How to Fill Out and Submit a California Land Transfer Form (BOE-502-A)

When real property changes hands in California, you report the transfer to the county assessor on a California land transfer form so the assessor can decide whether to reassess the property. The main form is the Preliminary Change of Ownership Report (BOE-502-A), filed with your deed at the county recorder. If no deed is being recorded, or the assessor mails you a written request, you file the Change in Ownership Statement (BOE-502-AH) with the assessor instead. When the transfer happens because an owner died, the form is the BOE-502-D. All three are Board of Equalization forms, and county assessors administer them locally.¹

Which Form You Need

Pick the form that matches the transfer, because filing the wrong one (or none) causes processing delays and can trigger penalties.

BOE-502-A, Preliminary Change of Ownership Report. The standard form for any transfer that is being recorded with a deed. You file it at the county recorder’s office at the same time you record the deed. Revenue and Taxation Code Section 480.3 requires the recorder and assessor to make it available at no charge. In most residential sales, the title or escrow company includes it in the closing package.²
BOE-502-AH, Change in Ownership Statement. Filed with the county assessor when a transfer happened without a PCOR, or when the assessor mails you a written request for ownership information.³
BOE-502-D, Change in Ownership Statement — Death of Real Property Owner. Filed when property transfers because the owner died, whether by probate, trust, joint tenancy survivorship, or any other mechanism.⁴

Sample copies are available on the Board of Equalization’s website, but for the version your county actually accepts, get the form from the county assessor or recorder where the property sits.

How to Fill Out the BOE-502-A

Before you start, gather three things: the Assessor’s Parcel Number (the multi-digit code on your property tax bill or deed), the full legal names of buyer and seller exactly as they appear on the deed, and the purchase price or fair market value. The form has four parts.⁵

Part 1: Transfer Information

Part 1 is a checklist of transfer types that may be excluded from reassessment. Check every box that applies. The categories include transfers between spouses, transfers between parents and children, transfers to or from a revocable trust, name corrections on title, and creation or reconveyance of a security interest such as a mortgage. Checking a box here does not automatically grant the exclusion. Some categories, including parent-child transfers, also require a separate claim form filed with the assessor.

Part 2: Other Transfer Information

Enter the date of transfer if it differs from the recording date, and check the box that describes the transfer: purchase, foreclosure, gift, inheritance, trade or exchange, creation or termination of a lease, and so on. If only a partial interest changed hands, note that here along with the percentage transferred.

Part 3: Purchase Price and Terms of Sale

Report the total purchase price and how the purchase was financed: whether the buyer assumed an existing loan, obtained a new mortgage, or paid cash. If the transfer was a gift or had no cash consideration, complete what applies and note the fair market value. For transfers that were not arm’s-length, such as those between family members or related parties, the assessor uses the fair market value you report here to set the new base year value.

Part 4: Property Information

Identify the property type: single-family home, condo, co-op, multi-unit residential, commercial, agricultural, or vacant land. Indicate whether the property was your primary residence. Certain exclusions and penalty caps depend on homeowner-occupied status.

Filling Out the BOE-502-AH

The Change in Ownership Statement covers the same ground as the PCOR but in more detail. The assessor typically mails it to you when a transfer was recorded without a PCOR or when the assessor identifies an ownership change that needs documentation. The form itself represents a written request from the assessor, which starts your response deadline.³

You need the same core data: APN, names of all parties, date and type of transfer, and purchase price or fair market value. The form also asks for more detail on financing terms, whether the property was listed on the open market, and the relationship between buyer and seller. Fill in every field. If the assessor has to send a follow-up request for missing information and you still don’t provide it, the penalty provisions can apply a second time.

Filling Out the BOE-502-D After a Death

When an owner dies, the person who inherits the property — or the trustee, executor, or personal representative handling the estate — files the BOE-502-D with the county assessor. The deadline is 150 days from the date of death. If the estate goes through probate, the form must be filed by the time the inventory and appraisal is submitted to the court, whichever comes first.⁶

If a deceased parent’s home transfers to a child who plans to live in it, the child should also file a Proposition 19 intergenerational transfer exclusion claim with the assessor to preserve the property’s lower assessed value.

