Nine mistakes that sink property tax appeals
Most failed appeals fail for the same handful of reasons, and all of them are avoidable.
Nine ways a perfectly good case gets refused. Most of them are avoidable in the last hour before filing.
1. Missing the deadline
Thirty days from publication of your township's roll, staggered by township, and not extendable. This ends more appeals than any argument. Diary it the day the notice arrives.
2. Dividing the total assessment by floor area
A uniformity comparison runs on the improvement assessment against the building's floor area. Using the total — land plus building — penalises you for having a larger lot than your comparables and produces a figure that means nothing. This is the most common technical error in an otherwise sound filing.
3. Comparables that are not comparable
Different class, twice the floor area, forty years newer, or the other side of a neighbourhood boundary. Four tight comparables beat twenty loose ones — and one obviously unsuitable comparable gives the office a reason to doubt the whole set.
4. Arguing market value when you should argue uniformity
If the county's implied value is at or below what your property would realistically sell for, a market-value appeal is not your argument. Uniformity is available and does not require you to say what the property is worth.
5. Volunteering the evidence against yourself
Bought last year for more than the implied value, then filing on market-value grounds and attaching the closing statement. The Board of Review can raise an assessment, and a recent arm's-length sale is the strongest evidence in the process.
6. Not stating the value you want
"My assessment is too high" invites the office to decide how much relief you deserve, which is usually none. Name a number and show the arithmetic that produced it: the median of your comparables, times your floor area, plus your unchanged land value.
7. Arguing things nobody at that office controls
The tax rate, the levy, how the schools spend money, and what your neighbour is like as a person. The board decides one question: is this assessed value correct and even-handed. Everything else is noise that costs you credibility on the part that matters.
8. Using automated online estimates
They are not appraisals, their methodology is undisclosed, and no board treats them as evidence. Asking prices are equally worthless — only completed sales count.
9. Ignoring exemptions entirely
The largest miss of all, because it is not an appeal error — it is spending a weekend on the wrong problem. A Cook County homestead exemption removes $10,000 of equalised assessed value, worth around $750 a year, granted on an application. The median successful appeal is worth about $570. Check step one before you spend the evening on step two.
The five-minute check before you file
- Is the deadline right, for my township?
- Am I using the improvement assessment, not the total?
- Would a stranger agree my comparables are comparable?
- Have I stated a specific requested value with the arithmetic?
- Have I avoided handing over evidence that argues against me?
- Have I checked my exemptions?
Six questions. Most refused appeals fail at least one of them, and all six are answerable in the hour before you press submit.