Saturday, September 12, 2026

Ahead of October Bills, Assessor Tells Property Owners Why Assessed Value Isn’t Market Value and Draws a Wildfire Lesson on Deeds

The office’s September newsletter repeats that decline-in-value reviews are open through Nov. 30 and pushes its free Homeowner Alert against deed fraud

October property tax bills will rest on assessed values that may sit below market value, the Los Angeles County Assessor’s Office told Pasadena and Altadena owners Friday, drawing a records lesson from last year’s wildfires.

Under Proposition 13, a property’s assessed value is generally the lower of its factored base-year value, set when it last changed hands and raised by no more than 2 percent a year, or its market value as of Jan. 1, the office said in its monthly newsletter, which is why a long-held Pasadena home can carry an assessed value well under what it would sell for. The bills are mailed each October by the Treasurer and Tax Collector.

When a property is purchased, the office determines its market value as of the change in ownership, and in many cases the purchase price becomes the Proposition 13 base-year value, the newsletter says. Larger changes in assessed value typically come only with a change in ownership, new construction or a temporary decline-in-value assessment under Proposition 8, which lowers the assessed value when market value as of Jan. 1 has fallen below the factored base-year value and restores it, but no higher than that base-year figure, as the market recovers.

Owners who believe their property’s market value as of Jan. 1, 2026 was lower than its factored base-year value may request a Decline-in-Value Review, the office said. Applications are accepted each year from July 2 through Nov. 30 on Form RP-87, which can be completed and submitted online through the Assessor’s decline-in-value webpage. The reduction is temporary and reviewed annually, and a loss of home equity or a drop from the purchase price does not by itself qualify: the market value on Jan. 1 must be below the Proposition 13 value. The office announced the forms’ availability when the window opened July 2.

The newsletter says one of the important lessons of last year’s wildfires was the importance of keeping ownership records current. Some fire-affected residents had inherited homes but never updated title and Assessor records, it says, and when disaster struck, the outdated information made it more difficult to identify the owner and determine eligibility for certain forms of disaster relief. “Accurate property records matter,” the office wrote.

Assessor Jeff Prang made the same point to Pasadena officials after the Eaton Fire. “If your name is not on the deed, you don’t own the property,” he said, noting that occupants were given six months to correct deed issues, after which they could face up to eight years of back taxes, and that he was pursuing legislation with Sen. Sasha Pérez to extend the period. The Assessor’s office said in a November update that Senate Bill 293 by Pérez extends the deadline to resolve fire-related ownership documentation issues from six months to three years after a reassessment notice, and that Assembly Bill 245 extends the rebuilding window from five to eight years.

Owners can review the square footage, room count and other characteristics on file for their property through the Assessor’s online Property Search Tool, the newsletter says, and request corrections with a Property Data Change Request, form ASSR-129, which holders of an Assessor E-Service account may file online. The same tool shows whether the Homeowners’ Exemption, which reduces taxable value by $7,000 and saves about $70 a year, has been applied; the claim can be filed electronically through an E-Service account.

The office is also promoting its free Homeowner Alert, which emails a registered owner within 48 hours whenever a document such as a grant deed, loan, lien, foreclosure or transfer of title is recorded against the property with the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, a tool it describes as a way to catch fraudulent deeds and other unauthorized recordings quickly.

The guidance arrives after a year in which the Assessor’s Office wrote more than $9 billion in taxable value off the rolls for owners whose homes burned in Altadena and Pacific Palisades, processing 18,000 assessment adjustments in the first 90 days, even as the 2026 roll closed at a record $2.272 trillion, up $96 billion, or 4.42 percent, with the Proposition 13 inflation factor adding $43 billion at the full 2 percent. Fire-damaged properties qualify for Misfortune and Calamity reassessment when damage exceeds $10,000, filed on Form ADS-820, and Senate Bill 663 gives survivors 24 months from the date of damage to file; the office’s disaster relief unit can be reached at relief@assessor.lacounty.gov or (213) 974-8658. County officials warned Pasadena property owners this month about a fake “Form 1098-SR” property tax freeze circulating online. “No legitimate property tax program requires you to file a mysterious federal form you learned about through social media,” Prang said then. Proposition 19 lets eligible wildfire victims transfer their base-year value to a replacement home.

The office’s next Homeowners’ Resource Fair is Saturday, Sept. 19, from 9 a.m. to noon at the Southland Regional Association of Realtors, 7232 Balboa Blvd., Lake Balboa, with Prang and Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, covering property tax savings, Proposition 19, family transfers and inheritance, and veterans’ and other exemptions; it will be livestreamed on the Assessor’s Facebook page, and registration is at assessor.lacounty.gov/news-information/events. The Assessor’s help line is (213) 974-3211, or helpdesk@assessor.lacounty.gov.