Illinois Property Tax Assessment Appeal

Ouch!!! So sorry to hear about your situation. I have heard from other people (I live in Illinois) that when people appeal their assessments, they are often punished with higher taxes - either sooner or later. It is best to lay low. Shortly after we bought our house, an assessor showed up at my house and told me that my existing back patio had not been built with a permit. They increased the assessment on my house to reflect the patio improvement. Grrrr.

Sounds to me like your real estate agent was just trying to make her sale.

When I rented in Cook County, the owner of the house had super low taxes due to some kind of homestead exemption for senior citizens. I am currently living in DuPage County, and our taxes seem super cheap compared to Will County and Kane County.

Property taxes might be higher here than in California, but the public schools are quite good. Take the good with the bad, I guess. Welcome to Illinois. Sorry about the polar vortex. I wish I could move back to Cali!

We filed an appeal for our most recent assessment, too, because the "property description" was incorrect. It stated a 20 by 20 foot deck, we have no deck, and 3 full baths, we have 2 1/2 baths. And a couple other things.

The response was, yeah, ok, we'll change those things on your "property description" but your property value remains the same.

Our town has reassessment every 5 years, unless the property has been sold in that time, then they go with the purchase price.

Shrug. Death and taxes.......

:(

Welcome to corrupt Illinois. It is pretty impossible to lower your property taxes here, did your realtor tell you that? I would never pay a company to try and get your property taxes lowered, there is no guarantee how long it can stay lowered & it's its not cheap. No new laws on property taxes, at least since I've been in real estate over 20 years; just the same high taxes as everything else is here.

I think Lake County is 2%. It's high, for sure.

There have been no changes in law. You got bit by the reassessment. It happens.

Taxes are ridiculous.

I've had friends try to convince me to appeal. I won't 'do it, for fear I'll owe more ;-)

You will need a lawyer.

We are in TX, so I can't answer to IL laws.

I do know if our taxes came in at $5000 we'd be thrilled!! Mine are around $12,000 and our daughters condo is around $4,000 a year each per year. We also refuse to go the route of escrow because I can budget and negotiate my own homeowners and pay my own taxes. At least I make what little interest there is to make instead of letting a bank use my money for free.

We did appeal in TX a few years ago and got a reduction of about $2,000 but it has already inched up again

Fwiw.... You don't have to hire anyone to appeal. You do it yourself and it's free. Companies around here prey on people to file appeals and it's a sham. Basically.... Would you pay someone to go to the store for you or just do it yourself???

Good luck with your situation!!!

That really stinks.

I can't speak to Illinois but in Florida (at least my county) the value re-sets on the sale of the property (sounds like what you were saying about California) - though I'm not sure what happens if the value goes DOWN. However we do have homestead exemption; unfortunately once the real estate market tanked there was a perverse effect where some long-time homestead properties saw their taxes inch up.

We, too, have people constantly suggesting to appeal. I tried it last year but withdrew my petition once I realized I had very little chance of success (after I saw the "evidence" the appraiser's office was using - which wasn't even from a COMPARABLE neighborhood). I hadn't heard of someone having their taxes *raised* after a hearing but I suppose anything is possible.

Our taxes are up to $12K per year - I have my house on the market as we speak. I'm sick and freaking tired of these property taxes. If I owned my house out right I would need $1K per month JUST FOR TAXES. It's nuts. I wanted to go to the hearing and tell anyone who cared THAT YOU ARE RUNNING GOOD PEOPLE OUT OF OUR COUNTY!

My husband and I concluded that local governments have simply decided they need a certain amount of revenue per year - and they're going to get it any way they can. What aggravates us if they keep raising their budgets when most families have had to tighten. And where did all the money from the boom real estate years go?

It sounds like your realtor was clueless and/or wanted to make that sale. Stinks.

I would consult a qualified Illinois attorney about any recourse you may have.

Ugh.

My understanding of property taxes is very different from what you are describing. First, property taxes in IL are not 3%. They are based significantly on location and school district. For some reason, our property taxes are significantly lower than many other school districts in our area. (We live just outside of Springfield.) No idea why, as our school district is highly regarded. When we moved here we looked at many, many houses in different school districts, and ours are much lower.

