AMM Land Sales (815) 384-6153

California · CA

Sell your land in California.

California asks for no disclosure form on vacant land, and then makes the parcel's value turn on three questions no form would have asked: whether the lot legally exists, whether a Williamson Act contract is still running against it, and what CAL FIRE's rebuilt 2025 maps now say about it.

Tax sale type
Tax deed
Redemption period
1 year
Rate on redemption
1.5% per month (18% annually)
Closings handled by
Title company

Figures describe California generally. Counties administer their own sales and their own calendars — your county treasurer is the only source for a payoff figure or a sale date you can act on.

Local detail

What actually matters about land in California

The transfer disclosure does not reach raw land

California's Transfer Disclosure Statement comes from Civil Code § 1102, and that article applies to transfers of real property improved with or consisting of not less than one nor more than four dwelling units. Vacant land sits outside it. Other duties do reach bare ground: Public Resources Code § 4136 requires a transferor of real property inside a state responsibility area to disclose that the parcel lies in a wildland area carrying substantial fire risk, on the conditions that section sets out. And a recorded Williamson Act contract binds whoever takes title regardless of what anyone discloses. California buyers order a natural hazard report anyway, so the information tends to surface with or without a statute forcing it.

Williamson Act contracts survive the sale

The California Land Conservation Act of 1965 — the Williamson Act, Government Code § 51200 and following — trades a restricted-use commitment for property tax assessed on agricultural income instead of market value. Contracts run ten years and add a year to themselves every year, so the remaining term never shortens on its own. A notice of nonrenewal under Government Code § 51245 stops the renewal and starts a nine-year countdown to expiration; a Farmland Security Zone contract runs twenty years and takes nineteen. Cancellation is a separate and far more expensive route, requiring findings by the local board and a fee calculated on the land's unrestricted value. Until one of those happens, the contract goes with the land.

The 2025 fire hazard maps redrew the state

CAL FIRE and the Office of the State Fire Marshal published rebuilt Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps for local responsibility areas in four releases between February 10 and March 24, 2025 — the first full revision of those maps since 2007, and the first to apply Moderate and High classifications inside city and county jurisdictions rather than only Very High. Roughly 1.2 million additional acres landed in the High or Very High categories. Government Code § 51179 gives each local agency 120 days to adopt the zones by ordinance, and the designation drives defensible space obligations under Public Resources Code § 4291 along with stricter construction standards. Check your parcel against the current map, not the one you remember.

A parcel number is not a legal lot

An assessor's parcel number is a tax record. It does not establish that the lot lawfully exists. The Subdivision Map Act, Government Code § 66410 and following, controls how land is divided in California, and ground carved up by deed alone — routine in the foothills and the desert generations ago — may never have been legally created. The remedy is a certificate of compliance under Government Code § 66499.35, which an owner may request from the city or county; where the parcel was not lawfully created, what gets issued is a conditional certificate that attaches requirements before development can follow. Any buyer who intends to build will raise this early, so it is better to know first.

Questions

Selling land in California

Does my California land come with water rights?

Not automatically, and California answers the question two different ways depending on the source. Surface water runs on a hybrid system: riparian rights attach to land bordering a watercourse and are not lost by non-use, while appropriative rights rank by priority of use and can be held far from any stream. Groundwater is governed by the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014, Water Code § 10720 and following, under which local agencies in medium- and high-priority basins adopt sustainability plans. In critically overdrafted basins that has already meant well registration, metering, and pumping allocations.

Can I sell land that is under a Williamson Act contract?

Yes. The contract runs with the land and your buyer takes title subject to it, which narrows who the buyer is likely to be rather than preventing a sale. If you want out, a notice of nonrenewal under Government Code § 51245 halts the automatic renewal and the contract expires nine years later — nineteen for a Farmland Security Zone contract. Cancellation is the faster and much costlier alternative, requiring findings by the county board and a fee based on the land's unrestricted market value.

My parcel is in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone. Does that stop a sale?

No, though it does change the price, and the designation may be newer than you realize. CAL FIRE rebuilt the local responsibility area maps in 2025, the first full revision since 2007, and roughly 1.2 million more acres now fall in the High or Very High categories. The zone brings defensible space obligations under Public Resources Code § 4291, stricter construction standards for anything built there, and insurance that is harder and more expensive to place. Those are quantifiable costs a buyer works into an offer.

Sources for the figures above

These are secondary references, accurate enough to orient you and not a substitute for the statute or your county. Tax procedure changes; nothing here is legal advice.

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