This week, started off the New Year with the goal of pursuing corrections of the tax assessments for underassessed Berkeley Properties currently on the housing market. Had wanted to start last week and I showed up on the 22nd, but the City offices were closed. The sign on 1947 Center St. said that the City was trying to save on costs. I needed the building department on the 3rd floor, so had to wait until after the new year. The 10 building records I requested could not be retrieved in a short amount of time, so had to go back later in the day to pick up flash drive with loaded microfiche records.

Some of the building records made for interesting reading. One property owner under construction had such volatile relations with the neighborhood and the city officials that the owner ended up spending some time in jail for violating a stop work order! Most records were less scintillating. It appears several of these Berkeley properties have completed construction add-ons, as I suspected, but the City has not added this building area to the tax record. Hence the property owner is saving hundreds or thousands each year on their tax bill. Compounding this systemic problem is the fact that the city often neglects to transfer proof of the permit final for construction additions to the Assessor within 30 days of inspectors sign off as required by California law. Hence, the taxed value of the property remains too low and the ad valorem taxes are also not what they should be. Stay tuned next week for updates as we attempt to do the City’s job for them: handing these records to the County Assessor for reassessment.