LA homeowners impacted by fires can suspend property taxes for one year

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Those impacted by the Los Angeles wildfires can suspend their property tax payments for a year.

The property taxes aren't exactly going away, but the deadline to pay them has effectively been extended.

What does this mean for homeowners?

Homeowners in zip codes affected by fires can suspend property tax payments for one year and apply for penalty cancellations for up to four years afterwards, according to an email from Los Angeles County Treasurer and Tax Collector Elizabeth Buenrostro Ginsberg sent on Friday.

Those in other zip codes who were affected may also apply for the suspension.

This extension will be a big help for people like Colten Sheridan, who lost his home in the Eaton Fire. His Altadena home has been in his wife's family since the '70s.

"This house meant everything," said Sheridan. "This was our future, our retirement, where we planned to raise our child. This community in particular was so tight knit. I knew every single one of my neighbors. We all had keys to our houses. I was counting them as a community to raise our daughter, and so it's not just the loss of our house, it's also the loss of the community."

However, under the county's plan, Sheridan said he is going to need more than a year.

"It's hard to feel any sort of relief," he said. "I appreciate that the governor is taking some action in doing what they can. It may be all that they can do, so I'll take it. It's good, and it's probably not good enough. I still have a mortgage, I have to maintain this property. I still have to keep this pool safe. I've got a notice that my pool is unsecured, so I have to put up a fence now around the pool."

Although he'd like to rebuild, Sheridan's afraid he won't get enough money from insurance.

He's frustrated because when he tried to increase coverage before the fire, but his agent said it wasn't necessary and his request was denied.

Not everyone in Altadena wants to dig through the ash, so they will enlist people like Brandt Woodward, who flew in from Tennessee to help.

"Sorting through personal belongings, trying to find as much as we can of people's belongings, anything we can salvage at all," he said. "Honestly, it's a lot of work, because it looks like a war zone, so just helping out as much as we can is what we're trying to do."

For more information on the county's property tax plan, click here.