These residents say they are facing unprecedented increases to their Cook County property tax assessments, which could mean higher property tax bills in 2024.
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Dozens of south suburban residents are furious and say they may lose their homes. They reached out to the I-Team for help.
"The system is broken. Something needs to happen," said Lisa Markiewicz
There have been huge assessment hikes on properties in Tinley Park and surrounding townships. Some said their assessments doubled or tripled.
Markiewicz is facing a jump of 210%.
"I was hysterical," she said. "Are we going to lose our house? What do we do? How do we stop this? We worked hard to get here."
"I'm leaving, I'm gone and going to Indiana," said Louise Markasovic, whose assessment went up 41%.
Chuck Burkes' went up 225%.
"I thought there was a mistake, they must have been blind when they assessed my house," he said.
Delores Morris doesn't think she can stay in her home after her assessment went up 45%.
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Roy Barseth's assessment increased 216%.
"Where am I going to move? I've been in this home 28 years, what am I going to do?" he wondered.
This area of Tinley Park and other suburbs are part of Unincorporated Rich Township, which is being reassessed by the Cook County Assessor's office.
The ABC7 I-Team sent homeowners' information to Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi. His spokesperson responded regarding some of the homes, saying, "The recent values sent out reflect the current market value of their home... Assessments are based on current market value, what they could sell their home for in today's market."
But after the I-Team's inquiries, the Assessor's Office said homes in the area would be reassessed, and that the homes owned by Markiewicz, Burke and Barseth were over-assessed.
"After reviewing these properties, the Assessor's Office determined that the land rate was too high for these homes and should be reduced. The office will adjust the values of these properties and others in a two-block area," the spokesman said.
"There's no justification for Fritz Kaegi having increased assessed values to those degrees," said Larry Rogers, Jr.
Rogers sits on the Cook County Board of Review, which reviews appeals about high assessments. He said the board is seeing several potential over-assessments by the Cook County Assessors' Office., and showed four examples of assessment increases of 100% to 200%.
According to Kaegi's office, "The homes brought to our attention are all in line with the market." The spokesperson said the assessment percentage increase doesn't reflect the exact percentage increase of the final property tax bill.
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"I think it's a massive problem," Rogers said. "In all of these years that I worked here at the board of review as a commissioner, I've never seen increases of the type we've seen under Fritz Kaegi's administration and they are damaging and destroying the foundation of our neighborhoods."
Markiewicz said she still has concerns and wonders how much of a reduction she will really see on her assessment.
The assessor's office added that homeowners can appeal. In fact, one homeowner in this story won an appeal on the land value, reducing the overall assessment.
If you're in this situation, the Board of Review said you should appeal to assessor and to the Board of Review.
If those options don't work you can file an appeal with the state.
Assessor appeal
https://www.cookcountyassessor.com/appeals
County Board
https://www.cookcountyboardofreview.com/.