NEW REAL ESTATE LAWS
Transfer Tax Disclosure Requirement – AB 1888
Effective January 1, 2015
A new California law now in effect requires the documentary transfer tax to be included on the face of the property deed. Prior to the enactment of this new law, it was not uncommon in commercial real estate (and also in some residential sales transactions) to provide the amount of documentary transfer tax via an ‘unrecorded declaration’ all in an effort to prevent a final purchase price from being readily ascertainable. In other words, some Buyers did not want the world to know. Fast forward to January 1, 2015 the amendments enacted by AB 1888 eliminated this practice.
