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Learn about escape assessments

A correction to a property's assessed value.

Escape assessment

An escape assessment is a correction to a property's assessed value that was not included in a prior year's property tax bill. 

For example, you added an extra room to your property in September 2022, but our office did not discover and assess the value of the room until September 2024. This is an escape assessment which will cause a tax roll change to a prior year. 

Here are other reasons for an escape assessment:

  • Change in ownership due to death not reported timely, or not at all 
    • For example, when the property owner dies, and the executor of the estate does not timely notify our office
  • Overlooked or unreported new construction 
    • For example, work done without a building permit
  • Change in control or ownership of a legal entity that owns real property
  • Removal of an exemption
  • Business property statement filed late, not at all, or property discovered during an audit

Notice of escape assessment

When we discover the escaped event, we reappraise the event at fair market value. You will the receive a Notice of Escape Assessment. This notice will provide the amount of the proposed escape assessments for each tax year involved.

Per State law, the Assessor-Recorder can go back multiple years for escape assessments, depending on the individual circumstances of the assessable event.

Escape bill

The Office of the Treasurer and Tax Collector will mail the escape tax bill(s) within 60 days of the Notice of Escape Assessment.  

Your rights

Your right to an informal review

Contact our office for an informal review if you believe the assessment is incorrect. Contact us at 628-652-8100 or assessor@sfgov.org

Your right to appeal your escape property assessment

You also have the right to a formal appeal of the assessment. The Assessment Appeals Board process involves the following steps.

  1. The filing of an Application for Changed Assessment, 
  2. A hearing before an appeals board, and 
  3. A decision by the appeals board. 

Contact the Clerk's Office at (415) 554-6778 or visit their website (linked below) for more information on filing an application.

You may file the formal appeal after you receive the tax bill from the Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector. File the application no later than 60 (sixty) calendar days from the date of mailing printed on the escape tax bill or the postmark date, whichever is later.