LYONS TOWNSHIP, Ill. (WLS) — It is money homeowners are owed but never received.
The I-Team investigated complaints about delayed property tax refunds and disputes in one Cook County township.
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These documents, known as certificates of error, aim to assist property owners in rectifying assessment mistakes and claiming refunds when they’ve been overbilled. Nevertheless, the I-Team uncovered numerous instances where homeowners reported that bureaucratic hurdles or disagreements delayed their refunds.
In Lyons Township, eleven homeowners displayed signs showing the sums of money they claim Cook County owes them, amounts ranging from approximately $2,700 to $29,000.
These homeowners assert they are due these funds due to inaccuracies in their assessments by the Cook County Assessor’s Office, mistakes that they claim led to excessive property tax charges.
The group seeks answers from Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi. Together, they convened with ABC7’s Jason Knowles at the Lyons Township Assessor’s Office. Township assessors assist residents in demonstrating these errors to the county.
Though the Cook County Assessor’s Office has resolved issues for taxes in current and upcoming years, these homeowners report they are still awaiting answers or the validation of “certificates of error” for past years. Janet Edmonds, for example, claims she is owed $23,193.62 but faced initial rejection.
“I ended up overpaying taxes to Cook County for a property that was merely land, uninhabited, with no actual home on it,” Edmonds expressed.
Edmonds says she overpaid three years of property taxes because she was getting billed as if there was livable home on the property, but she had purchased a home that was destroyed by a fire.
“I since then knocked that home down a few years later and built a new home on that property. But I was being charged all that time as if I was living there in the home, which was not livable,” Edmonds said.
The Cook County Assessor’s Office said her original appeal included pictures and articles about the fire but not an affidavit or fire report. The county says a recent second appeal with more details was approved. Edmonds will be granted the certificates of error for two of the three years. She missed the appeal window for 2019.
Chanda Davidson, who says she is owed a little over $11,000 is waiting on a previous certificate of error to be certified on a square footage error.
“It’s a lot. We could definitely use it,” Davidson said. “So, it was about 700 square footage over what our actual property was, which makes a big difference over time.”
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Omero Morales says his taxes also doubled when the assessor was counting his remodeled garage as living space. He says he is waiting for certificates of error to be certified, to get a refund of more than $4,600.
“My house doubled in size because they thought the garage was actually part of the house,” Morales said. “I could use it for my kids’ education. I could use it for myself.”
The ABC7 I-Team supplied the Cook County Assessor’s Office with details on all 11 cases. The chief communications officer, Angelina Romero, responded to the I-Team’s questions.
“We’re working to get these processed and approved,” Romero said.
The Cook County Assessor’s Office says the certificate of error process involves multiple steps within their office and between different offices in the property tax system, like the Cook County Board of Review, the Cook County Treasurer’s Office, and the Cook County Clerk’s Office. The process could also include in-person field inspections for many cases.
“Yeah, definitely. It’s frustrating. I myself, as a homeowner, I definitely empathize with these homeowners and understand these are people’s livelihoods. These are their houses,” Romero said.
But some delays may continue due to a countywide technology upgrade.
“But you want to pay what what’s right. I shouldn’t have to fight for years to get a reimbursement,” Edmonds said.
Now, the processing of certificates of error is on hold. That means people in this situation will not be issued refunds until the upgrade is complete.
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