Board holds informational hearing on LA County wildfires; assessor requests statutory flexibility for disaster claims

The Board of Equalization held an informational hearing Feb. 19 focusing on wildfire damage in Los Angeles County, property‑tax relief available under current law, and proposed statutory fixes to help homeowners, businesses, schools and nonprofits rebuild.

Assessor presentation and scope of damage

Jerry House, speaking for Los Angeles County Assessor Jeff Prang, told the board the assessor’s office is treating affected properties as a high priority and has deployed forms, resource‑center staffing and automated review tools to speed reassessments. House gave these figures: the assessor’s damage identification and inspection activity covers roughly 21,000 parcels in fire perimeters; the assessor estimates about $22,500,000,000 in land value plus roughly $11,000,000,000 of improvement value for an approximate total assessed value affected of $33,000,000,000.

Current programs and proposed statutory changes

- Misfortune and Calamity claims: Under current law homeowners with at least $10,000 of damage must file within 12 months to seek reassessment. The assessor’s office said it can remove improvement value and, in many cases, reduce land value while owners rebuild. House asked for legislative flexibility — for example extending the filing deadline from 12 months to 24 months and extending the allowed…