Laws, Regulations & Annotations

A

180.0000 ASSESSMENT APPEALS

Annotation 180.0069

180.0069 Escape Assessment and Proposition 8 Reductions. A memorandum of lease evidencing a long-term lease was executed in 1989 but was not reported as a change in ownership. The document was recorded in 1997 and, upon discovery, the assessor determined that a change in ownership had occurred in 1989 upon execution of the lease. The assessor established a new base year value for the property and made escape assessments for assessment years 1991-92 through 1997-98 since the four-year statute of limitations period of Revenue and Taxation Code section 532 for making escape assessments had never commenced.

An application appealing an escape assessment may validly seek a reduction in base year value and a Proposition 8 reduction to fair market value. An appeals board has discretion to determine such a decline in value, even though the application seeks the same relief as an application for a Proposition 8 decline in value appeal, which must ordinarily be filed during the regular filing period. An escape assessment places the entire value of the property in issue and, for that reason, an applicant is not limited to appeal of only the new base year value for the property. C 6/3/1998.