If your house was destroyed due to a calamity, you may be eligible for property tax relief under Revenue and Taxation Code section 170. Normally, to get this relief you would file a disaster relief claim with your County Assessor and you would file a property tax deferral claim to postpone your payment due date until you receive the corrected tax bill.
Due to the extensive damage from the North Bay fires, Sonoma County is automatically re-assessing impacted properties and will send out corrected property tax bills without individuals needing to file any paperwork with their office.
The Sonoma County Assessor and Tax Collector are pro-actively working with Cal Fire and local fire departments to identify all properties that would qualify for this relief and they will automatically send out corrected property tax bills by December 11, 2017. Taxpayers will then have a 30-day deferral period following receipt of the corrected tax bill. If your lender pays your property tax bill, be sure to alert them to the reassessment so they can reduce your monthly impound amount.
Other counties have not yet announced an automatic reassessment so you should file the required forms with your specific county.
For ongoing information about the fire and your taxes go to www.CalFireTaxInfo.org