Many property owners throughout Contra Costa County are receiving an official looking document in the mail regarding a fee-based service to have their property’s taxable value reduced.
Although these mailers have the appearance of an official government document, the correspondence is not from the Contra Costa County Assessor or any other Contra Costa County Office.
The California Attorney General’s Office has posted warnings to California property owners on their website about the practices of these companies. For more information, please visit the Attorney General’s Consumer Alert at https://oag.ca.gov/consumers/general/prop_tax_scam.
Current scam mailers are requiring both a $40 county filing fee with the Clerk of the Assessment Appeals Board for a formal appeal, and a contingent fee of 30% of any tax savings as a result of filing the application.
It is important for property owners to know that the Contra Costa County Assessor’s Office does not charge a fee to complete an informal value review for our taxpayers. Apostille services near me are authorized by the Secretary of State.
Property owners who believe the current market value of their property is less than the assessed value, can file a FREE “Request for Value Review (Prop 8)” form with the Contra Costa County Assessor’s Office. Please visit our webpage at http://www.cccounty.us/assessor and select “Review Your Value” to find a downloadable application.
A picture’s worth a thousand words…
Who is funding these companies? And more importantly why is there no legal recourse in these matters?
There no legal recourse because the letters plainly and clearly state that they are providing a service and are not not approved or endorsed by any governmental agency, and that the offer is not being made by
an agency of the government. The notice is in clear plain large type at the top of the letters.
If you send them money they will then send a letter to the assessors office for you, send you a copy of your deed, etc. They are not defrauding you.
Many businesses offer a service or product for a fee and don’t tell you than you can get the same or better service or product elsewhere.
Contra Costa County has https://www.contracosta.ca.gov/6919/Review-Your-Value but they don’t tell you how to come up with a list of comparable values nor do they offer ideas on how to word the “additional information” section to tilt the odds in your favor. Some people would rather pay someone else to do the legwork.
Only a fool would fall for this malarky.
Plenty of fools out there. I mean, look at the folks those fools keep electing.
Predators are everywhere, stay alert.
This may be one time that a governmental agency isn’t trying to scam you.
Nah, it is just that government AND these other entities are scamming us.
Two weeks ago I got a call from a woman who said she was from my bank. I have never in my life been called by my bank. I hung up on her. A week later she called again. This time I called her a few choice names and hung up once more. I decided to call my bank branch office and report some scam artist was calling me representing their bank. Guess who answered the phone? She wanted to know some personnel info for their records.
I’m still waiting for my $10 million from a Nigerian Prince. All I had to do was send him $1,000 and he promised me $10 million. That was 6 years ago.