Plummeting property values bring the possibility of reduced property taxes. They also bring the latest scam, which targets people who want their properties reassessed.
Some Lake County residents may be able to shrink their annual property tax bills, primarily if the property was purchased at the top of the housing peak between 2004 and 2007. Promises of property tax reassessment and consequent tax reduction have been arriving in people”s mailboxes from an outfit calling itself only “Property Tax Reassessment” with a Los Angeles post office box for a return address.
“They want $179 for what we do for free. All it takes is a phone call,” Lake County Chief Deputy Assessor-Recorder Jim Campbell said.
Campbell said promising reduced property tax bills for a fee might not be illegal, but officials say it”s misleading at best. Authorities are calling it a scam because, in return for the fee, the senders promise to “prepare and submit all necessary documentation to the county assessor”s office and assessment appeals board, and act as your agent in all dealings with the county assessor”s office and at all assessment appeals board hearings.”
News of the scam first reached the Lake County Assessor-Recorder”s office Friday afternoon when people started calling and asking if the letters were legitimate, according to Campbell.
“This is slowly hitting counties going up the state. Mendocino got some, a number of counties in the Valley have seen it already, as well as in Southern California. Whoever is doing this probably acquired the information from tax rolls from the different counties, which is public information,” Lake County Assessor-Recorder Doug Wacker said.
“It appears they have taken essentially 25 percent of the value (of a given property) and told them that”s what the value is,” Campbell said.
That”s not necessarily true in every case, according to Campbell. He said property is typically reassessed when it is sold, when new construction happens on the property or when its value changes. Value is influenced by a number of factors, including location, condition and when the property was purchased.
Under Proposition 8, passed by California voters in 1978, a property can be reassessed at a lower value when the current market value of a property is less than its current assessed value as of Jan. 1. Property can also be reassessed at a higher rate annually usually 2 percent based the consumer price index.
Wacker said if the current market value is lower than the current adjusted value, the assessor must use the lower of the two to calculate property tax. “We”ve already lowered over 5,000 properties. That”s a dynamic number, and it increases daily,” Campbell said.
Wacker said at least 900 more Lake County properties are in line for a Prop. 8 review. A review requested now can reduce annual tax bills that are due to be mailed out in October, according to Wacker. For more information, call the Lake County Assessor-Recorder”s Office at 263-2302.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com, or call her directly at 263-5636, ext. 37.
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