Law Offices of Thomas A. Nitti

The Law Offices of Thomas A. Nitti has been a fixture in the Santa Monica legal community for over two decades, with a practice built on real estate and tax law for property owners along the Westside. Thomas Nitti started the firm after years of working on complex commercial transactions and saw firsthand how often property owners were leaving money on the table by not questioning their assessments. The firm's approach is direct: look at the numbers, compare them to the market, and fight for a fair result if the county got it wrong. Most of the firm's clients are homeowners and investors in Santa Monica, Venice, Brentwood, and the surrounding coastal communities. West LA real estate is expensive and the assessed values reflect that, but the market moves quickly enough that assessed values often run ahead of what properties would actually sell for. Nitti's office knows this market well, and that local knowledge is a real asset when you're building an appeal case.

The firm's primary focus is formal property tax appeals before the Los Angeles County Assessment Appeals Board. This includes preparing the initial application, gathering and organizing comparable sales evidence, requesting and reviewing the county assessor's workfiles, and presenting the case at hearing. Thomas Nitti handles most hearings personally, which clients tend to appreciate since they're not passed off to a less experienced associate when it matters most. Beyond traditional market-value appeals, the firm handles Proposition 8 temporary decline-in-value reductions, which allow homeowners to get a lower assessed value in years when the market has dropped below the Proposition 13 base year value. These require annual monitoring and timely filing to capture. For real estate investors and commercial property owners, the firm also handles assessment disputes involving income capitalization approaches and depreciation arguments on older or distressed properties. Nitti also assists clients with change-in-ownership reassessment disputes, which come up when the assessor treats a transaction as a full reassessment event even though an exclusion should apply. These situations often arise with LLC transfers, partial interest sales, and certain trust transactions where the assessor and the property owner disagree about whether ownership actually changed in a way that triggers reassessment.

You start by sending over your most recent assessment notice or calling the office for a quick over-the-phone review. The firm will tell you right away whether the assessed value looks problematic based on recent sales in your area. If there's a case, you'll get a clear explanation of the approach, the likely timeline, and the fee arrangement before you commit to anything. Once you're engaged, the firm requests the county assessor's workfiles, which reveal exactly how the county calculated your value. That document often shows where the assessor made faulty assumptions or used the wrong comparables. From there, Nitti builds the counter-analysis using actual market sales and any unique property characteristics that affect value. Filing happens before the relevant deadline, and the firm manages all communications with the board and the assessor's office. Hearings are scheduled many months out given the board's backlog. Nitti attends and presents, and clients receive a written summary of the outcome and next steps once the board rules.

The Law Offices of Thomas A. Nitti serves property owners throughout the Santa Monica, Venice, Mar Vista, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Culver City, and Marina del Rey areas. The firm also handles appeals for Malibu properties and inland Westside communities including West Hollywood and Palms. All properties must be located within Los Angeles County.