Assessor's Office vs. Board of Review Property Tax Appeals
As you may have figured out from the robo calls and flyers you have undoubtedly received from property tax representatives and attorneys recently, many townships in Cook County are currently open for appeal before the Cook County Board of Review. But wait, you ask, wasn't there some other appeal thing a few months ago when I received a whole bunch of flyers and materials? Is there more than one appeal a taxpayer may bring? If so, what is the difference? The Board of Review is a separate, quasi-judicial agency independent of the Assessor. The Cook County Assessor initially sets the valuation for tax purposes on all of the more than 1.8 million parcels of real estate located in Cook County. In 2018, every township in the City of Chicago will be reassessed. This means that the Assessor's Office will update the value of every home and commercial and industrial property in Chicago -- as is done every 3 years for every township. Because it would be impossible to do this all at one time, reassessment notices are mailed out by township throughout the year. Once the reasessment notice is mailed out, that township opens for an Assessor's Office appeal. Typically, a taxpayer has 30 days or so to file an appeal. The Assessor's Office reviews the appeals and renders a decision as to the Assessed Value (AV) of the property. For a home, the AV represents 10% of the Fair Market Value of the home. So, if your AV is 10,000, this means that the Assessor believes your Fair Market Value to be $100,000.
When each township's reassessment is completed, the Board of Review opens to allow property owners to appeal the assessment set by the Assessor. A taxpayer has the opportunity to appeal at both the Assessor's Office level as well as the Board of Review if he/she believes the property was overvalued by the Assessor. The Board of Review appeal period is also only about 30 days. The Board decision sets the final county valuation on the property for that tax year.
As the last of the townships open for Assessor's Office appeals for the year, the Board of Review is in full swing. If you need help figuring out whether you have a good basis for appeal with either the Assessor's Office or Board of Review, please send an email to me at Lauren@easytaxappeals.com. Let me know your complete property address, the PIN if you have it and whether you purchased your property in the last 3 years so that I may prepared a detailed analysis for you.