Housekeeping Issues....

Recently moved and can't remember if you filed the postcard for your $7,000 homeowner's exemption on your assessment? Check here, input your address, and look at the bottom of the page for the exemption status. You can contact the assessor to get a request for the exemption form--it's the one form they don't put on the website. Recently refinanced and need to put your house back into your trust? Don't forget! Call your trust and estates attorney or contact me for a link to a title company that can help with this. Recently moved and your home's tax record doesn't reflect all the space you know was permitted by the City? Go here, click on the bottom form, fill it out and attach a clear memo with backup (for instance, copies of the home's permit history that document the legality of the third bathroom), and then wait. Eventually, the tax record will change and you'll have a right-sized house, and an appraiser will be able to count all your home's attributes in the future. (Our new house is from 1913. But the tax record didn't include the original lower level (original maid's bedroom with nice finishes and bath, both of which were renovated with permits in the '90s) nor the extra space from a '90s kitchen and bath expansion. Our house is now 25% bigger, according to the public record and 25% more valuable (according to sites like Zillow).) Why should you care? Under the new appraisal regs, an appraiser often can't count your rumpus room and bath, even if it were permitted by the City, because it's not in the County's public record. Finally have enough assets to warrant a trust? Call your trusts and estates attorney, or consider Dewey Watson, former Piedmont School Board President, at (415) 357-2087. Wondering what else Dewey has been up to? Check out this article and buy the book here.