What is a mello-roos?

A Mello-Roos district is an area where a special property tax on real estate is imposed in addition to the normal property tax. It was created in 1982 as a way for local governments to bypass California’s 1978 cap on property tax increases.

A Mello-Roos Community Facilities District (CFD) can be created by a city, county or school district to allow them to sell bonds in order to finance a specific project or service. Projects can range from streets, water, sewage and drainage, electricity, infrastructure, schools, parks and police protection to newly developing areas.

The Mello-Roos tax is named after the sponsors of the law, California State Senator Henry Mello and State Assemblyman Mike Roos. Their bill was a workaround for Proposition 13; which limits the property taxes to 1% of the assessed value and caps the rate of increase on the assessment to 2% per year.

Key facts of Mello-Roos

The tax is applied only to residents of the district that benefit from the project.
The tax is assessed against the land but is not based on the assessed value of the property. (This is the way it gets around the cap imposed by Prop 13.)
Mello-Roos taxes are usually listed as a line item on a property’s annual tax bill.
Failure to pay the tax can quickly result in foreclosure since Mello-Roos districts are subject to accelerated foreclosure laws.
Mello-Roos taxes generally are not deductible from federal taxes.
Mello-Roos are common in new construction neighborhoods. It allows a developer planning a large new community to fund the infrastructure in and around the community by passing the cost on to the buyers instead of raising the price on the homes.
Some Mello-Roos taxes have an end date while others may be continuous.
Mello-Roos are required to be disclosed to potential buyers.

Do All homes in El Dorado Hills have mello-roos and how much are theY?

Not all homes in El Dorado Hills have Mello-Roos. Most of the gated neighborhoods with HOA’s have the additional tax with some exceptions (the Summit does not). The neighborhoods built before the early 90’s do not have Mello-Roos.

Visit the individual neighborhood pages to find out if a specific neighborhood has Mello-Roos. Want to know how much the Mello-Roos are? Use the chat on our site to ask us OR you can click here if you have an address or APN number.