Valleywide : Appeals Can Be Filed on Home Assessments

Homeowners who believe the Los Angeles County assessor’s office was overly optimistic about their home’s assessed value for 1995 have until Friday to file an assessment appeals form, but it could be a year or more before their appeal is heard.

Last year, 80,000 homeowners appealed the county’s assessment of their home’s value, which is used to calculate property taxes owed by homeowners. To date, none of the appeals have been heard.

“The system is terribly backlogged, mainly because of a reduction in funding and staff in the past three years,” said Gary Townsend, a spokesman for the assessor’s office. “They are just finishing the ’93 appeals right now.”

To qualify for a reduction, homeowners must be able to prove that homes in their immediate neighborhood have sold for less than the assessed value of the appellant’s home. Most people who bought their homes since 1990--when the real estate market started its free fall--have already received a reduction, Townsend said.

In the past three years, the assessor’s office has reduced the assessed value of more than 400,000 of the 1.7-million single-family homes throughout Los Angeles County. As a result of the lower assessed values, property tax revenues earmarked for the county, schools and cities have decreased by $300 million during the same period, Townsend said.