A north suburban woman is finally cashing in on thousands of dollars in property tax refunds, after months of promises from Cook County.
The development comes a year and a half after the I-Team uncovered that square footage errors were made by the Cook County Assessor's Office.
The I-Team helped one South Barrington woman prove that the county assessor's office miscalculated square footage in her home.
That report was in October of 2024, but since then, she's been waiting for thousands of dollars in property tax refunds.
First, there were delays due to red-tape, and it took another report from the I-Team to get her those certificates of error.
Then, just when Sherry Schnell though that she was going to get almost $10,000 in refund checks, there was another delay. The major holdups were due to upgrades to the county's computer system by the private company, Tyler Technologies.
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Tyler blamed delays on missing data from the county and the treasurer's office, but the treasurer blamed Tyler. Tyler says it is working with the county, and the treasurer is now using AI experts to get refunds out to people like Schnell.
"I'm excited. I am happy, I really am. Finally, it's a really happy time," Schnell said. "You know it's only fair, but I actually didn't think I would get it, actually... I think you were a great help with you and your team, and I appreciate it."
Overall, delays from the computer issues have held up property tax refunds since May of 2025. The treasurer says since she started getting checks out in the last several weeks, more than $80 million has been sent out. The remaining delayed refunds, $178 million, should be sent to property owners in the next three to four months.
Others also are getting interest for all the time that money sat waiting.
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