The Chicago Tribune recently published an article chronicling widespread misclassification and undervaluation of properties by the Cook County Assessor.

In Cook County, vacant land is assessed at 10% of market value and does not reflect any building or improvement value. When a vacant lot is developed, the Cook County Assessor should receive permit information and, if the new development has a commercial use, change the assessment to reflect a new building at 25% of market value. Additionally, the Assessor’s Office has a team of field inspectors who are tasked with flagging newly constructed buildings throughout Cook County.

The Chicago Tribune conducted a partial audit and uncovered 620 properties totaling at least $444 million in untaxed market value that were misclassified as vacant lots rather than new construction. The audit was not exhaustive, and the estimated number of properties uncovered by the investigation is likely conservative.

Misclassification of new construction can hurt taxpayers in multiple ways. First, taxpayers who are accurately assessed must bear a larger percentage of the overall tax burden if a significant amount of market value is underassessed or misclassified. Second, when the Cook County Assessor discovers a property has been misclassified, Illinois law allows for the Assessor to back-tax property owners for the missed or omitted assessments for up to three years, even if the property owner did nothing wrong.

If you are a property owner in Illinois, it is crucial to monitor and regularly appeal your property to keep taxes as low as possible. SFBBG’s property tax team uses industry-leading software to monitor the valuations of all the properties we represent, and we have extensive experience in securing property tax reductions throughout the State of Illinois.

For more information, contact Jason Newton at [email protected] or George Banakis at [email protected], or at 312-648-2300.