Deed Transfer and Re-Assessment in California

[Tim McGarvey]

A few years ago, I co-signed on a mortgage for a family member when they refinanced their property (income was not high enough to qualify on their own). During this process, I was placed on the property deed. Now, the property has appreciated significantly, and their income is now high enough to qualify on their own. They plan on re-financing again and removing me from the mortgage. The family member has also recently married so they planned on replacing me on the deed with the new spouse. However, we want to make sure this is also the correct overall strategy from a tax perspective and that the property will not be re-assessed during this process.

We plan on working with a local CPA / attorney on this strategy but want to get some general feedback on: Is there any risk of property tax re-assessment while going through this process? Doing the refi and the title transfer at the same time seems like most logical, is there any drawback to handling this way versus doing them individually? Any other factors that should be considered during this process? (Property is in Alameda County, California)