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TAX APPEAL |
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If you are like most of us, your property taxes have probably been increasing at an alarming rate. The taxes you pay on your house are calculated by multiplying the assessed value of your property by a tax rate. The tax rate is determined by the Assessor's office after your municipality (city or county) determines the total amount of money that it needs in that year's budget. You can't easily affect the rate without legislation as it is pretty much determined by various government agencies (parks, schools, etc.) run by the politicians whom you elect. You can make sure however that the assessed value of your house has been correctly estimated. In Illinois (outside of Cook county), the assessed value of your property is suppose to be 1/3 of its fair market value. There are thousands of properties whose fair market values have been incorrectly estimated by the Assessor's office. That means that you could be paying more than your fair share of property taxes. We can assist you by developing an appraisal for your property using current data so that you can have an estimate of market value prepared by someone other than your Assessor. This appraisal can help you considerably with a tax appeal. Additionally, sometimes the Assessor's property data card contains incorrect information on your property. Perhaps the gross living area of your house has been incorrectly calculated. Or maybe its shows that you have a deck or some other improvement that doesn't exist. We can obtain a copy of the property data card and check it for accuracy. The Assessor has an enormous job of trying to make sure everyone is fairly assessed. They actually do a pretty good job. But as you can imagine, they certainly can't take a close look at every property in their township. They rely on increasing your property's assessed value by applying an appreciation factor to it. When was the last time the Assessor actually inspected the interior of your property? Could easily have been 15-20 years in most cases. In fairness to the Assessor, we certainly have an advantage because you can hire us specifically to get a current "look" at your property. Take advantage of that factor. We certainly can't promise a decrease in your taxes or
even in your assessed value. Stay clear of any appraiser who will promise that to you
(it's illegal). But we can do our best to inspect your property and search for the most
relevant data that applies to your situation. The effect of a decrease in assessed valuation often
lasts for many years unless the Assessor chooses to review your file every year. A
reduction in property taxes usually pays for our fee many times over. |
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