How to Claim the L.A. County Homeowners' Exemption, and When It's Due

File one signed form online or by mail, and up to $7,000 comes off your home's assessed value.

If you own a home in Los Angeles County and live in it, one form knocks up to $7,000 off its assessed value. That cut comes before the tax rate is applied, and the Assessor's office puts the savings at about $70 a year.

The full exemption goes to claims filed by 5 p.m. Feb. 15. You're wondering if you've missed it for good. You haven't, if you owned the place and lived in it on Jan. 1: the state's claim form says a claim that arrives between Feb. 16 and 5 p.m. Dec. 10 still gets 80% of the exemption.

The trap is assuming the seller's exemption came with the house. It didn't. The form spells it out: "A new owner must file a claim even if the property is already receiving the homeowners' exemption."

You qualify if you own the home, it's your principal residence and you aren't already getting this exemption on another California property, according to the Assessor's fact sheet. Not sure which place is your principal residence? The county's test is where you're registered to vote, the address on your car registration and where you go home after work.

A condo, a unit in a building with several homes, a co-op, a houseboat and a mobile home can all count. A place that's rented out or meant to be, sitting empty, or used as a vacation or second home can't.

1. Get the form. It's the Claim for Homeowners' Property Tax Exemption, BOE-266/ASSR-515, and the current version, marked Rev. 10-25, is a free download. New owners get one in the mail automatically. If it shows a previous owner's name and the home is now yours, cross that out and write in your own.
2. Fill in the Social Security numbers. Each owner who lives there goes on the form, plus a spouse or co-owner if it's their main home too. No number? Write "none," or use a Medicare or Medi-Cal number if you have one. Skipping it can delay the claim or get it denied, and the numbers aren't open to public inspection.
3. Answer the three questions. The day you got the property, the day you moved in as your main home, and whether you own another California home that is or was your principal residence, with its address and the day you left.
4. Attach what's needed. Buying under a contract of sale that was never recorded? Include a copy if the Assessor doesn't have one. The fact sheet warns other supporting papers may be required.
5. Sign it. You're signing under penalty of perjury. A building gets one exemption per dwelling unit, however many co-owners file.
6. Send it. File online through the county's e-File service or by mail. The Spanish-language form can't go through e-File; mail it to the Los Angeles County Office of the Assessor, 500 W. Temple St., Room 227, Los Angeles, CA 90012. Nothing on the form asks for a fee. Questions go to the Assessor at 213-974-3211 or helpdesk@assessor.lacounty.gov.

Bought after Jan. 1? You run on a different clock. Move in within 90 days of the sale, then get the claim in no later than 5 p.m. on day 30 after your Notice of Supplemental Assessment for the full amount. Miss that and you can still get 80% until the first installment of that supplemental bill goes delinquent. After that, the form says, the supplemental bill gets no exemption at all.

Either way, you file once. The exemption stays until it ends, and ending it is your job. If you sell, move out, rent the place, move permanently into an extended-care facility or turn it into a second home, file the Cancellation of Homeowners' Exemption, form EXM-76.

Skip that and state law calls for a penalty of 25% of the escape assessment, the catch-up bill for value that went untaxed. The tax bill mailed by Nov. 1 each year is supposed to carry a reminder.

And if you lived there on Jan. 1 and never filed, this is the step to take now. Get the signed form in by 5 p.m. Dec. 10, and 80% of the break is still yours.

Source: Los Angeles County, retrieved October 9, 2026. Other sources: res.cloudinary.com, res.cloudinary.com (2).