Question: 
Outside of Cook County, how long does the appeal process take?
​
Answer: 
There are several places where a taxpayer outside of Cook County can appeal its taxes.  Each has its own rules and timing.  Here is a summary of the process and how long it can take.            
 
Each year, your local Assessor will adjust the assessment of all properties in your township and will send each owner a notice of re-assessment.
 
Assessment notices are mailed sometime between July and November of each year.  Then, your County Board of Review will open your township for 30-days allowing taxpayers to file appeals.           
 
The Board will conduct hearings, consider the evidence submitted to them and decide all appeals.  They typically render their decisions in February of each year.            
 
Taxpayers then have one final appeal opportunity.  They can file an appeal to either the Property Tax Appeal Board or the Circuit Court of the County.           
 
Appeals to PTAB must be filed within 30-days of the Board’s final decisions for the township.              
 
Appeals to the Court must be filed within 75-days after the second installment tax bill is due.
 
Appeals to PTAB can take 1 to 3 years to resolve.  Some cases are settled, and, as a result, are resolved fairly quickly — in 12 to 18 months.  Others proceed to trial and take more time.      
 
Court cases can take a year or two to resolve.  Highly contested cases could take longer.        

Question: 
In Cook County, how does the assessment process work?

Answer: 
In Illinois, real estate is taxed on is its market value.  The higher the market value, the higher the tax.  And, the lower the market value, the lower the tax.
 
The process begins with the Assessor valuing property for tax purposes.  That value is called the assessment. 
 
Taxpayers have the right to contest their assessment by filing a tax appeal.  If a taxpayer wins his appeal, the tax bill he receives in the future will be smaller then the bill he would have received had no appeal been filed. If the tax bill was already paid, the taxpayer will receive a tax refund.
 
In Cook County, property is reassessed at least once every third year.  This is called triennial re-assessment.  Chicago is assessed one year, the north suburbs the following year, and the south suburbs the next year.  The process then repeats itself.
 
In most cases, an assessment reduction will remain for all three years of the assessment period.  But, if the property experienced an unusual event, like high vacancy or abnormally low rental income, a reduction will be awarded for one year only.
 
In a re-assessment year, the Assessor will mail a notice to the taxpayer indicating what he proposes the new assessment to be.  The taxpayer will then have thirty days to contest that assessment by filing an appeal with the Assessor.
 
In a non-reassessment year, the taxpayer will only receive an assessment notice if the Assessor proposes to increase the assessment.  However, the taxpayer may contest their assessment every year, even if the Assessor does not increase it.
 
The Assessor usually renders decisions on appeals filed to him within about 60 to 90 days after the appeal has been filed.
 
After the Assessor renders his decision, the taxpayer will have a second opportunity to appeal, this time to the Board of Review of Cook County.  The Board generally takes about 90 to 120 days to conduct hearings and render decisions on appeals filed to the Board.
 
After the Board of Review renders its decision, the taxpayer will have a final opportunity to file an appeal to either (1) the Property Tax Appeal Board (PTAB), or (2) the Circuit Court of Cook County.  Successful appeals to the Assessor or Board of Review will cause the next 2nd installment tax bill (before exemptions) to be smaller than it would have been had no appeal been filed. 
 
Appeals to the PTAB or Court are always resolved after the tax bill is issued.  As a result, if you win those appeals, you will receive a tax refund.

Question:
In Cook County, how long does the tax appeal process take?

Answer: 
There are several places where a Cook County taxpayer can appeal its taxes to.  Each has its own rules and timing.  Here is a summary of the process and how long it can take.     
 
There are 38 townships in Cook County.  The Assessor opens each for 30-days each year allowing taxpayers to file appeals.  The first townships open in late January and the last by early October.  The Assessor typically opens 4 to 5 townships each month.  
 
The Assessor decides all appeals in a township about 6 to 8 weeks after the filing deadline.    
 
Then, the Board will open the township for 30-days allowing taxpayers a second opportunity to file appeals.  The Board does not usually open until August 1st of each year, so the first filing deadlines occur around that time.  Then, later in the appeal season, the Board tends to open a township for filing about 30-days after the Assessor renders his decision.    
 
