Lake County BOE approves homeowner reassessment, approves stipulations and continues several appeals

The Lake County Board of Equalization on a day when a full meeting roster was not present approved a stipulation setting Wendy/Nancy Jamieson’s Proposition 13 base-year value at $80,000 and granted refunds for prior overpayments, approved multiple property stipulations, and continued several other appeals to future dates.

The action matters because the base-year value under Proposition 13 sets the taxable floor for future years and can materially change annual property tax bills for homeowners and businesses. At the hearing assessors and the appellant agreed a combination of cost-to-cure invoices and photographs supported adjusting Jamieson’s prior assessment; the board accepted the parties’ stipulation and the assessor’s corrections.

Jamieson’s counsel, Andre Ross of Ewing & Associates, told the board Jamieson bought the home at a tax-default sale and then paid a contractor to remove trash and perform repairs after the property was found “substantially destroyed” and uninhabitable. Ross said the owner provided an invoice for $157,800 to show the cost of rehabilitation and argued those sums were cost-to-cure expenses and “should be non-assessable as…