Because not everyone appeals their property taxes, or does so effectively because they try doing it themselves or use an inexperienced third-party service, a home in Cook County may be over-assessed.

Additionally, not everyone claims all of the exemptions due to them – or they do claim exemptions that you don’t qualify for if you are to purchase the property, and they pay much less than you will have to as a result.

If you’re planning to purchase a new home in Cook County and want to know how much you’re on the hook for, or want to know a home’s appeal and exemption history for any other reason, this blog outlines the steps for how to do so.
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Cook County property assessments are flawed and homeowners who don’t appeal are bearing the worst of it.

Those are among the key conclusions of a recently released report by the Civic Consulting Alliance, a non-profit, non-partisan consulting firm.
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Kensington Research & Recovery has helped save clients thousands of dollars on over 24,000 property tax appeals for residential homeowners and commercial clients in Cook County, IL since 1999.

Below are recent examples of how we’ve helped save Cook County homeowners in Lake View and New Trier between $18,381 and $28,917 in property tax reductions.
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It’s probably your least favorite piece of mail that you will receive all year: your Cook County property tax bill. How do you read it, when can you appeal it, when are these reductions applied, and when are property tax exemptions applied?

Read on: all will be revealed in this blog post.

First Installment & Due Date

Unless you are a fully exempt veteran that is disabled 70% or more, the first installment of your Cook County property tax bill is automatically calculated to be 55% of the total that was due in the previous year. A law passed by the Illinois Legislature in 2009 raised the first installment tax from 50% to 55% of the prior year’s total tax. The first installment payment due date is always the first business day in March.
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As with many things, doing your homework is the key to success in appealing your property tax assessment, especially in Chicago and throughout Cook County.

Some homeowners receive mailings from lawyers and other services they never heard of. Others see billboards and other advertising from online services. Are they legit or is it a scam? Do they have the right experience or is it vaporware?

Here’s what you can do to determine whether to use a property tax appeal service and which one could be the right fit for you.
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The least favorite piece of mail Cook County homeowners receive hit their mailboxes last month: the dreaded property tax bill.

It requires payment by March 1 of a sum equal to 55% of last year’s taxes. And it’s only the first tax installment. The second, in July, will reflect last year’s big tax increases and those planned this year for Cook County and Chicago.

“Ironically, these tax bills serve as a reminder that you should always appeal your taxes, but by the time you receive the bill it is often too late to appeal for that year,” said Frank Dal Bello, CEO of Kensington Research and Recovery, the Chicago-based, Cook County property tax appeal and refund recovery consultants.

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