Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles County commercial property tax appeals
Appeals start with the Los Angeles County Office of the Assessor and go to the Los Angeles County Assessment Appeals Boards. Here is how commercial evidence is built, filed and heard in Los Angeles County.
- Assessor
- Los Angeles County Office of the Assessor
- First-level board
- Los Angeles County Assessment Appeals Boards
- Filing deadline
- Regular assessments: July 2 to November 30 (Rev. & Tax. Code §1603, extended from September 15 because notices are not mailed to all owners by August 1). Supplemental, roll change and escape assessments: within 60 days of the mailing date of the notice or tax bill
- Commercial assessment level
- 100% of taxable value: the lesser of the Prop 13 factored base year value (inflation factor capped at 2% a year) or current market value
- Value standard
- Full cash value or fair market value (Rev. & Tax. Code §110); taxable value under Rev. & Tax. Code §51
- Valuation date
- January 1 lien date (Rev. & Tax. Code §2192); base year value set at the date of change in ownership or completion of new construction
- Assessment cycle
- Annual roll as of the January 1 lien date; Prop 13 reassessment only on change in ownership or completion of new construction, plus Prop 8 decline-in-value reviews
- Notices mailed
- The Assessor does not mail value notices to every secured-roll owner by August 1, which extends the regular filing period to November 30; supplemental and escape assessment notices are mailed as events occur
How Los Angeles County assesses commercial property
Los Angeles County appeals run under Proposition 13, which changes the question owners ask. Taxable value is the lesser of the factored base year value (the value set at the last change in ownership or completion of new construction, increased by no more than 2% a year) and market value on the January 1 lien date. Commercial owners appeal for two reasons: to challenge a base year value set by a purchase or new construction, or to claim a Proposition 8 decline in value when the market has fallen below the factored base.
Because the Assessor does not mail value notices to every owner by August 1, the regular filing window runs from July 2 to November 30, while supplemental and escape assessments carry their own 60-day clocks. Appeals are filed with the clerk of the Assessment Appeals Board on Form AAB-100, which must state an opinion of value, and are heard by one of five three-member boards or, for property at or below $3,000,000 of assessed value, by a hearing officer if the applicant elects one. Owners can ask the Assessor for an informal decline-in-value review in the same window, but that request does not stand in for a formal appeal.
Calendars are long. The board must decide within two years of filing or the applicant's opinion of value is enrolled, so the clerk routinely asks for waivers. Practitioners use the §1606 exchange of information to pin down the Assessor's income and sales evidence before the hearing, and they request written findings in advance whenever a Superior Court refund action is possible.
Major commercial submarkets
- Downtown Los Angeles
- Century City and West Los Angeles
- Santa Monica and Playa Vista
- Burbank and Glendale media district
- Commerce, Vernon and Central LA industrial
- South Bay and Carson industrial
Uniformity authority
Cal. Const. art. XIII, §1 (assessment at the same percentage of value); art. XIII A, §2 (base year value and 2% cap); Rev. & Tax. Code §51 (lesser of factored base year or market value)
Appeal statute
Cal. Rev. & Tax. Code §1603 (application) and §1604 (county board hearings); Cal. Const. art. XIII, §16
After the board
Superior Court refund action after the board's decision: the application can be designated as a claim for refund (Rev. & Tax. Code §5097), and suit must be filed within six months after the claim is denied (Rev. & Tax. Code §5141)
Official forms ATALI ELECTRIC fills for Los Angeles County
| Form | Filed with | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Form AAB-100, Application for Changed Assessment | Clerk of the Assessment Appeals Board | Formal appeal. It must state an opinion of value or it is rejected, can be designated as a claim for refund, and carries a $46 non-refundable filing fee. |
| Form AAB-101, Economic Unit | Clerk of the Assessment Appeals Board | Groups contiguous parcels, several years of the same parcel, or an audit filing so they are scheduled and heard together. |
| Decline-in-Value Review application (Form RP-87) | Los Angeles County Office of the Assessor | Informal Prop 8 review of market value as of January 1, filed July 2 to November 30. It does not replace a timely AAB-100 filing. |
| Request for written findings of fact | Clerk of the Assessment Appeals Board | Must be made before the hearing begins (minimum fee of $492 per parcel and issue); findings are needed to seek judicial review of an adverse decision. |
Filing system: Los Angeles County Assessment Appeals Board online filing (lacaab.lacounty.gov), with Hearing Evidence Online Submission
Hearings and evidence
The Board of Supervisors appoints five assessment appeals boards of three members each. Commercial property above $3,000,000 of assessed value is heard by a board; property at or below that level (and small residential property of any value) can go to an Assessment Hearing Officer, a less formal track, if the applicant opts in on the application. The board may raise as well as lower a value, and it may not rehear an application it has decided.
