Frequently Asked Questions
Please find answers to the most commonly asked questions. Note that some of the information provided below comes directly from the Cook County Assessor’s website.
Why should I appeal?
The reality is that less than 20% of homeowners appeal their property taxes. They may feel that their bill shows an appropriate (or even lower) fair market value for their home’s worth. “Maybe we’re already getting a great deal!”
Others feel that the information on their bill is incorrectly stated, and appealing will trigger someone to come out and take a look. For example, you have a finished basement but the tax bill indicates unfinished. Unfortunately this logic does not hold true. Basements do not affect your property tax bill in most counties as they are not included in your square footage. Whether finished or unfinished, it doesn’t matter.
The Cook County’s Assessor’s Office is responsible for valuing the more than 1.8 million parcels in Cook County. Each township is automatically reassessed once every three years. In between this time, your property taxes will likely go up as they always do!
When you appeal, you’re asking the county to reassess based on some type of argument as to why yours are too high. The most common is to use a group of comparable properties as a benchmark. If these all have lower assessments, then yours should be lower too!
The county considers this appeal, and they may or may not agree and lower your assessed value. If they agree, great! If they don’t, you can appeal to the Board of Review. RTA handles both as applicable.
It is highly recommended by us (and by the Assessor’s office) that you appeal every year, whether you were reassessed automatically or not, as they truly do want to get the assessed values right. Remember, the Assessor’s office’s job is to get assessed values of every property fairly assigned. They do not assign the property tax multiplier, nor do they collect the taxes. Those are done by other offices. Their purpose is to make the assessed value for each property in Cook County fair and accurate.
Assessed values have gotten out of whack over many years, and some residents are paying far more property taxes than they should, while others may be paying far less. By appealing each year, you’re asking the Cook County Assessor’s Office to take a look at your property’s assessed value and lower it based upon the information that our Appeal Service provides as support.
Your appeal can only result in a reduction in your assessed value, or no change. Appeals WILL NEVER result in any increase to your property’s assessed value.
Will I pay less in property taxes if I file an appeal?
An appeal is intended to correct the accuracy of your property’s assessment. An increase (or decrease) in your home’s assessment does not lead to the same increase (or decrease) in your property taxes. The Assessor does not set property tax levies, rates, or bills.
Your property’s share of the total assessed value of all properties within your community affects your share of your community’s property taxes.
This means your home’s value can increase, while its share of property taxes could increase, decrease, or stay the same due to the reassessment of your city, village, or town. If other properties’ assessments increase more than yours, this can shrink your home’s share of property taxes.
Your property tax bill depends not just on your property’s assessment, but also its exemptions, the total assessed value of your community, and the levies passed by local taxing bodies. Your property tax bills list the taxing districts funded by your property taxes.
Changes in your tax bill due to changes in assessments or local levies will be reflected in your second installment tax bill the year following your reassessment. For instance, reassessments received in 2023 will affect the property tax bill issued in the summer of 2024.
Do I need to hire someone (an attorney) to file an appeal?
You do not need to hire anyone to file an appeal for you. Filing an appeal is free and can be done online in as little as 20 minutes.
You may have received a notice in the mail from a property tax firm saying they can file an appeal on your behalf. These notices do not come from the Cook County Assessor and are often sent by firms which charge you a fee based on their estimates of how much they think they can save you in property taxes. These estimates may or not be accurate.
When should I sign up?
You can sign up whenever you want as we’ll watch the calendar for you and do our heavy lifting as soon as your township opens. That way you don’t have to worry about missing the deadlines!
Typically, you have 30 days to file an appeal after receiving your reassessment notice. The last date to file an appeal for that year is printed on your notice. If you miss your appeal period in your reassessment year, you may appeal the following year when your township is open for appeals.
How often is my property reassessed
Cook County is reassessed triennially, which means one-third of the county is reassessed each year. In 2020, the south suburbs will be automatically reassessed. The City of Chicago will be reassessed in 2021. The northern suburbs will be reassessed in 2022. Your property may also be reassessed if there are significant changes due to a permit application, property division, demolition, or other special application.
What is a comparable property?
Homes that are comparable (similar) to each other should have similar market values, and therefore similar assessed values.
One way to evaluate whether your home has been assessed fairly, or uniformly, is to compare its assessment to the assessment of other comparable homes.
For two homes to be comparable to each other, they must be similar in location (township and neighborhood), property class code, age, building square footage, and land square footage.
Other characteristics, like the type of construction, also affect whether two homes are comparable.
Properties that are comparable should also have similar assessed values. One way to see if an assessment is fair or “uniform” is to compare the assessed value of your home to the assessed values of comparable homes. This is why it’s important that the characteristics for every home are up-to-date.
How long does the appeal process take?
Residential Tax Appeal leverages technology and expertise to do all the heavy lifting for you. Once you sign up, we get to work.
There are two opportunities that we offer to save you money. 1) The initial appeal is an online form and takes just a few minutes with the information and instructions we provide. 2) The second appeal you can complete is a Board of Review appeal, which is also done via an online form and takes just a few minutes with the information and instructions we provide.
All in all, you will spend on average under an hour of your time to potentially save hundreds or thousands of dollars! Not bad, huh?
If my appeal is not successful, will my assessed value increase?
If you file an appeal and are not successful, your assessed value will NOT go up. It stays the same for the three years between triennials unless you appeal the following year and win (which we hope you will). Keep in mind that with RTA, if your appeal is not successful, we will also complete the Board of Review appeal information and instructions. The Cook County Board of Review is an independently-elected, quasi-judicial body and by law can take into consideration factors the Assessor’s Office is not allowed to use.
When will I see my savings?
Your annual tax bill comes from the County Treasurer’s Office in two installments: one is due in February and the other is due in August.
Your reassessment will affect the second installment tax bill the following year. So if your reassessment notice arrives in 2020, the tax bill reflecting this assessment will arrive in July of 2021. Any appeals of your reassessment value will be reflected in the second installment tax bill the following year.
Cook County residents get reassessed every three years. If you file for a permit or buy a new home, it may occur sooner. Depending on where you are in the three year period, your savings can be realized for up to three years.
That means that if you are in a reassessment year and you appeal, your savings will benefit you each of the next three years! If you are due for reassessment next year, your appeal this year will save you for one year until the reassessment is done.
NOTE that you can and should appeal each year, regardless of whether or not it is a reassessment year. Saving last year does not mean you can’t save again this year.
Do you offer a refund if my assessment is not lowered?
We do our best to identify the comparable properties to be used in the filing of your appeal. With that said, appeals are not always successful for a variety of reasons. If your appeal is not successful, we encourage you to file a second appeal with the Board of Appeals. If that appeal is not successful, unfortunately your assessment will not be lowered for this year.
It is important that you file your appeal within the open window. We provide this information on our website, and it is also available on the Cook County Assessor site. Please watch for emails from us, as we provide you all the instructions and the list of comparable properties to use.
If your first appeal is not successful, or if you are not happy with the results, you should file a second appeal with the Board of Appeals within the open window.
Unfortunately we cannot refund the fee for our service as we don’t have any control over the ultimate decision from the Assessor’s office.
Still have a question?
If you have any other queries, feel free to reach out to us. Our knowledgeable team is here to help!