Is it possible that some of your comps were in another school district? Also, there are other boundaries that are relevant. We live outside our community in the county, so we pay different taxes for police and fire and we don't pay taxes to the library. This means we have to pay for a library card.

There are just many, many factors involved. It's not nearly as simply as 3%.

I don't know the specifics of your state's laws, but I am curious about when the last assessment of the property was made. You included a lot of information, but not that bit.

If it hasn't been assessed for almost 5 years, and was due to be reassessed anyway, your filing for reassessment may have been all they needed to simply apply it early. Saves them doing it twice in the same year, perhaps.
Or, maybe the rules are different since YOU requested the assessment.

I'm not sure how your county/state assesses property, but I'd have wanted to know that information prior to filing for reassessment. Particularly if you knew that you paid more than the comps. The housing market is slowly making some gains in some areas, and whatever the assessment tools are, it makes sense to me that whatever you JUST paid for the property would be it's value. A home that hasn't recently been sold/purchased must use comparables, b/c that is all there is to go on... what a comparable home would bring at sale. There's no need to guess on your house... you just settled that when you made the purchase.

I'm sorry your taxes jumped.
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It only took me one google search to find the rules:
(from http://tax.illinois.gov/publications/localgovernment/ptax...)

"Reassessments
By law, each property, other than farmland, must be viewed, inspected, and revalued once every four years (every three years in Cook County). Farmland is reassessed each year. Between these general assessments, assessors may revalue property if its value is incorrect.
..."

I'd place the emphasis of that excerpt on the second sentence, where it says they can revalue it, if it's incorrect. You brought it to their attention.

Property tax is basically a direct correlation to "market price"... which in your case would be the sales price you just paid. Assessed value is 1/3 the market value, plus some minor tack on by the state.. some sort of "equalizing" function that has something to do with farmland or something.

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I wonder if you would clarify something. You said, "I filed and presented properties that were comparable and paid less tax. " What do you mean by comparables? Did you pull up homes that recently sold (within the last 3 months, or 6 months or what?) that were of similar square footage, property size, amenities and location? Or just similar sales price? Or did you look for similar homes to yours that paid less tax only, without regard for the date of the last assessment or their sales price?
Trying to pin down your reference there is bothering me. I wonder if your comparables (if they were in fact recent sales) just haven't been reassessed recently. And perhaps those will be going up as well in short order...

I live in Cook County and our taxes are unbelievable. My mom's neighborhood is much higher though. Because there is a tub in the basement, we are assessed as having additional bathrooms. I tried to appeal and was knocked down. The comps are based on square footage and area. And if I submitted a similar property that was recently sold, they would consider that to be the comp value. The good thing about using the sale price is that if you paid less then other houses later sell, then you get a lower value. Lake County has high taxes. It does all depend on the area you live.

one of the things that people don't understand about tax assessments is that they are not based solely on the actual property themselves. while your taxes on the structure / land may be one thing you still have the same taxes as everyone else in respect to schools / government / fire / police etc. so your property may be worth a lot less than it was say 5 years ago you still get stuck paying for all the county etc taxes. at least that is how it was explained to us. we didn't do the appeal because we were told that yes the property was worth a lot less than 5 years ago but that they had built a bunch of new schools and done a lot of improvements in the area and we would have to share in the cost of all those things so while actual property might go down the cost of being in the city went up. so cheaper to just pay what we were at than to have them stick us with a bunch of higher stuff now. sort of like asking a daycare provider to give you a cheaper rate because the oldest child starts school full time but the thing is the single rate for daycare has increased so now you pay a higher rate for second kid and extra over that when kid number one is back for a day extra. they get you coming and going.

How do they assess in California? I assume like everyone it is based on comps, the comps are recently sold homes in the area. What would be the point of basing it on past assessed values.

It sounds like you got greedy and it bit you in the butt. The other homes got lucky in the last assessment period and you tried to use that to get a lower assessment.

You paid what you paid for your house, that is what it is worth. If you had paid less for your home than the assessment I could see you fighting it.

Your realtor thought you had the sense to know you should look at recent sales, not other assessments. Perhaps you should have used one of those companies she spoke of.

We have a property in Illinois, no way we are going to rock the boat even though it is over assessed.