The Cook County Administration Building in the Loop. Photo: Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Property owners in and around Uptown will get two chances in November to learn how to challenge their assessments. Ald. Helen Shiller of the 46th Ward and the Cook County Board of Review are holding a pair of property tax relief seminars.
The first is at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 8, at Temple Shalom, 3480 N. Lake Shore Drive. The second is at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 9, at Truman College, 1145 W. Wilson Ave., in Room 1907.
What will be covered
Organizers say the sessions will cover every step of the appeals process. Board of Review staff are also expected to explain what has been done to lower assessments on residential, commercial and industrial property.
The timing matters. Assessments in the city’s North Side townships have climbed along with home values over the past several years. In Uptown, condo conversions and new construction have pushed prices sharply higher, and owners of older buildings and storefronts have seen bills rise as a result.
How appeals work
In Cook County, property owners can contest an assessment first with the assessor’s office and then with the Board of Review, a separate elected body that hears appeals each year by township. Appeals windows are short and open on a set schedule, so owners who miss them generally have to wait another year.
Successful appeals usually rest on evidence: recent sales of comparable properties, errors in the building’s description, or proof that a commercial property earns less than the assessment assumes. Seminars like these are meant to help owners gather that evidence without hiring a lawyer, though many commercial owners still do.
Both sessions are free and open to the public. A flyer with more details is available from the alderman’s office.
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