Many fire victims are owed a tax refund. L.A. County can’t find some of them
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Many residents who lost their homes in the Palisades or Eaton fires should have received a tax refund because their properties are now worth a lot less.
But in about 330 cases, U.S. Postal Service workers tried unsuccessfully to deliver the checks to vacant or destroyed homes, since residents hadn’t provided a new address.
Los Angeles County officials said Tuesday that they have sent roughly 9,700 checks totaling $26 million to residents whose properties were reassessed because of wildfire damage. Those residents had already paid their taxes and were owed a refund after their property values plummeted.
“I’m concerned that people probably need that money back right now,” L.A. County Assessor Jeff Prang said of the residents who haven’t received their checks.
Prang said there were similar issues with the roughly 2,000 reassessment alerts his office sent out. The office has obtained new mailing addresses for many residents who filed tax relief claims asking for their properties to be reassessed. But other eligible households never filed, creating a gaping hole in the county’s address book.
Residents who were displaced by the fires can update their mailing addresses at the county assessor’s website.
“We understand the impact that this has on people,” Assistant Auditor-Controller Robert Campbell said. “We don’t want these folks who have already been impacted by a disaster to also fall into some type of limbo.”
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