News from the Assessor's Office

Overview

The SonomaCounty Assessor's Office is the division of the Clerk-Recorder-Assessor responsible for providing accurate and timely property assessments. We also determine eligibility for various exemptions and exclusions. Assessing property in Sonoma County presents a unique challenge because of our staggering growth in recent years. The 2007-2008 Sonoma County Assessment Roll increased 7.94% to exceed $66.77 billion and comprises approximately 182,500 land parcels. A majority of the revenues generated from property assessments go to the State of California to fund public schools.

We are dedicated to providing you with informative, efficient, ethical and courteous service. This web site is part of our continuing effort to keep you better informed as to your rights and responsibilities along with explaining what we do, how we do it, and why. As it develops, we hope to provide you with more and more services on-line.

Recent Assessment News and Activities

• Decline-in-Value Reviews for Residential Properties: If you purchased your home during calendar year 2004, 2005 or 2006 and you believe your assessed value is more than your home's current market value, please call us and we will review it for the 2008-2009 tax year. By law, the values on the 2008-2009 tax bills are based on market data as of January 1, 2008. We will use comparable sales data from calendar year 2007 to review values for January 1, 2008. For more information, please refer to our information on Property Value Decline Provisions or, if you like, download an Informal Request For Decline In Market Value. If you have additional questions, don't hesitate to contact us.
• Registered Domestic Partners: As of January 1, 2006, California's Revenue and Taxation Code Section 62 was amended to exclude transfers of real property between registered domestic partners from reassessment due to change in ownership. "Registered domestic partners" are two persons who have filed a Declaration of Domestic Partnership with the California Secretary of State pursuant to Family Code Section 297. To learn more about this exclusion, please visit the California Secretary of State's web site at: http://www.ss.ca.gov/dpregistry/index.htm. To review a list of typical transactions that might be affected by this exclusion, please download and read the following letter from the State Board of Equalization: http://www.boe.ca.gov/proptaxes/pdf/lta05062.pdf. If you have additional questions, please contact us.
• Customer Service Counters for Assessor's Office and Recorder's Office are Consolidated: The Recorder’s Office and the Assessor’s Office have had a combined customer service counter area since January 2004. Come on in and check out the public computers and many other combined services!
• Search the Assessment Roll On-Line: Assessment Roll information is available on this web site. Visit our section called Search the Assessment Roll to look up Assessment Roll information using any of the following criteria:
  • Assessor's Parcel Number (APN)
  • Assessment Number
  • Street Address (also known as Situs)
  • Owner Name
  Please note that California state law does not allow us to post home addresses in search results you obtain over the internet.
• Petaluma Assessor’s Office Customer Service: We have been offering customer service to Petaluma and southern Sonoma County at our branch office in Petaluma since January 7, 2003. Our Petaluma office is located in the south wing of the Petaluma City Hall at 11 English Street, Room 25. The office is open for customer service every Tuesday from 8 am to 5 pm. Appraisers are available to answer questions regarding assessed values and supplemental assessments. Parcel maps and property profiles with property characteristic information are available for sale. If you can’t make it to our office on Tuesday’s, please call (707) 769-9755 to make a private appointment.
• Interactive Voice Response System: Try our IVR system to obtain assessment information any time of the day or night! By entering a valid parcel number you will receive the parcel's assessed values by assessment category (land, improvements, personal property, exemptions, and the net assessed value). If you request a fax-back, the fax will list not only the assessed values by category, but also the assessee, the assessee's mailing address, the parcel's situs address, and the parcel's tax rate area (TRA) code. The IVR number is: (707) 565-3010.
• Assessment Forms Are Available On-Line: Visit the Forms section of this web site to check out all of the forms you can download.

We are always interested in receiving your feedback and/or questions. You're invited to visit our office Monday through Friday 8 AM to 5 PM, or send me an E-Mail.

Janice Atkinson
Sonoma County Assessor

Email to Janice Atkinson