Disaster Survivor Network Email Newsletter
The 3 year deadline you are referring to deals with the situation when the base year value (Prop 13 assessment) of the property which is substantially damaged or destroyed by a disaster, as declared by the Governor, may be transferred to comparable property within San Bernardino County which is acquired or newly constructed within 3 years after the disaster [Revenue and Taxation Code Section 69(a)]. In other words, if the property owner decides not to rebuild on the lot that suffered the damage and buys or rebuilds elsewhere in San Bernardino County, the property owner must do so within 3 years after the disaster and the replacement property is the substantial equivalent of the original (destroyed) property.If the property owner decides to rebuild on the existing lot and rebuilds the substantial equivalent of the original structure and does so in a "timely" fashion then the base year value (Prop 13 assessment) of the original structure is reinstated as the assessed value [Revenue and Taxation Code Section 70 (c)]. The question that arises is concerns the definition of "timely reconstruction." In researching the Revenue and Taxation Code, Property Tax Annotations, Letters to Assessors and with consultation with the State Board of Equalization, a statutory definition of "timely reconstruction" does not exist nor does a written advisory opinion exists as to what constitutes "timely reconstruction." The SBE opines verbally stating that each damaged property reconstruction is to be looked individually on its own merits. The San Bernardino County Assessor's Office adopts a liberal interpretation on timely reconstruction and will take into consideration factors or circumstances that are beyond the property owner's control that may result in non-timely reconstruction but yet would still qualify to have their Prop 13 assessment restored provided all other qualifying conditions are met. Circumstance or factors the Assessor's Office would consider include but are not limited to; uninsured property owner, insurance company delays in homeowner's payouts, litigation, governmental intervention, replacement or addition of County-imposed infrastructure, contractors' woes.Daniel A. HarpPrincipal AppraiserSan Bernardino County Assessor's Office(909) 387-6708
CFRRG MINUTES 08-31-06Hi all,Get ready to put your hands together and give a great BIG CONGRATULATIONS to Debbie and Steve William’s.They finally have their building permit. It took-3 designers, 3 sets of plans, two years and ten months to finally get their building permit.Needless to say they are both on cloud 9. Now it’s time to make all the necessary arrangements and get their new home started. They shared with us at our last meeting that they will be breaking ground in about 2 weeks.They were telling us that they would like to put in a gray water system in the future. So to get the process started, they will be only installing the plumbing portion for now and installing the system at some future date. If you want to install a gray water system, you must get a separate permit. It is even more difficult to get than a septic permit.After Debbie and Steve told us about the subcontractors they have lined up. Debbie shared a story with us about chocolate cake… The chocolate cake they could not get out of their minds after the fire.Like many of us, they were evacuating their home on the day of the fire. They were packing up things to take with them looking at the various necessities they absolutely could not leave behind.Debbie had just bought a nice triple layer chocolate fudge cake from Costco. They had eaten much of the cake and Debbie found it to be delicious. As they were leaving Debbie thought about taking the remainder, the memory of it was just soooo good. Her practical side prevailed and she figured she would be coming back to the delicious triple layer chocolate fudge anyway.If only she had known.As they were sitting through the many hours waiting out the fire, Debbie could only think, “I wish I had taken that cake!” As she mused aloud, her mother said, “You mean that sinfully delicious triple layer chocolate? I wanted to take it too!”The fruit doesn’t fall too far from the tree.We all know what happened to the wonderfully, sinfully delicious, triple layer chocolate cake.Over the years Debbie has denied herself many simple pleasures in living without a house, including the now glorious, wonderfully, sinfully delicious, triple layer chocolate cake. There was just too much work, too little time to indulge and with all the setbacks, Debbie could not feel right about such rewards.Every time Debbie visited Costco she passed the glorious, wonderfully, sinfully delicious, chocolaty-chocolate fudge cake and each time said to her self, “One day I will have that truly incredible glorious, wonderfully, sinfully delicious, triple layer chocolaty-chocolate fudge cake again, and this time we’ll finish the whole darn thing.That is just what we all did at the great big congratulations to the William’s party.We popped the cork on bottles of Champagne and sparkling cider and had a toast. Followed by the most scrumptious, tasty, heavenly, truly incredible glorious, wonderfully, sinfully delicious, triple layer, chocolaty chocolate fudge cake straight from Costco.Never was a desert more deserved.Boy is chocolate a fire folks favorite thing to eat or what? What is your favorite comfort food?Minutes submitted by:Lori A. Ende
A significant number of Levees.Org's members are from California and so Levees.Org plans to launch a California chapter. (We already have a Florida chapter.) We are looking for an individual with the following qualities to act as a director: 1) monitor news events in California concerning water project issues and the Corps of Engineers, 2) networking ability to help grow the membership in CA.. No computer skills required. Please let me know if you or someone you know would be interesting in this position with Levees.Org. You can email me at: sandy@levees.org