Page 44 - Homeowners Manual - Los Angeles County

PROPERTY TAX RELIEF ON REPLACEMENT DWELLINGS FOR SENIORS

When a sale or transfer of a property is recorded with the county recorder, it is the responsibility of the new
owner to complete the Preliminary Change of Ownership Report (PCOR)� Buyers customarily complete this form
in escrow� The PCOR is a two-page questionnaire requesting information on the property; principals involved in
the transfer; type of transfer; purchase price and terms of sale, if applicable; and other such pertinent data� One
of the many reasons the county assessor needs this information is to verify the eligibility for tax relief under the
California Revenue and Taxation Code Section 69�5�

Originally passed as Proposition 60 and 90, these constitutional tax initiatives provide tax relief by preventing
property reassessment when a person, age 55 or older, sells his/her existing residence and purchases or
constructs a replacement residence of equal or lesser value than the original property�

How do these tax initiatives work?

When a person, age 55 or older, purchases or constructs a new residence, it is not reassessed if he/she
qualifies� The assessor transfers the factored base value of the original property located in the same county�

Later, Proposition 90 enabled this to be modified by local ordinance� The homeowner is still eligible if moving to
a county that has adopted a Proposition 90 ordinance�

The meaning of equal or lesser value depends on when you purchase the replacement property� In general,
equal or lesser value means:

• 100% or less of the market value of the original property if a replacement property were purchased or newly
constructed before the sale of the original property, or

• 105% or less of the market value of the original property if a replacement property were purchased or newly
constructed within the first year after the sale of the original property, or

• 110% or less of the market value of the original property if a replacement property were purchased or newly
constructed within the second year after the sale of the original property�

Source: http://www�boe�ca�gov/

A GUIDE TO STATEMENTS OF INFORMATION

What’s in a name? When a title company seeks to uncover matters affecting title to real property, the answer is,
“Quite a bit�”

Statements of Information provide title companies with the information they need to distinguish the buyers
and sellers of real property from others with similar names� After identifying the true buyers and sellers, title
companies may disregard the judgments, liens or other matters on the public records under similar names�

To help you better understand this sensitive subject, the California Land Title Association has answered some of
the questions most commonly asked about Statements of Information�

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