Property taxes are one of the biggest expenses of owning a home, other than paying the mortgage, especially if you live in an area with Mello Roos assessments on top of the regular taxes.

Many areas of Santa Clarita do have the Mello Roos assessments (or sometimes called CFD if you bought from Lennar), and thus any changes to your annual property tax bill should be carefully scrutinized.

I started receiving small Supplemental Assessment bills recently, and for a while I was getting a bit of a run-around in resolving these. Persistence pays: When I called the Los Angeles County Assessor's Office yesterday, I finally got routed to the person who could take care of this situation for me.

Here's what happened: A few years ago, I had filed permits for a patio cover, and then decided I didn't like the contractor and didn't move forward with building it. Apparently Los Angeles forwards the information on permitted items to the County Assessor's office, regardless of whether they have proof of whether the item was actually completed or not, so this showed up on my property tax bill as an addition to my home.

The gentleman from the Los Angeles County Assessor's office who called me back yesterday was aleady here this morning to verify that these items had not been completed, and he said he'll get my property tax bill corrected right away.

Lesson learned: If you receive a Supplemental Property Tax bill in the mail, don't assume that it is correct. Call the Los Angeles County Assesor's Office and ask for an explanation of the addition. If you have been charged for items that were permitted but not completed, you'll need to schedule a time for someone from the Assessors Office to verify this. I was lucky - the gentleman I spoke with lives near me, so he stopped by on his way to the office this morning. Problem solved!