Section 408.2 Of Article 1. General Requirements From California Revenue And Taxation Code >> Division 1. >> Part 2. >> Chapter 3. >> Article 1.
408.2
. (a) Except as otherwise provided in Sections 63.1, 69.5,
451, and 481 of this code and in Section 6254 of the Government Code,
any information and records in the assessor's office which are
required by law to be kept or prepared by the assessor, other than
homeowners' exemption claims, are public records and shall be open to
public inspection. Property receiving the homeowners' exemption
shall be clearly identified on the assessment roll. The assessor
shall maintain records which shall be open to public inspection to
identify those claimants who have been granted the homeowners'
exemption.
(b) The assessor may provide any appraisal data in his or her
possession to the assessor of any county and shall provide any market
data in his or her possession to an assessee of property or his or
her designated representative upon request. The assessor shall permit
an assessee of property or his or her designated representative to
inspect at the assessor's office any information and records, whether
or not required to be kept or prepared by the assessor, relating to
the appraisal and the assessment of his or her property. Except as
provided in Section 408.1, an assessee or his or her designated
representative, however, shall not be provided or permitted to
inspect information and records, other than market data, which also
relate to the property or business affairs of another person, unless
that disclosure is ordered by a competent court in a proceeding
initiated by a taxpayer seeking to challenge the legality of his or
her assessment.
(c) The assessor shall disclose information, furnish abstracts, or
permit access to all records in his or her office to law enforcement
agencies, the county grand jury, the board of supervisors or their
duly authorized agents, employees or representatives when conducting
an investigation of the assessor's office pursuant to Section 25303
of the Government Code, the Controller, probate referees, employees
of the Franchise Tax Board for tax administration purposes only, the
State Board of Equalization, and other duly authorized legislative or
administrative bodies of the state pursuant to their authorization
to examine the records.
(d) For purposes of this section, "market data" means any
information in the assessor's possession, whether or not required to
be prepared or kept by him or her, relating to the sale of any
property comparable to the property of the assessee, if the assessor
bases his or her assessment of the assessee's property, in whole or
in part, on that comparable sale or sales. The assessor shall provide
the names of the seller and buyer of each property on which the
comparison is based, the location of that property, the date of the
sale, and the consideration paid for the property, whether paid in
money or otherwise, but for purposes of providing market data, the
assessor shall not display any document relating to the business
affairs or property of another.
(e) This section applies only to a county with a population that
exceeds 4,000,000.