Where to File and by When

BOE-502-A. Submit to the county recorder’s office at the same time you record the deed. If a title or escrow company is handling closing, they usually include it in the recording package. Recording the deed without a PCOR does not block recording, but the recorder charges an extra $20 fee.²
BOE-502-AH. Mail or deliver to the county assessor in the county where the property is located, within 90 days of the change in ownership or within 90 days of the date the assessor mails a written request, whichever applies.³
BOE-502-D. File with the county assessor within 150 days of the date of death, or by the time the probate inventory and appraisal goes to the court, whichever comes first.⁶

Penalties for a Late or Missing Filing

If you fail to file a change in ownership statement within 90 days of the assessor’s written request, the penalty is the greater of $100 or 10 percent of the taxes on the property’s new base year value.⁶ Statutory caps apply when the failure was not willful:

Owner-occupied homes eligible for the homeowners’ exemption: penalty capped at $5,000.
All other properties, including investment, commercial, and vacant land: penalty capped at $20,000.⁷

If the assessor determines you intentionally avoided filing, the caps don’t protect you. The penalty is added to your property tax roll and collected like delinquent property tax, so ignoring it produces the same late-payment consequences as ignoring the tax itself.

Transfers That Avoid Reassessment

Not every ownership change triggers a reassessment. You still file the change of ownership form; the exclusion only affects the tax reassessment, not the reporting requirement.

Between spouses or registered domestic partners. Adding or removing a spouse from title, transfers in a divorce settlement, and transfers on death of a spouse are excluded.⁸
To or from your revocable trust. Moving property into your own revocable living trust, or transferring it back out to yourself, does not trigger reassessment as long as you remain the trust’s beneficiary or retain the power to revoke it.⁹
Proportional interest transfers. Changing the way co-owners hold title, for example converting a tenancy in common to a partnership, without changing anyone’s ownership percentage.⁹
Security interests. Recording a mortgage, deed of trust, or reconveyance is not a change in ownership.
Parent-child and grandparent-grandchild (Proposition 19). Partial exclusion, limited to the family home or family farm, with the value cap described below.

For interspousal and revocable trust transfers, checking the box in Part 1 of the BOE-502-A is usually enough. For parent-child transfers under Proposition 19, also file a separate claim form (BOE-19-P for parent-child, BOE-19-G for grandparent-grandchild) with the county assessor.¹⁰

Proposition 19 in Practice

Before Proposition 19 took effect in February 2021, parents could transfer any property to their children without reassessment, including rental properties and vacation homes. That is no longer the case. Under current law, the intergenerational exclusion only applies to a family home the child will occupy as a primary residence, or to a family farm.¹¹

To qualify, the child (or grandchild, if both parents who would qualify as the grandparent’s children are deceased) must move into the property and file for the homeowners’ exemption or disabled veterans’ exemption within one year of the transfer. The child must continue to live in the home to maintain the exclusion.¹¹

A value cap also applies. The excluded amount is the property’s factored base year value plus an inflation-adjusted figure. For transfers between February 16, 2025 and February 15, 2027, that adjusted amount is $1,044,586.¹⁰ If current market value exceeds the factored base year value plus $1,044,586, the difference is added to the child’s new assessed value. On a home with a base year value of $200,000 and a market value of $1,500,000, the exclusion covers up to $1,244,586, and the remaining $255,414 is added to the assessed value.

1
California State Board of Equalization. Property Tax Forms for Use by County Assessors Offices and Local Appeals Boards
2
California Legislative Information. California Code Revenue and Taxation Code 480.3
3
California State Board of Equalization. BOE-502-AH Change of Ownership Statement
4
California State Board of Equalization. BOE-502-D Change in Ownership Statement Death of Real Property Owner
5
California State Board of Equalization. BOE-502-A Preliminary Change of Ownership Report
6
California Legislative Information. California Code Revenue and Taxation Code 480
7
California Legislative Information. California Code Revenue and Taxation Code 482
8
California Legislative Information. California Code Revenue and Taxation Code 63
9
California Legislative Information. California Code Revenue and Taxation Code 62
10
California State Board of Equalization. Proposition 19
11
California State Board of Equalization. Proposition 19 Fact Sheet