- 01Rev. & Tax. Code §1606: where the roll value exceeds $100,000, either side may start an exchange of information at least 30 days before the hearing, stating the basis of its opinion of value (for an income study: income, expenses and the capitalization method). The response is due at least 15 days before the hearing.
- 02Once information is exchanged, neither side may introduce evidence on matters not exchanged unless the other consents, although new material responding to the other side's data is allowed and earns the other side a continuance on request.
- 03Rev. & Tax. Code §441(d) lets the Assessor require rental income, construction cost and acquisition data. If the owner withholds it and then introduces it at the hearing, the Assessor is granted a continuance that also extends the two-year hearing deadline (§441(h)).
- 04For commercial property the taxpayer carries the burden: the taxpayer-favoring presumption in Rev. & Tax. Code §167 applies only to owner-occupied single-family dwellings and certain escape assessment appeals.
- 05The application must state the applicant's opinion of value for each value category, or it is rejected.
Income evidence
In Los Angeles County the income approach does most of its work in Prop 8 cases, where it shows that market value on January 1 has fallen below the factored base year value. It is weaker against a base year set by a recent acquisition, because the purchase price is rebuttably presumed to be full cash value unless a preponderance of the evidence shows the property would not have sold for that price in the open market (Rev. & Tax. Code §110(b)). Income studies exchanged under §1606 must show income, expenses and the capitalization method, and practitioners generally load the cap rate with the effective tax rate rather than deducting property taxes as an expense. For hotels and other operating properties, going concern and other intangible value has to be removed from the income stream (§110(d)).
Practitioner notes
- Decline-in-value relief is one year at a time. A Prop 8 appeal covers only the year appealed, so an office building below its factored base year value needs a new filing each July until the market recovers.
- A base year value can be challenged in the regular filing period of the year it was enrolled or in any of the three following years; after that it is fixed.
- If the board does not hear and decide a timely application within two years, the applicant's opinion of value is enrolled unless the applicant agreed to extend (Rev. & Tax. Code §1604(c)), so the opinion of value on the application should be one the owner can defend.
- Supplemental assessments after an acquisition carry a 60-day window from the notice date, far shorter than the July to November regular period, and are the main place to contest a purchase-price allocation.
Los Angeles County appeal questions
Last verified October 2026 against the assessor, board and statute.
Is the filing deadline September 15 or November 30 in Los Angeles County?
November 30. Revenue and Taxation Code §1603 extends the July 2 window from September 15 to November 30 in counties where the Assessor does not mail value notices to all secured-roll owners by August 1, and Los Angeles County uses the November 30 deadline.
Can the Assessment Appeals Board raise my value?
Yes. Based on the evidence, the board can increase as well as decrease an assessment, which is one reason to test the Assessor's income and sales evidence through the §1606 exchange before the hearing.
What happens if the board never hears my appeal?
If the board does not hear and decide a timely application within two years, the applicant's opinion of value is enrolled unless the applicant agreed to extend the deadline (Rev. & Tax. Code §1604(c)). That is why the clerk asks for waivers.
Does a Prop 8 reduction carry forward?
Not as a right. A decline-in-value appeal is effective only for the year appealed. The Assessor reviews the property each year, and the value can be restored up to the factored base year value as the market recovers.
Nearby jurisdictions
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