Countywide : Tax Breaks Offered Victims of Storms

Ventura County is giving tax breaks to real estate owners who suffered severe property losses in last month’s flooding, a county official said Thursday.

Storm victims can have their property taxes lowered for the remainder of this year if they can prove that their buildings or land suffered at least $5,000 in damage in the back-to-back storms that drenched Ventura County between Feb. 9 and 18, said Bruce Gray, chief deputy county tax assessor.

The tax would be based upon the market value of the property after the damage.

For example, if property worth $100,000 were reassessed at a market value of $90,000 because of the damage, the owner would be taxed on the lower amount for the remainder of 1992, Gray said.

The county has made similar so-called calamity adjustments available to property owners in past natural disasters, such as the floods that washed away millions of dollars worth of real estate in January, 1969, Gray said.

As always, the property owners must apply within six months of the date of loss.

The most common date for which claims have been filed so far is Feb. 12, the day that five inches of rain fell in five hours, pushing the Ventura River over its banks, Gray said.

Gray said 24 claims have been received so far at the tax assessor’s office, which is in the County Government Center, 800 S. Victoria Ave., Ventura.

If property owners cannot afford a real estate assessment or a contractor’s repair estimate, photographs of the damage can sometimes help prove that the repairs will cost more than $5,000, he said.

“This is the one time we can be good guys,” Gray said. “It doesn’t happen too often.”