Mailing in Your Property Tax Appeal? Make Sure to Use USPS…

The Illinois Appellate Court, Second District, issued an opinion on September 3, 2014 in the case of BLTREJV3 Chicago, LLC v. The Kane County Board of Review, 2014 IL App (2d) 140164.

In that opinion, the court held that property tax appeals sent to Kane County Board of Review are not timely when deposited with a third-party commercial carrier (such as FedEx) on due date for filing appeal of property tax assessment. Board had adopted and published rules of procedure that incorporated the Statute on Statutes, which has a “mailbox rule” providing that a document is deemed “filed” as of date of mailing via U.S. mail. Board rules state that “mailbox rule” does not apply to communications delivered by FedEx or other commercial or non-commercial delivery entity. Had Petitioners sent tax appeals via U.S. mail, the postmark would have served as date of filing, and Board would have considered appeals timely. The property owners in this case had 71 of their 72 property tax appeals rejected as untimely as a result of the opinion, because they were sent via FedEx instead of via the U.S. Postal Service.

For a copy of the complete opinion, check out www.illinoiscourts.gov