paris hilton

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.