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SANTA FE COUNTY CLERK’S OFFICE - WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR NOTIFYING THE SANTA FE COUNTY ASSESSOR OF TRANSFER OF OWNERSHIP OF PROPERTY?

Confusion appears to reign concerning the responsibility to notify the County Assessor of a transfer of ownership of property so the Assessor can note the change on the property tax rolls. This responsibility, by Law, is placed on the taxpayer.

The County has an internal process in most cases makes the process of making the appropriate change on the property tax rolls seamless, and relieves the taxpayer in most cases of the burden of notifying the Assessor of a transfer or sale. The process starts in the County Clerk’s Office (because most real estate transactions are recorded here). At the time of recording, the Clerk’s staff makes a copy of the recorded document(s) that bears the Clerk’s dated recording notation. The copy is held in the Clerk’s Office for the Assessor in a special box. This includes documents received over the counter, documents that arrive in the mail and documents that are recorded through our e-recording service. Copies of the documents are picked up by the Assessor, usually on a daily basis.

It is a simple process, but like any process is not error free and occasionally a document recorded with the County Clerk is mislaid in the hand-off between the Clerk and Assessor and the new ownership information is not properly recorded by the Assessor. The County Clerk and the County Assessor work hard to eliminate errors, but because they operate different computer systems, the process relies on physical transfer of documents and is subject to human error.

Taxpayers are advised that the Property Tax Act makes it the personal responsibility of the taxpayer to ensure that the property tax records are properly updated after a sale or transfer. If a taxpayer does not receive a Notice of Valuation in May or June from the County Assessor or a tax bill in October from the County Treasurer, the taxpayer must immediately inquire at the Assessor’s Office to ensure that the property is properly carried on the tax rolls.