The Ventura County Assessment Appeals Board No. 1 on Jan. 12 heard arguments over whether a parent-to-child reassessment exclusion under Proposition 19 should apply retroactively to a transfer after the March 8, 2022 death of Howard T. Powell.

The assessors office told the board it treats the date of death, March 8, 2022, as the transfer date for property-tax timelines and that the homeowners-exemption claim required to permit retroactive application of the Prop. 19 exclusion was not received within the one-year statutory window. "We received the BOE19P and the homeowner's exemption on April 6, 2023, which is more than one year after the transfer date," Rebecca Jeffrey of the assessors office said during her presentation, citing the applicable Revenue and Taxation Code and Property Tax Rules.

The assessor argued those rules mean the assessor properly enrolled a supplemental assessment based on the March 2022 change in ownership and limited the Prop. 19 exclusion to prospective application beginning Jan. 1, 2023. The assessor referenced Revenue and Taxation Code section 61 and section 63.2 and Property Tax Rule 462.52 to explain that timely filing of the homeowners exemption is the threshold for retroactive relief.

The applicants attorney, who said he was representing Amy (Amelia) Rapp pro bono, told the board that the family submitted documents at the time the deed and affidavits were recorded in late May/early June 2022 and that mailing and forwarding errors kept the county from receiving the materials. "She filed what she thought was appropriate and submitted it with the recording," attorney Steve Murphy said. "She immediately filed the proper paperwork the day she learned there was a problem." Murphy urged the board to consider the facts and the applicants efforts rather than apply a rigid result that would leave the 70-year-old widow with an "almost $5,000" supplemental tax bill, he said.

Board members asked questions about when the recorder and assessor processed materials and whether a form intended for the assessor could have been included with recorded documents and not forwarded. The assessor said recordation of documents does not substitute for receipt by the assessor and that its earliest automated mailing of the homeowners-exemption claim in this case appears in January 2023, though the assessor could not find evidence it ever received the original packet allegedly submitted with recording.

The board took the matter under advisement for closed-door deliberation. The board indicated any future valuation questions (the value-related hearings that would follow if the board rules the claim timely) would be scheduled separately; todays decision would focus only on timeliness and the statutory deadlines.

Why it matters: A ruling that the homeowners exemption was timely filed would allow the Prop. 19 parent-to-child exclusion to be applied retroactively and could remove the supplemental assessment for the year of transfer. If the board upholds the assessors interpretation, the exclusion will apply prospectively and the taxpayer would remain responsible for the supplemental assessment tied to the 2022 transfer.

The board did not announce a decision at the meeting and told parties it would relay its ruling after deliberation.