Surprise tax bills spark confusion and dismay among Mendocino County homeowners

MENDOCINO CO., 5/11/26 — When Krystal Fritz and her husband set out to apply for a home equity line of credit, they were excited about the prospect of remodeling their bathrooms and rebuilding their deck. They were not prepared to be told they owed nearly $20,000 in back property taxes.

Fritz said it all started when they bought their home in 2021. Like many homeowners, she assumed their property taxes were being handled through escrow as part of their mortgage payments. It wasn’t until years later, during the loan process, that they were asked how they intended to pay the tax bill.

“I didn’t even know what kind of tax it was,” Fritz said. “We pay our taxes. We don’t owe any taxes.”

When she contacted the county, Fritz said she was told the bill was tied to what’s known as an escape assessment, retroactive property taxes issued when a property is found to have been underassessed in previous years.

Fritz said she was told their taxes had been based on the previous owner’s assessed value, which dated back to the 1970s, rather than their 2021 purchase price. In other words, no reassessment had taken place when the property was sold five years earlier.

“My husband has owned a lot of houses, and he’s never heard of an escape tax,” she said.

She said a county employee told her the office was short-staffed and working through a backlog of reassessments, which is why the bills were only now being issued.

“Really, five years? That’s a little extreme,” Fritz said. “I can imagine a year or two, but five years is way, way behind.”

Fritz said when she asked about setting up a payment plan, she was told she had missed the eligibility window. She said she had never received a tax bill. That’s when she learned the county had mailed the notice to an old address, and told her that she should have updated her address with them.

“Who does that? I’ve never heard of anyone having to update their address with the county,” she said.

Fritz said the situation quickly escalated. When she checked their mortgage escrow account, she saw it had gone negative by $21,000 after the bill was paid. She had forwarded the notice to their mortgage company, trying to understand whether it had already been handled. But by then, the lender had paid the bill directly.

“They paid it, and it was like, okay, now what are they going to do to us?” she said.

Eventually, the couple took out the same loan they had originally planned to use for home improvements and used it instead to pay back the mortgage company, avoiding a steep increase in their monthly payment.

As the county catches up, residents pay the price

Fritz is not alone. In recent months, homeowners across Mendocino County have reported receiving unexpected escape assessment bills tied to delayed property reassessments going back several years.

“I know there are people who don’t have access to loans or family support,” Fritz said. “I don’t know what they’re supposed to do.”

Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder Katrina Bartolomie and Assistant Assessor Tonya Mounts said the recent wave of escape assessments stems from delayed property reassessments and staffing shortages that began during the pandemic, which left portions of the county’s appraisal work backlogged.

Under California’s Proposition 13, a property’s assessed value is generally set at the time it is purchased and may increase annually by no more than 2 percent, unless a change in ownership or other triggering event occurs, such as new construction or the removal of an exemption. When those events occur, the county is required to reassess the property at its fair market value.

“We assess them all the same based on fair market value,” Mounts said. “If there’s a decrease, we have to go back and refund that money.”

A county press release explained that when those reassessments are delayed or missed, properties may remain taxed at outdated values for years. When the discrepancy is later discovered, the county issues what are known as escape assessments, which is when retroactive tax bills are used to correct prior years where property was underassessed, not assessed at all, or missed entirely.

“These corrections are made because the Assessor’s Office discovered property or a taxable event that should have been assessed but was not,” the release stated.

Bartolomie said the backlog is largely due to staffing shortages and the time required to train new appraisers.

“It just takes a while,” Bartolomie said. “It’s expensive to train people, and they have to be licensed within a year.”

According to county officials, reassessment-triggering events between roughly 2021 and 2023 are most likely to be affected, particularly on the south coast of the county.

“We can only go back four years,” Mounts said. “So if we discover that someone was paying a lower amount for the last five years, we aren’t billing them for that first year.”

Bartolomie added that in some cases, discrepancies are significant enough that homeowners would likely notice a difference between what they paid and what they should have been paying.

“If they paid $1 million, which happens in this county, but they’re only paying taxes on $250,000, they would know that,” she said.

Mounts emphasized that notices are mailed to the last known address on file, and that failure to receive a notice does not invalidate the assessment. She said it is the property owner’s responsibility to ensure the assessor has an accurate mailing address, and that if there’s any confusion, they should call the county.

“It’s the number-one thing, they should call us,” Bartolomie said, adding that homeowners can contact the Assessor’s Office at (707) 234-6800 with questions.

Mounts said the office also encourages property owners to review their escrow statements and ensure mortgage lenders are correctly handling property tax payments and that amounts match what would make sense for their home’s value. She noted that supplemental and escape assessments are not usually included in payments from mortgage companies.

