Did Your Property Get Storm Damage? You Could Be Eligible For A Tax Cut

Maybe your L.A. home flooded during a recent heavy downpour. Maybe an Orange County mudslide damaged your home. Or maybe you're one of the unlucky Palos Verdes Peninsula residents whose homes are at risk of slowly sliding away.

Wherever you are in California, if something you own gets assessed for property taxes and it’s been damaged during a disaster, you could qualify for a tax cut. Here’s how:

How the tax cut works

The state’s tax law says that if a major calamity such as a fire, earthquake, or flooding damages or destroys your property, you may be eligible for property tax relief if the county has adopted a disaster relief ordinance (spoiler: all California counties have already done this).

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The cut would be a temporary reduction in your property’s assessed value, which is the figure you pay taxes on if you’re a homeowner. To get the cut, you must have lost at least $10,000 of the property’s current market value and file an application with your county assessor’s office within 12 months.

Once your application is approved, the county assessor will reevaluate your property to reflect its damaged condition and issue a refund. Your current property taxes will be reduced from the date of the damage, and it will remain that way until your property gets rebuilt or repaired.

Once your property is back to normal, your taxes shouldn’t go back up for at least that year, as long as things were repaired or rebuilt in a similar manner. But if you use that repair time to add a new bonus room to your home — or make other improvements that increase the value of your home — be prepared to pay more in property taxes when it’s reassessed.

Some types of damages won’t qualify. If it was due to normal deterioration, like a leaky roof that you didn’t fix, that probably won’t get approved. But if it flooded during a big storm, that’ll likely work.

If you’re in an area that was recently declared a disaster by the governor, you could also ask to get your next property tax installment deferred. Talk with your county assessor to see what help is available.

How to file your application

You’ll have to fill out a form to start the process. For the L.A. County assessor’s office, fill out the application form here. For Orange County, go here. For other counties, look here to find the contact for your assessor’s office.

Be prepared to describe the damage and share copies of repair bills and estimates. Some county offices may require different details, so read the forms closely. For example, L.A. County strongly recommends including photographs with your application, while Orange County says the before and after conditions must be included on the application.

Then mail it to your county assessor’s office and wait for them to respond. If you don’t hear back from them within a couple of weeks, give the office a call to check in.