The Board usually takes 2 to 3 months to complete hearings and render decisions for all appeals in a township.               
 
Taxpayers then have one final appeal opportunity.  They can file an appeal to either the Property Tax Appeal Board or the Circuit Court of Cook County.       
 
Appeals to PTAB must be filed within 30-days of the Board of Review’s final decisions for the township.         
 
Appeals to Court must be filed within 5-1/2 months after the second installment tax bill is due.           
 
Appeals to PTAB often take 1 to 3 years to resolve.  Some cases, however,  get settled and, as a result, are resolved fairly quickly —  in 12 to 18 months.  Others proceed to trial and take more time to resolve.
 
Court cases are usually resolved 18 to 24 months after they’ve been filed.  Highly contested cases could take longer

Question:
Why do PTAB appeals take so long and what does Elliott & Associates do to speed up the process?
​
Answer: 
PTAB cases can take a year or two or more to resolve.   Here are some of the things that cause those delays and what we can do to speed up the process.            
 
The Property Tax Appeal Board has a defined process for handling cases.  In a best-case scenario, PTAB cases can be resolved in under 12 months.            
 
Unfortunately, several years ago, PTAB experienced devastating budget cuts that forced them to reduce staff.  As a result, fewer cases got resolved each year and the backlog of PTAB cases grew dramatically.             
 
PTAB’s budget has been restored and it has hired additional staff.  And, PTAB has been encouraging taxpayers and assessing officials to settle cases.  This has caused the PTAB backlog to start shrinking.   
 
PTAB cases for Cook County properties are processed separately from the rest of the State.  And, since more cases are filed for Cook than elsewhere, the Cook County backlog is greater. 
 
Here are some of the things Elliott & Associates does to streamline the process.           

• For Cook County properties, we generally appeal to Court rather than PTAB unless there is an overwhelming reason why the case would be more winnable at PTAB.  This is because Cook County Court cases are usually resolved faster than Cook County PTAB cases.            
• Whenever possible, we submit all evidence with our PTAB appeals rather than requesting a continuance and submitting evidence at a later date.  This can shave about 6-months off the process.          
• We file appeals to the Board of Review in subsequent years.  In most Counties, this will create an opportunity to discuss settling pending cases.
• We pressure the County and interveners to settle pending PTAB cases.             
• We waive trial, when appropriate, and ask PTAB to decide the case on the evidence – because it can take a long time to get a trial date.  Cases, where trial is waived, get resolved sooner. 

There are often good reasons why it makes sense to file an appeal to PTAB rather than Court.  And, while PTAB cases may take longer to resolve, you may be rewarded for the wait.  But, it is important that your attorney knows how to work the PTAB system to streamline and shorten it as much as possible.

Question:
Why did I get a one-year assessment reduction?

​Answer: 
Assessment reductions are generally awarded for multiple years.  But, occasionally they may be awarded for one-year only.  And, that is not necessarily a bad thing.  Here’s how one-year reductions work and why they may actually be a good thing.
 
Property in Cook County is assessed triennially, meaning once every 3rd year.  Once an assessment is reduced, that reduction will typically remain in place for all 3-years of the assessment cycle.   
 
Outside of Cook County, property is assessed quadrennially, or every 4th year and any reduction should benefit the taxpayer for the remainder of the assessment cycle, and maybe longer.  That’s because the Assessor adjusts assessments each year by a percentage called a factor.  Factors reflect changes in real estate values in the local community.  So, when an assessment reduction is awarded one year, it carries forward to all future years of the same assessment cycle because the factor is applied to the reduced assessment rather than the originally proposed/higher one. 
 
In Cook County, the Assessor and Board of Review sometimes mark their reductions as one year only.  In those cases, the assessment the following year will be increased to the original level (before the reduction) and the taxpayer will need to appeal again.       
 
The Cook County assessing officials tend to issue one-year reductions when property has

• high vacancy,
• unusually low rental income,
• unusually high expenses, or
• the building was constructed or demolished during the tax year.          

One-year assessment reductions can be substantial and the assessment will often be reduced well below the level of the prior year.            
 
The assessing officials tend to award one-year reductions to help taxpayers who are suffering financially.  But, they require the taxpayer to appeal again the following year to prove the hardship continues to exist.              