“A lot of people think they don’t need to check because it’s being handled through their impound account, but it’s important to make sure there are no mistakes,” she said.

As homeowners began sharing experiences on social media, some reported being offered installment payment plans for escape assessments, while others said they were told they were no longer eligible or had missed the window to apply.

When this reporter asked about the discrepancy, the Assessor’s Office referred questions to the County Tax Collector’s Office.

In turn, the Tax Collector’s Office referred questions to the County Auditor’s Office, which did not return calls last week. However, a tip from an employee in the Tax Collector’s office explained that payment plans are issued in accordance with state code.

Under California law, property owners may request to pay escape assessments in installments over up to four years, as long as the tax meets minimum thresholds and the request is submitted within a specific timeframe after the bill is issued.

The law also requires that a written request for installment payments be filed before the deadline, and that missing that window may result in the loss of eligibility for the payment plan option.

“People are talking about this on social media, that’s how they’re discussing this,” Bartolomie said. “We want them to call us.”

Challenging the county

Rodney Jones, a semi-retired attorney and Mendocino County homeowner, said his involvement began when he received his own escape assessment bill totaling more than $17,000. Jones said he initially assumed his property taxes were being properly assessed.

“I get the tax bills in the mail, and I just pay whatever they’re saying,” he said. “I figured they’re regulated.”

But when multiple notices began arriving, Jones said he started to question what triggered the reassessment.

“They were doing a reachback of four years and telling me how lucky I was they weren’t going back five,” he said.

Jones said notices labeled “notice of proposed escape assessment” arrived in multiple envelopes over several days, each tied to different tax years.

“You’re opening them and laying them down, and they’re almost identical except for the years. You’re trying to piece it together,” he said. “What is this for?”

He said he first became aware of similar issues through a friend who received a smaller escape assessment bill and decided to simply pay it rather than challenge it. Jones said he began researching whether the county had legal authority to issue retroactive assessments over multiple years. He believes the issue hinged on whether the county was correcting bookkeeping errors or conducting delayed reassessments.

“If I’m wrong, and I can be persuaded that I’m wrong, I don’t mind hoisting the white flag and doing whatever I need to do to fix things,” Jones said. “But if you can’t convince me, then I’m not going to go away.”

From there, Jones said he began contacting the county directly, asking officials to identify the specific legalities being used to issue the bills.

In emails with the Assessor’s Office and County Counsel, Jones asked them to explain exactly what law they were relying on and why they believed they could go back several years. County staff responded by pointing to state tax laws they said allow counties to correct underassessed property within a four-year window. However, Jones said he’s not sure that it applies, as he thinks underassessment isn’t the same as not assessing at all.

“It looked to me like it was strictly a ledger correction tool, where the county has made mistakes and is catching up with them, as opposed to the county simply neglecting its duty altogether and not even doing a reassessment,” Jones said. In other words, Jones thinks that it’s possible the county is using a state tax law meant to correct small errors while in reality it did not do the assessments it should have done in a timely manner.

Jones said the exchange left him with more questions than answers, especially as he was directed to different departments at different times.

“I felt like I was getting bounced between the assessor’s office and the tax collector’s office,” he said. “And I’m thinking, wait a minute, you’re one system.”

Eventually, Jones said he began working directly with a tax collector’s office staff member who discussed setting up an installment payment plan. Jones said he ultimately submitted an installment agreement while continuing to challenge the assessment. He said that at first, the county told him he had missed the deadline to qualify, but later acknowledged he had made the request on time. He agreed to a payment plan, he said, but emphasized that it was only to avoid penalties rather than resolve his legal dispute.

“I don’t want to get into a lawsuit with the county,” he said. “But I also don’t like getting pushed around by government.”

He is currently going through the legal explanations the county sent him and said he’s still deciding whether to keep challenging the issue.

Social media connects property owners

Jones and Fritz are not the only homeowners who have raised concerns in recent months. Across Mendocino County, people have shared similar experiences on social media. For Jones, those posts are part of what led him to contact Fritz after his wife saw her story online. He said they began comparing notes and discussing whether others in the same situation might be interested in a broader conversation.

“I’ve got to nail down what the legal technicalities are here,” Jones said. “And if they bear out my position, let’s have a meeting and see what people feel like doing.”

As more homeowners continue to come forward online, some are beginning to organize informally and share information about how to navigate the bills, payment plans and appeals process. Jones said the volume of posts has only reinforced his decision to keep questioning the county.

Fritz and Jones are floating the idea of a community meeting, and Fritz said she would organize it on Facebook once Jones finishes gathering information from the county.

This story will be updated with news of a community meeting or other organizing efforts.