County: You don't have to pay to have property taxes reviewed
| Wednesday, Apr 22 2009 04:30 PM
Last Updated Wednesday, Apr 22 2009 04:30 PM
If you have questions about whether correspondence related to property taxes is from the county office, call (661) 868-3485 or go to http://assessor.co.kern.ca.us/index.php.
You don't have to pay anyone to get your property taxes lowered.
In fact, you probably don't even have to schedule a review of your property's value. The county will most likely do it automatically.
The Kern County Assessor Recorder's Office wants to get that message out because mailers are circulating that ask homeowners to pay middlemen for a service the county provides free.
"I find this shameful and despicable," said Kern County Assessor-Recorder Jim Fitch.
The letters are printed on official-looking statements meant to resemble government correspondence.
"We're getting calls from people who paid them thinking they were paying us," Fitch said.
A letter from Los Angeles-based Property Tax Reassessment lists a $30 "late fee" for responding to its mass mailing after May 27. The organization charges $179 before the "deadline," $209 after.
Kelly Harrington, who lives in northwest Bakersfield, got a letter Monday. She was vaguely aware of previous media reports warning consumers not to pay to initiate a reassessment, so she researched the issue online.
She's glad she did. Harrington was nearly fooled, and so were her co-workers, when she brought the letter to work to find out if anyone else had received one.
"These were all college educated people," she said. "All of them had received letters, and most of them thought it was from the government. One was even scared that if she didn't pay, it would mess up her credit rating."
The Property Tax Reassessment letter discloses that the company is not a government agency, but that information is buried in small print.
A customer service agent for the company contacted Wednesday initially told a reporter that interview questions would have to be mailed to a post office box.
When the reporter asked to speak to a supervisor, the agent took a message. No one called back at press time.
Most homeowners don't have to do anything to get their property taxes evaluated. The county is in the process of reviewing what 170,000 Kern County residences were worth as of Jan. 1, and anticipates the assessed value of at least 100,000 of those residences will be reduced, Fitch said.
The assessor's office expects to mail letters informing owners of its findings by late July or early August. If homeowners disagree with their assessment, they can appeal directly to the county.
