Los Angeles County Decline in Value Proposition 8, 2008 and new get rich quick schemes
If you’re a homeowner in Los Angeles County you’re not only concerned about market value of your home, but you’re probably just as concerned with your taxable value as well. Guess what? You’re not alone. I’m here to write about what the The Los Angeles County Assessors Office is doing to help during this economic crisis and the people preying on unknowing victims of the real estate market.
First and foremost the Assessor Rick Auerbach announced early in the year that the Los Angeles County Assessors Office would do a proactive review of single family homes and condos purchased between July 1, 2004 and June 30, 2007 who were most affected by the recent decline of the market.
Since this news release, several individuals have decided to start a “side business” by soliciting this same group of people. What they are doing is charging homeowners for something that can be done for free by anyone by downloading the form from the Assessors website or by calling for more details. They are completing the FREE form offered by the Assessors office and providing comparable sales for anyone who signs and returns the form with a nominal fee of $95 plus. On some of these forms when the homeowner signs they are agreeing for this company to bill them the same fee annually for these services for the next 3 years. Other companies are charging a % of the tax savings which could be upwards of $500. In other instances these newfound companies have offered to appeal your values with the Assessment Appeals Board for $900-$1200, which can also be done for free by filing an application with the Assessment Appeals Board.
These companies are offering a money back guarantee if the application they submit receives no reduction, but the sad part is a lot of these people will be taken advantage of. All of the people that were part of the proactive review got their first review complimentary instead of being required to apply. Those with reductions from the proactive review then pays one of these agents to submit an application after they got a reduction already from the Assessors proactive review.
So, will these companies refund the money to the homeowner because the reduction given was based on a free review by the Assessors office and not because of the application? My guess is probably not. And what about the people that did get a reduction and signed up for 3 years or more of this service? Once you qualify for proposition 8 you are automatically reviewed by the Assessors office free of charge to determine if your values should change each year until it’s restored.
If you or someone you know thinks they may be due a refund by one of these private companies, you should contact the Assessors office to determine if the 2008 Assessed value decrease was because of the Assessors Proactive review, and application submitted by you, OR because of an application submitted by a third party company. You may also try to get a hold of the company that was paid to provide the service as well as Consumer Affairs and possibly the Better Business Bureau.
How Proposition 8 works: The state of California adopted this proposition in 1978. It states that if any year your current assessed value is greater than the market value you may qualify for a temporary reduction while the market is down. You apply for this reduction and once you qualify your value is reviewed annually against two factors: your Proposition 13 value (purchase price or base year value plus 2% compounded annually) and the market value as of January 1st of that year. If your the market value declines you receive and additional reduction, if it increases you receive an increase, but no greater than YOUR proposition 13 value.
Weather or not you find yourself affected by any of this, it is truly sad to see the people that feed off others in a time of need instead of coming together when it’s needed most. Just some insider insight during a trying time and a helping hand to help save uniformed people a little $ and unneeded frustration.
Quit your job in style send a mass email
This is a real email forward via people at JP Morgan!
—————–
Jay Rodriguez/JPMCHASE
06/22/2007 01:16 PM
Subject:Farewell
Dear Co-Workers and Managers,
As many of you probably know, today is my last day. But before I leave, I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know what a great and distinct pleasure it has been to type “Today is my last day.”
For nearly as long as I’ve worked here, Ive hoped that I might one day leave this company. And now that this dream has become a reality, please know that I could not have reached this goal without your unending lack of support. Words cannot express my gratitude for the words of gratitude you did not express.
I would especially like to thank all of my managers both past and present but with the exception of the wonderful Saroj Hariprashad: in an age where miscommunication is all too common, you consistently impressed and inspired me with the sheer magnitude of your misinformation, ignorance and intolerance for true talent. It takes a strong man to admit his mistake - it takes a stronger man to attribute his mistake to me.
Over the past seven years, you have taught me more than I could ever askfor and, in most cases, ever did ask for. I have been fortunate enough to work with some absolutely interchangeable supervisors on a wide variety of seemingly identical projects - an invaluable lesson in overcoming daily tedium in overcoming daily tedium in overcoming daily tedium.
Your demands were high and your patience short, but I take great solace knowing that my work was, as stated on my annual review, “meets expectation.” That is the type of praise that sends a man home happy after a 10 hour day, smiling his way through half a bottle of meets expectation scotch with a meets expectation cigar. Thanks Trish!
And to most of my peers: even though we barely acknowledged each other within these office walls, I hope that in the future, should we pass on the street, you will regard me the same way as I regard you: sans eye contact.
But to those few souls with whom I’ve actually interacted, here are my personalized notes of farewell:
To Philip Cress, I will not miss hearing you cry over absolutely nothing while laying blame on me and my coworkers. Your racial comments about Joe Cobbinah were truly offensive and I hope that one day you might gain the strength to apologize to him.
To Brenda Ashby whom is long gone, I hope you find a manager that treats you as poorly as you have treated us. I worked harder for you then any manager in my career and I regret every ounce of it. Watching you take credit for my work was truly demoralizing.
To Sylvia Keenan, you should learn how to keep your mouth shut sweet heart. Bad mouthing the innocent is a negative thing, especially when your talking about someone who knows your disgusting secrets. ; )
To Bob Malvin (Mr. Cronyism Jr), well, I wish you had more of a back bone. You threw me to the wolveswith that witch Brenda and I learned all too much from it. I still can’t believe that after following your instructions, I ended up getting written up, wow. Thanks for the experience buddy, lesson learned.
Don Merritt (Mr. Cronyism Sr), I’m happy that you were let go in the same manner that you have handed down to my dedicated coworkers. Hearing you on the phone last year brag about how great bonuses were going to be for you fellas in upper management because all of the lay offs made me nearly vomit. I never expected to see management benefit financially from the suffering of scores of people but then again, with this company’s rooted history in the slave trade it only makes sense.
To all of the executives of this company, Jamie Dimon and such. Despite working through countless managers that practiced unethical behavior, racism, sexism, jealousy and cronyism, I have benefited tremendously by working here and I truly thank you for that. There was once a time where hard work was rewarded and acknowledged, it’s a pity that all of our positive output now falls on deaf ears and passes blind eyes. My advice for you is to place yourself closer to the pulse of this company and enjoy the effort and dedication of us “faceless little people” more. There are many great people that are being over worked and mistreated but yet are still loyal not to those who abuse them but to the greater mission of providing excellent customer support. Find them and embrace them as they will help battle the cancerous plague that is ravishing the moral of this company.
So, in parting, if I could pass on any word of advice to the lower salary recipient (”because it’s good for the company”) in India or Tampa who will soon be filling my position, it would be to cherish this experience because a job opportunity like this comes along only once in a lifetime.
Meaning: if I had to work here again in this lifetime, I would sooner kill myself.
To those who I have held a great relationship with, I will miss beingyour co-worker and will cherish our history together. Please don’t bother responding as at this very moment I am most likely in my car doing 85 with the windows down listening to Biggie.
One!
Paris Hilton Video (the Funny one)
It was inevitable that there would be some funny things come out of the Paris Hilton incarceration. Well here is one of them. This hilarious music video has been all over the internet and news today. Its really a great video about Paris Hilton and listening to the lyrics had me cracking up. Check it out.