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I applied with the Los Angeles County Assessor’s Office early 2003, I was one of 900 applicants for 25 positions as a Real Estate Appraiser Trainee. I was one of the 25 chosen for the class they hired that year. As a trainee I went through an 18 month probation period and a 12 month training with them including classroom training, many exams, field training in all aspects of real estate appraisal, property tax law and the processes within the Assessor’s Office. If had I failed any one of my series of exams or gotten a bad performance review I would have been kicked out of the program.

In a decreasing real estate market, you are allowed a break in your property taxes. Prop 8 is an exemption to California Property Tax Law which is the basis of property taxes for homeowners in California. Prop 13 was enacted to control property taxes paid by homeowners. Prop 8 Exemption is an exemption to Prop 13 which says that your property tax value should not be higher than market value.

Before I get into this topic let me define PUD: PUD stands for Planned Unit Development. A PUD is basically a single family residence and the legal ownership of the home is legally defined that way. The biggest difference is that a PUD is part of a neighborhood, part of a larger development similar to a condo complex. You will own your home and still pay an association fee per month to maintain community areas such as parks, pools and sometimes recreation rooms. The association regulates neighborhood improvements so if you want to make major changes to your home or want to paint your house you will need the homeowners’ association’s approval. Since a PUD is basically a single family home that is also part of a larger neighborhood you are liable for your own repairs and maintaining your own homeowners insurance since you own the land and the structure.

These three organizations deal with different facets of your property taxes. Some counties merge these departments because they are not as large and dont have a necessity for three separate departments. Everything begins with the Office of the Assessor, first in determining what is assessable and then processing the value of that re-assessment and all of these determinations are made by your state law.

This is a very simple question to answerbecause they are handling your assessment!

Mishaps are often made given there is so much work and so many houses to value! Simply remember the Assessor’s Office is a mass assessment entity and they do not always have the time or the staff to make sure every single assessment is perfect. If there is a mistake|an error in your building information or a value that is far above than what it should be, it is not intentional nor is it personal.