Property taxes doubled on small rental, then raised twice in one week?

[jeffpas]

I am a low income person who cashed in my 401K and bought a duplex on the "east side" of my city (in Illinois) which I renovated myself. In my city this is a lower middle class area, small houses and the neighborhood is not particularly desireable for renters or homeowners due to its negative perception.

The only reason I did this was I kept getting laid off jobs and needed some kind of financial security- as I did not have enough to retire on- so I thought I would try leasing. The taxes on this house were affordable at the time.

Then they doubled last year.
I couldn't believe it. I called the tax office and a woman there was absolutely awful.... she had me so upset I had to ask to speak to someone else. He told me all I could do is go in front of the Property Tax board, after filling out the forms and providing all the information required in 5 copies. This was extensive work..... anyway I took photos of four of my neighbors, two of which were paying less than 1/2 in taxes even though the houses appeared larger to me, the others considerably less.
When I went in front of the board in February, it was denied.

They then mailed me an assessment letter at the end of March this year, with "DENIED" all in caps, and showing the new tax rate for 2024 which most definitely had not been lowered. I felt like this was rubbing it in, the 'denied' part.

However just 6 days later, they sent another assessment, showing it had been raised again another $3,000.00! The 30 days to protest the first assessment hadn't even expired. This makes no sense at all.

What is more they mailed that second assessment to the tenant's address not mine, but with my name on it. I would never have even seen it except the tenant called and said, "Hey they sent this here by mistake" and I drove over and picked it up.
The second assessment said I had 30 days to respond or it was basically in concrete. It was dated March 28th. The tenant only notified me about it last night, just barely in time.

How can you get multiple tax assessments/hikes in the same year is my question? And then they only give you so many days to reply, but they don't even mail the notice to you so you know in time.
I've never seen anything like it.
It gives you the forms to appeal, but it seemed the same woman who was involved in the assessment, was on the appeals board and if you appeal, they just raise it more. I asked on a rental forum and only got one reply, "Backfired."
Backfired?

This seems completely crazy. There appears to be nothing you can do but wait to go bankrupt.

[Sunbiz1]

Call a free attorney:?
https://www.cvls.org/get-legal-help/...tain-our-help/

[tlw]

Property taxes will always be reassessed when a property is sold. Illinois has reduced property taxes for 65+. You can also get your property taxes frozen if you are within the income limit and 65+. I've seen houses for sale with property taxes listed for a couple $100 and even less. The present owner is elderly and lived in the house for decades so their property taxes have been frozen for a long time. Many times it will state as such in the real estate listing.

[PerseusVeil]

Originally Posted by Sunbiz1

Call a free attorney:?
https://www.cvls.org/get-legal-help/...tain-our-help/

Agreed about calling an attorney. The OP's "east side" comment makes me think this is somewhere in the Metro East suburbs of St. Louis though, so for legal aid they would need to call Land of Lincoln instead.
https://lincolnlegal.org/

[Kraftask]

This is the stuff of nightmares. I guess i should be thankful that i'm one of the few who's property taxes actually went down.

[Kmanshouse]

This is exactly why Madigan made so much money.

[Grlzrl]

You can appeal multiple times to higher levels. I appealed to the county, then Board of Review, then to the State and won. It's a lot of work, but sometimes you get a reasonable government employee (they are rare) who actually does the right thing.

[movin1]

Originally Posted by Grlzrl

You can appeal multiple times to higher levels. I appealed to the county, then Board of Review, then to the State and won. It's a lot of work, but sometimes you get a reasonable government employee (they are rare) who actually does the right thing.

I did the same thing and won at the State level. It's worth the effort to keep trying.