Deadline nears for Orange County “informal” property tax appeals

4/30/09 update:  I’ve simplified this info into easy steps to determine if  you should file an appeal and posted it on our other real estate website.  Please click here for “Easy 3 minute test on if you should appeal your property tax.”

If you purchased a home in Orange County, CA between January 1, 2003 and December 31, 2007, you’re probably running out of time to save on your 2009 – 2010 property tax bill.

That’s because “informal appeals” of OC property tax assessments must be postmarked tomorrow at the latest.

Fortunately, the links below will enable you or your friends to determine how much you’re likely to save, and to complete the entire process in about ten minutes.

Whether or not you really need to appeal is another hot question, with Orange County Assessor Webster Guillory claiming that “the obviously is doing something to help the taxpayers,” noting that the county plans to automatically review 300,000 properties for possible reductions this year.

You can easily find out if your property is scheduled for a review this year by filling in your address then following the instructions on this link on the Assessor’s site.

If your home is scheduled for automatic review, you don’t need to do anything, according to the Assessor. On the other hand, Cornell Beans, who operates a website that will prepare an appeal for you asks, “Do you think (the tax assessor) is really looking out for the homeowners’ best interests?” While I can’t answer that question for you, there does appear to be at least a conflict of interest. Filing an appeal at least makes sure your property will be looked at. Using Bean’s service (California Property Tax Savers.com)

When I spoke with Mr. Beans this morning, he estimated that the average homeowner who bought from 2003 to 2007 could save over a thousand dollars by filing an appeal. It only takes a couple minutes, along with eleven bucks, for his firm’s “Quick Property Analysis,” which includes your current assesment, their estimated assessment, and your savings.

If you like what you see, you can apply that $11 to their $65 fee to prepare your “Personalized Property Tax Appeal Kit,” which includes comparable sales. All you do is print it out, sign it, and get it into the mail in time for a postmark tomorrow (April 30).

If you want to save a few bucks, there’s a San Diego firm (EasyTaxFix.com) that does the same thing, but seems to use somewhat less reliable data. The good news is they’ll do that initial property analysis for free. The bad news was, when I tried it with my home, they were 1)way off with my current assessment and 2)all the comps they gave me were in a different city.

As a Realtor for almost 30 years, I know comps are difficult,  which is one of the problems with Zillow or any computerized service. To be honest, I didn’t pop the $11 to see if the OC firm (CAPropertyTaxSavers.com) could come up with better comps, but they do appear to have better sources of their data.

You can also file an appeal for free. This link will take Orange County homeowners to a pdf version of the informal form which you can print out and complete, sign and mail in yourself. It will ask you for three comparables, but according to our Assessor, he’ll review the appeal even without comparables. You can try asking the Realtor who regularly works your neighborhood for three comparables, you can try Zillow, which is what the assessor’s office suggested, or you can call the customer service line for any title company.

I tried Orange Coast Title (714-558-2836) as a consumer, and got the royal runaround, however.

You could also use the “contact us” link to e-mail me & I’ll forward it to my title rep to get back to you.

Whichever way you choose to go, if you think your home may be worth less than it’s current assessment, you’ll want to get that informal appeal into the mail in time for an April 30th postmark if you live in Orange County.

Formal appeals are a more time consuming process, but if you’re reading this after April 30 that’s your only option. For assessments dated 1/1/09 – 7/1/09, which would be for the 09 – 10 tax year, formal appeals need to be filed between July 2 and September 15. Here’s the link to allow you to e-file a formal assessment, which I guess you can start on now and save until after July 1 to file. This link has more general inf0rmation on property tax appeals from Darlene J. Bloom, the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors.

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