Multi-year reductions, on the other hand, tend to be less dramatic.   Usually, an assessment increase is reduced or eliminated and the reduction will carry forward to the rest of the assessment cycle.   
 
One-year assessment reductions often occur in Cook County.  And, are a good thing because the assessment is often reduced much more than it would have been had a multiple-year reduction been awarded.

Question: 
How do condominium association appeals work?

​Answer: 
The Condominium Property Act allows condo boards to appeal tax assessments “on behalf of all unit owners”.               
 
This requires a two-thirds vote of the board or a majority of the unit owners.  Most associations obtain authority from their boards.
 
The Act provides as follows:

Tax appeals can only be filed by a licensed attorney and not by the association, its officers or property managers.  The act of filing a tax appeal by a non-lawyer on behalf of a condominium association and/or its unit owners is considered the practice of law.
               
The attorney will file one appeal on behalf of all unit owners in the development.  These appeals are called collective appeals.         
 
The assessing officials prefer collective appeals for a few reasons:       

• Collective appeals are less work for the assessing officials.      
• The assessing officials generally prefer to negotiate with one knowledgeable attorney rather than numerous property owners or their attorneys.
• Collective appeals result in uniform assessment results.            

Legal fees and costs incurred in connection with collective appeals may be charged to the unit owners as “common expenses”.    
 
Some associations choose to pay appeal costs from the association’s budget.  
 
Others choose to bill the unit owner for their pro-rata share of these costs.    

Question:
Should our association pay tax appeal legal fees from our budget or bill the unit owners back?

Answer:
This is a business decision for your board.  We will tell you what the law says and give you some of the pros and cons of billing back or not.        
 
The Act provides that tax appeal costs are common expenses.  This means the Association is entitled to pay these costs from their budget as they would any other association expense.   
 
The Condominium Act provides as follow:

​Many associations, however, choose to bill their unit owners for their share of tax appeal costs.

These are some of the reasons why Association might choose to bill back or not.  We hope this helps you to make an informed decision.

Question:
Can unit owners opt-out of condominium association appeals? 

​Answer:
No, unit owners cannot opt-out of association appeals.  But, they can appeal on their own.  And, by doing so, they will effectively have opt-out of an association appeal.
 
The Condominium Property Act allows associations to contest tax assessments “on behalf of all unit owners”.  We call these appeals collective appeals.  The Condominium Property Act provides as follows:

The Act is mandatory.  It doesn’t allow Associations to pick and choose which unit owners to include in an appeal.  The Act requires associations to include all unit owners.  So, Associations cannot allow owners to “opt-out”.  But, every unit owner has the right to appeal its assessment by filing its own appeal.
 
If the Association files a collective appeal and an owner files its own appeal, most assessing officials will recognize the appeal filed by the unit owner and will remove that unit from the collective appeal.
 
Other assessors may, however, require the consent of the association’s attorney to remove a unit from a collective appeal.
 
Elliott & Associates will consent to the removal of a unit owner from a collective appeal.
 
Therefore, while associations cannot allow a unit owner to opt-out of a collective appeal, any unit can effectively do that by filing an appeal on his or her own.

Question:
What is the difference between the senior exemption and the senior freeze?

Answer:
The senior exemption and the senior freeze are deductions off of a senior citizen’s real estate tax bill.  Here’s how these exemptions work and some of the differences between them.    
 
Real estate taxes are based on the current assessed value of the home.  As the value of the home rises, the taxes also rise. 
 
Qualifying seniors receive deductions off their tax bills because they are senior citizens.  The senior citizen exemption reduces the tax bill by a sum certain each year.  The actual deduction is $5,000 times the local tax rate.  So, if the local tax rate is 6%, the senior citizen exemption will be $300.
 
The goal of senior freeze is to lock the taxable value of the senior’s home.

As the senior’s home value rises, its taxes will also rise.  But, senior freeze recipients receive a deduction off their tax bills for the freeze.  The senior freeze deduction is an amount large enough so the final tax bill (after the senior freeze exemption) is based on the frozen value and not the current — and higher — assessed value.   As a result of the senior freeze, qualifying seniors enjoy a much lower tax bill.