Amador County – Amador County Assessor Jim Rooney released property assessment reduction information in early May, saying that over the past year, property values apparently “have continued to decline, resulting in further reductions in assessments for many of Amador County property owners.”

Properties that may be more directly affected are ones that “had a change in ownership (by purchase) or had new construction as far back as about 2002,” Rooney said, but “if a property owner feels that the fair market value for their property is less than the current assessed value, they can certainly request an assessment review.” If reviewed, “only two things can happen,” those being that “the value may be lowered, or it would remain the same. Proposition 13 value will not be raised as a result of an assessment review.”

Rooney said the Assessors “are obligated to reduce assessments when the fair market value of a property is less than the original adjusted assessment, more commonly known as the Prop 13 value.”

He said the Assessor’s office “has been proactive in the reduction of assessments, however, more may be achieved with help from individual property owners who feel that their assessment may need to be reviewed.”

Rooney said: “Over the past ten years, the increases and decreases in assessments in Amador County appear to be small when compared to rising and falling property values and this can be attributed to Proposition 13, which has had very stabilizing effects on the assessments of Amador County.” ¶ He said a goal of his office is “to have no property in the county assessed higher than its fair market value and with the help of taxpayers reviewing their own assessments, we hope to achieve this goal.”

People who believe they are eligible for a reduced assessment should contact the Assessor’s Office to request an assessment review.

After the request, he said, “we’ll do the research. However, if a property owner wishes to provide comparable sales data on the form, or attach specific data for us to consider, they may do so.”

Rooney’s office is just starting review of 2011-2012 tax year assessments “that we feel may be too high. He said “for the rest of the properties in the county that have assessed values less than fair market values, assessments will have a change of less than a percent. In the coming year all properties in Amador County that have been assessed at their original, adjusted value, will see a very small increase in their assessed value due to the California Consumer Price Index going up three quarters of one percent.”

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.