The Sonoma County 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 2008-2009 Sonoma County Assessment Roll increased 2.73% to exceed $68.59 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.
Due to a sharp decline in residential home values, our office has been working hard to meet the demand for reassessments. Despite over a 10% cut to our annual budget, our office reassessed for 2009-2010 over 36,000 properties due to the declining residential real estate market. In addition, we have processed over 2,500 changes in ownership and new construction events that occurred during the first half of the 2009 calendar year.
If you purchased a property during 2009 your new assessed value will be reflected in a supplemental assessment notice. The supplemental notice will serve as the first verification of your new value. The 2009-2010 annual tax bill cannot be changed at this time because by law the value was set on 1/1/09. All taxes on the annual bill are due and payable.
Supplemental assessments triggered by a change in ownership will be based on the “Fair Market Value” of the property at the time of purchase and not necessarily the purchase price. Please see California R&T Code Section 110(a), and Property Tax Rule 2 for more information on the “Market Value” concept. For more information please see the California Board of Equalization web site.
For Property Tax Impound Accounts: Please note that until a change in ownership or new construction event is enrolled, our office cannot and will not provide documentation or an opinion of the new value. Please do not ask our staff to verify or document a new value until it is has been processed by our office. The supplemental value notice can be used to verify the new value for your impound accounts.
The 2009-2010 tax bills were issued in October of 2009 and reflect the assessed values as of January 1, 2009. Again, any 2009-2010 events for new construction or change in ownership will be issued as supplemental assessments. For more information on supplementals, please visit our Terms and Concepts section.
The Clerk of the Assessment Appeals Board and our office are receiving telephone calls from taxpayers asking when their assessment appeals will be reviewed by the assessor or heard by the appeals board. Unfortunately, due to the large number of value decline requests and assessment appeal applications we are receiving, as well as diminishing resources in both offices, we cannot accurately estimate a date when any 2009-2010 appeals will be resolved.
All assessment appeal applications must be resolved or heard within two years of being filed. If you are calling about a 2008-2009 appeal, we will try and get to them before they expire in 2010. We will do everything within our capacity to try and address all assessment appeals before the go beyond their statutory two year limit.
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