Step 1: Confirm When and How You Received Your Notice

Illinois does not have a set time to send out assessment notices. While they are usually sent out during reassessment, each township across the state runs on its own timetable. In Cook County, reassessment notices are sent out every three years, following the triennial reassessment cycle. In other parts of Illinois, notices may be published or mailed annually. Because tax rates and valuations can change every year, it is often good practice for taxpayers to check their assessor’s database to make sure they are on top of any changes. Notices are usually mailed in the late summer or early fall. The deadline for appeals is likewise tied to the township, typically 30 days after the assessment is mailed or published. In Cook County, appeals directly to the Cook County Assessor’s Office (CCAO) have a deadline of 30 business days after publication or mailing.

Step 2: Review Property Details for Errors

If you are looking to appeal, it is important to review your notice to see what has changed and what errors there might be. No matter what, your township assessor can make mistakes, and some can be extremely costly for you. When viewing your assessment, first make sure that the owner’s name is correct. Next, confirm that the classification of your property is right. This means if you own a home, make sure it is not listed as a business, for instance, as this mistake could raise taxes significantly. Ensure that your assessor also has the correct size and improvements listed.

Step 3: Verify Exemptions

While they do not appear on your assessment, you should take time to ensure that your exemptions are squared away. These are incredibly important, as they have a huge impact on your taxable value, which influences your overall tax burden. These can be found online with your assessor or on your tax bill. If any are missing, you will need to file the exemptions promptly, or file a certificate of error to have an exemption applied if the deadline has already passed. In Cook County, exemptions are typically only applied on the second installment of property tax bills.

Step 4: Understand Your Market and Assessed Value

Once basic data has been confirmed, the next thing to look at is the market and assessed value for your property. Market value is what your home or business would be worth on the open market. This is determined by the assessor studying property sales trends for the past three years. This assessment is often placed on a property sight unseen, using computer models to apply market value to a property based solely on location and statistics. Assessments often use old information about both property details and the real estate market itself, often leading to inflated market values. If your assessment shows a large increase compared to the previous assessment, then that is usually an indicator that an appeal should be filed.

Assessed value takes the market figure and distills it down to a sum that can be taxed. One-third of the market value is used as the basis for taxes in Illinois, with the exception of Cook County, which uses only 10% for residential properties and 25% for commercial real estate. After this, the number is reduced further by exemptions and other reductions, producing the final base value. This value will then be multiplied by the equalization factor applied by the township or county to arrive at the equalized assessed value (EAV). Once established, the EAV can then be multiplied by various tax rates to create a tax bill.

Step 5: Decide If You Have Grounds to Appeal

After reviewing your values, you will have to decide if you want to protest them or not. There are two ways to go about this. First, see if the market value seems reasonable. If it looks excessive when compared to the reality of your property, then that is a textbook reason to appeal. Your notice should have your previous market and assessed values. If there was a large spike in value between the two assessments, then that is another red flag that should prompt an appeal. Another reason to focus on these values is to find unequal assessment. Under Illinois law, properties with similar characteristics, classification, and location should be assessed at similar levels relative to comparable properties.

When determining whether to appeal based on value, there are three main justifications:

• A large increase from the year before
• Value is higher than the sale prices for comparable properties over the past three years
• Assessed value is higher than neighboring properties with similar characteristics, such as age or size

Step 6: Gather Evidence

If you plan to appeal, you’ll need to gather:

• Comparable sales
• Neighbor assessments and permanent index numbers (PIN)
• Property documentation

To prove excessive valuation or assessment, you will need to find the records of property sales in your area dating back three years. The goal of this is to show that your home or business is worth less than the assessor’s estimated value. By comparing your assessment to neighboring properties with similar characteristics, you can demonstrate that you are being assessed more than the surrounding real estate.

While protesting your property values in Illinois is a right, proving that you deserve a reduction can be a challenge. While errors in size or ownership are easy to prove, gathering evidence related to excessive values or unequal assessment is a different story. The records noted above can take extensive research and time to complete. This is why many taxpayers in Illinois decide to leave the gathering of evidence to professionals.

Step 7: File Your Appeal Before the Deadline

The deadlines for appeals are determined by your township, so there is no central date to keep in mind. In Cook County, your first option is to appeal your values with your township assessor, before making a more formal complaint with the Board of Review (BOR). Outside of Cook County, appeals are only officially made with the BOR, though you can contact your assessor to attempt to negotiate a reduction. In Cook County itself, there are two deadlines, one for appealing to the assessor directly, and another reserved for the BOR. These multiple deadlines give the people of Cook several chances to land a reduction. The deadline for appeals is usually listed on the assessment notice. If you are planning to appeal, be sure to do so before the deadline, as they are generally final, with limited exceptions.

Step 8: Professional Help from O’Connor

Due to the importance of evidence for Illinois property tax appeals, it is imperative to get it right. That is where we at O’Connor come in. For over 50 years, we have been helping clients across the nation challenge their assessments and get the best tax reductions possible. We are not only one of the top property tax firms in the nation, but also have a branch office in Aurora to support our Illinois clients. This gives us national resources and databases to use for evidence gathering, while also having local experts on the ground who know what information to prioritize. Once we have the evidence needed, we will coordinate an appeal for you with Kieta Law. Since only licensed attorneys can represent you, Kieta Law will take our evidence and present your case to the BOR and beyond.

When you join O’Connor, you are given a client success consultant who will guide you through the whole process and be your point of contact for the days to come. We can even send out our concierge service to your home or business to get a better understanding of your situation. We will analyze your assessment for errors and compare your values to sales and assessment records. You will not pay us for our evidence or analysis unless you and your attorney are able to lower your taxes. Currently, we support commercial clients in all of Illinois, while we support both residential and commercial clients in Cook, Lake, Will, DuPage, Grundy, Kendall, Kane, and McHenry counties.