Tag Archives: property tax reduction

Why Have a Pro Review Your Property Tax Assessment

Why Have a Pro Appeal Your Property Taxes As always, Cook County property taxes are on the rise and the only way to combat that dreaded second installment tax bill is by lowering your property tax assessment.

In a perfect world, you’d have time to handle the stress of the job, family responsibilities and right on time drop off an expertly formulated argument for a reduction in total assessment without breaking a sweat.

The only problem: we don’t live in a perfect world and everyday demands come before we consider our property tax bills, until July first rolls around and it’s too late by then. Now you can get rid of the hassle and the frustration of this process by hiring a company to handle this annoying but necessary task.

Don’t Pay More than You Have To

Having a professional company review your property tax assessment annually is your best bet to ensure that you’re fairly assessed and aren’t paying more in property taxes than you have to.

When looking for a professional company to hire, consider:

How long they’ve been in business
Their success rate
Their reputation

Professionals with years of expertise will know the best strategy to use when appealing your property taxes and what exemptions you should be aware of for even more savings on the second installment.

No Risk

If you’re not sure whether there’s an argument to make for appealing your property tax assessment, it won’t cost you anything for most professionals to perform an analysis on your home or any additional properties you may own because they work on contingency.

All it takes is a few minutes to fill in some basic information and within 24 hours they will contact you with the results of our analysis. If there is an argument to be made, and you’re interested in using us, our property tax appeal service will appeal on your behalf on a contingency basis: no costs up front.

Avoid Wasting Time

Kensington is in the business of successfully appealing property tax assessments with special expertise in Cook County. We handle the paperwork and manage the deadlines so you don’t have to. No one wants to spend their precious free time tracking appeal deadline dates, finding comparable properties or “comps,” or waiting around in county offices.

Because property tax assessments and policies change annually, let a professional at least review your total assessment every year. Click on the link at the bottom for a free analysis from a company who is in the business of making sure you’re not paying more in property taxes than you have to and who wants to keep your free time free for what is really important to you.

Contact us to for a complimentary property tax assessment

Appealing Your Property Taxes at the Cook County Board of Review

Cook County Property Tax Appeal Did you miss your window to appeal your property taxes with the Cook County Assessor, or did you file an appeal with them only to have it denied?

You only have a month to appeal and the Cook County Assessor’s Office only sends out one assessment notice to a homeowner when the window to appeal opens for your township.

Don’t Panic

If so, remain calm: you can appeal when the Cook County Board of Review opens their window for your township in the second half of this year. Their purpose: “Ensuring Fair and Timely Review of Property Assessment Appeals throughout Cook County.” As it states in their mission statement, “The Board of Review serves to be an impartial judge of property assessments; a separate office to provide a check and balance to the Assessor’s Office which is responsible for initially determining your total assessment.”

The Board of Review has the authority to reduce your property tax assessment and our clients were successful 77% of the time last year with appeals through their office. Board of Review property results come 3-6 months after their appeal window closes. Have no fear: even if you receive results in the new year your new revised assessment will be applied to your second installment tax bill!

Why Appeal Twice, Each Year

Even if you did appeal your property taxes with the Cook County Assessor, an additional reduction is still possible by also appealing with the Board of Review. Our clients’ more than 10,000 successful appeals include many instances of achieving property tax reductions at both the County Assessor and the Board of Review.

And, because so much changes from year to year, we recommend that you appeal every year with both the Cook County Assessor and Board of Review, especially in the first year of each township’s triennial reassessment.

What Are You Waiting For?

Since there are no costs and absolutely no risk, all Cook County homeowners should consider appealing their property taxes at these offices. Consider also using a service like ours: no upfront costs, no risks and we track all the deadlines at both offices so you don’t have to.

Contact us for a free estimate on what your property tax appeal reduction could look like if appealed with the Cook County Board of Review

Why You Pay Higher Property Taxes If You Don’t Appeal

Why You Pay Higher Cook County Property Taxes If You Don’t Appeal One of the most unpleasant and unspoken aspects of paying property taxes is that, if you don’t appeal for reductions, you may be paying more in property taxes than you should – perhaps even $1,000 or more. Why?

Again, It Starts with Government Spending

As we covered in our How Are Property Taxes Calculated in Illinois? blog post, the first step in determining your property taxes is the property tax levy. How much revenue is required to support your local government spending on schools, fire departments, police departments, libraries, etc.?

It Ends in a Zero Sum Game

Once the total valuations for each taxing district are certified it is the County Clerk’s job to “back into” the tax rates needed to meet the levies for each taxing district. If your property is not assessed fairly you will pay more than you should when your district’s tax rate is set and multiplied against your assessed valuation. Property tax rates are set once a year.

As many property owners seek a fair assessment through the appeals process, those property owners not appealing an unfair assessment are going to pay more than their fair share of the overall tax burden. This can easily amount to thousands of dollars.

We believe every property owner can best protect their interests in such a system by consistently evaluating their assessed value and appealing when unfairly assessed to ensure they are paying no more than their fair share.

Why You Should Evaluate Your Assessment Annually

Every property in Cook County is reassessed every three years. If you appeal in the first year of a reassessment, the new assessed value of your home should hold until it’s reassessed again three years later. Thus, a property tax appeal in year one can offer three years of reduced property taxes.

This does not mean you should only appeal once every three years. Many property owners appeal in non-reassessment years for a variety of reasons, such as an unfair assessment, property description error, recent purchase price below market value, etc. Since property taxes are a zero sum game you should review your assessment against similar properties annually to ensure a fair assessment and that you pay no more than your fair share every year.

Contact us for a free fair assessment estimate today