Lower Your Property Taxes!

There is a silver lining to the slumping real estate market after all. If you purchased your home in the last 3 years or so, it is likely that your home has probably decreased in value. While that is certainly not welcome news, there is a small benefit. You are allowed by law to request a reassessment of your current assessed property value, thereby potentially lowering your property taxes temporarily.

The assessed value can be found in two ways. First of all, the county tax assessor (they are so nice to do this) send you out a NOTICE OF ASSESSED VALUE for the coming property tax year. Remember, the property tax year runs July 1st through June 30th. In the NOTICE OF ASSESSED VALUE, the assessor indicates the new assessed value of your property for the next tax year based on the property value as of January 1st.

If you have not saved this notice, you can also refer to the actual property tax bill when you receive it. Both documents will indicated your assessed value. You can also contact the county assessor’s office and get the information that way.

If you feel the market value of your home is less than the assessed value as of January 1st, then you have the right under proposition 8 to file a Decline in Value Reassessment Application. You can obtain the form from the county assessors office, or by using the link below.

On the claim form, you must provide the Assessor with any information that supports your opinion of the market value. The best information, of course, would be sales comparables. You should provide two comparable closed sales that sold as close to January 1st as possible, but no later than March 31st. Remember, the assessed value of your property is based on it’s value on January 1st of that year. Of course, the assessor is free to consider other sales information at their disposal to arrive at a decision, so it is not an automatic approval. This form should be submitted to the Assessors office before June 2nd.

If the assessor does not agree to your value, you do have the right to appeal the decision. If you decide to appeal the assessed value, you must do so between July 1st and September 15th. The appeal forms can be obtained by contacting the assessor’s office.

Once the assessor agrees to a temporary reduction of assessed value under Proposition 8, the assessors office automatically review the subsequent years assessed value. Again, if you do not agree, you can file another appeal in that tax year. If the property appreciates, the assessed value can never increase above the Prop 13 baseline assessed value (your annual assessed value based on your original market value or purchase price, plus increases). So you will never be worse off for filing an appeal. It is a temporary reduction in assessed value.

Here are links to information and the Decline in Assessed value forms:

Alameda County:

Reassessment Information (PDF)
Decline In Assessed Value Claim Form (PDF)

Contra Costa County:

Reassessment Information
Decline In Assessed Value Claim Form (PDF)