Property Taxes Too High?

The following message is from Bob Anderson, who is making a lot of noise all over McHenry County on your behalf! Read this carefully. Take action to get your assessed valuation, and your property taxes, lowered. Let Bob know how you are doing - how much did you save as a result of squawking? And you might consider kicking in some money toward his efforts.

Also, be sure to read the excellent article in the September 24, 2008, The Woodstock Independent, Page 3.


ARE YOUR REAL ESTATE TAXES TOO HIGH ? $$$$
PROPERTY ASSESSMENTS HAVE A DIRECT IMPACT ON PROPERTY TAX BILLS!!!

WITH THE SOFT HOUSING MARKET YOU MAY BE ******OVER - ASSESSED******

SEE THE INFORMATION GUIDE, ON THE REVERSE SIDE (second sheet) OF THIS NOTICE, FOR PROTESTING PROPERTY ASSESSMENTS.

HOMES +++ VACANT +++ BUSINESS

AS A TAXPAYER IT IS YOUR RIGHT TO APPEAL YOUR PROPERTY ASSESSMENTS. SO READ ON!!


(second page)


THIS GUIDE IS MADE AVAILABLE TO YOU BY “Citizens for Fair Assessments”.

· APPEAL YEAR: You will be appealing assessments for the year 2008. You may not appeal prior tax years.
· COMPLAINT FORMS: Forms are available from McHenry County Board of Review Administration Building Suite 106 McHenry County Government Center, 667 Ware Road, Woodstock. You can pick them up, hour’s 8:00AM to 4:30PM or call 815-334-4276 or 815-334-4282 to have forms mailed to you. Forms are also available from the County web site www.co.mchenry.il.us. Go to departments, then assessments, then forms. You will need forms for each property protested.
· SUBMISSION OF EVIDENCE: You must have evidence to support complaints. An opinion of fair cash market value must be submitted at the time of complaint filing. You will need four (4) copies of evidence documents.
· EVIDENCE EXAMPLES:
1. Recent bank or other appraisal.
2. Market value analysis by a real estate agent.
3. Comparable neighborhood properties (three are needed).
· INTERNET USE FOR COMPARABLE ASSESSMENTS: The Treasurer’s Office has a web site www.mchenrytreasurer.org. It can be used by you to look up any Real Estate Tax, which is public record. There are three ways to do this, by someone’s name, address, or PIN number. County Treasurer Bill Lefew is willing to help. Just call him at: 815-334-4260.
· HEARINGS/MEETING: Hearings will be held at McHenry County Board of Review Administration Building Suite 106 McHenry County Government Center, 667 Ware Road, Woodstock. You will be notified. Hearings last about 15 minutes.
· FILING DEADLINE: Fully completed complaint forms must be filed with the clerk of Appeal Board 30 days after publication in the newspaper or mailing of assessment cards.
· WHERE TO FILE COMPLAINT FORMS: Forms are filed at the McHenry County Administrative building with the Office of Assessments either in person or by mail. If you need further information, call the Office of Assessments at 815-334-4290.
· ATTORNEY REPRESENTATION: You can hire an attorney to represent you. In most cases, this is not necessary.
· HELP US OUT: Please pass this information on to your neighbors and others!!!
· MAILING LIST: We are gathering a postal and E-Mail list.
Please E-Mail to Ed2mar68@yahoo.com

IT IS YOUR RIGHT TO APPPEAL YOUR PROPERTY ASSESSMENTS

JUST DO IT !!

PROVIDED BY CITIZENS FOR FAIR ASSESSMENT

Woodstock Property Taxes

A letter to the editor in this morning's Northwest Herald calls attention to the outrageous level of property taxes in McHenry County and Woodstock. When you receive your tax bill, look at it carefully. Analyze it.

The author of the letter stated that his wife and he moved from Arlington Heights and downsized to a smaller three-bedroom home. He wrote that last year's property taxes were $5,099. Now, right away, that's enough to scare a lot of people away, but that amount was $2,000 less than they had been paying on their large home in Lake County.

But this year's taxes? Their property taxes increased from $5,099 to $7,259, which is an increase of 42.3%! How could property taxes go up 42% in one year?

When you receive your assessment and tax bill, set up a spreadsheet. List the many different entities that get a cut of your taxes. Dig out last year's tax bill and the one for the year before that. Then create a "picture" of your taxes, comparing the numbers side-by-side.

If your blood pressure hasn't gone through the roof by that time, then calculate the percentage of increase from one year to the next. While the dollar amount of the increase is significant, the real story will be in the percent by which your taxes increased.

Make a telephone call to the Township (Dorr Township is 815.338.0125) in which you live and ask what the procedure is to challenge your assessment and the corresponding property taxes.

The combination of a recession and last year's August flooding have resulted in a decline in property values. Listen carefully to the words of the assessors. Are they telling you that your property value hasn't gone down?

When there is a housing glut and people cannot sell their homes without reducing the price several times and forfeiting equity that had built up, then they might decide not to sell. So that "non-sale" does not show up in calculations to determine lower valuations. But what is the Fair Market Value of the house? FMV is the price at which a willing buyer meets a willing seller. That's what Fair Market Value is. If you can't sell your home at $300,000 or $280,000 or $240,000 because there is no willing buyer, then the FMV is lower.

If you believe your property is assessed too high, then get in line and fight it. Do your homework. Just walking in and asking for a lower assessed valuation won't work. You are going to have to "sell" the Assessor. So do your homework. Get your "sales talk" ready. But don't delay on making the phone call, because you have limited amount of time to challenge the assessment.

If you live in Dorr Township, go to http://www.dorrtownship.com/Assessor/infoappeal.html and read the brief information carefully. There you'll read that a formal appeal must be made to the (McHenry) County Board of Review.

For information on County assessments, you can start with http://co.mchenry.il.us/common/CountyDpt/Assess/

Most importantly, get your pad and pencil and telephone 815.334.4290 Find out when the short time period (only 30 days for the entire county?) is within which you can appeal your property assessment. Put the date on your calendar. Learn what your rights are.

Some wise person said, "If you don't know your rights, you don't have any." Well, you have them, so learn them.

© 2008 GUS PHILPOTT