile Web Search // Jan 7, 2008 at 3:13 pm
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5 Property Tax Re-assessment - What To Do If You Missed The Deadline // Jun 3, 2008 at 5:01 am
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