What if you were being assessed for the wrong home and being told it had more square footage than it actually does? One woman, and local Barrington Township officials, say the Cook County Assessor's Office made the square footage error costing the homeowner thousands of dollars in extra taxes.
Soon after moving into her new South Barrington gated community in 2017, Sherry Schnell realized that homes the same model and about the same size as hers had lower assessments and that even some larger homes have lower assessments.
"In talking to my neighbors, I found out I was paying more," she said.
Schnall thinks she's paid thousands of dollars in extra taxes through the years for square footage she doesn't have. She tried to have it corrected with the Cook County Assessor with no luck.
"We've overpaid all of these years. We're still overpaying. It not fair," said Schnell.
Schnell turned to Barrington Township Deputy Assessor Sue Johnston, who advocates for consumers.
"She's filed so many appeals, certificate of errors and Board of Review and we keep getting turned down. They just can't recognize that I have the wrong square footage," Schnell said.
Johnston agrees saying that the Cook County Assessor's records inaccurately state that Schnell has nearly 300 more square feet in her home and that Cook County assessed Schnell for the wrong style home, a model which is more expensive.
"I sent the county the drawing that I did for the house and let them know that they had the wrong parcel on her property, sent them the closing documents, sent them all of their documents, showing what model they had and when the county came back, they said, 'Yes, we agree that we finally have.' They finally agreed that they had the wrong house on her parcel," she said.
The Cook County Assessor eventually confirmed that their own information is wrong in an email to Schnell, saying "...our system now shows the correct SF (square footage)".
"I'd love for them to refund the money we overpaid for all of these years," Schnell said.
But then the Cook County Assessor's office said her assessment and bills won't change. In an email, the County Assessors' office stated, "Our Valuations Team has determined that the reduction in square footage is not great enough to result in a reduction in valuation."
The Barrington Township Assessor Johnston disagrees, saying when you add up the higher square footage and account for the fact Schnell's home was not one of the higher tiered models as assessed, that she overpaid between $600 and $1,000 a year since 2018. That could add up to around $5,000 or more, which Schnell says she is owned.
"That's why this last year I got involved and I sent everything," said Johnson. "That's why I physically went out and measured it because of my experience that I have."
Johnston also made a list of more than 100 other similar models as Schnell's. It shows she's somehow assessed the highest of them all.
"They have her at the value that they did of that larger home. So, when she was at that larger square footage, she was at $26 a square foot. When you look at the homes that are her size, they should be anywhere between $19 and $21 a square foot," she said.
The I-Team reached out to the Cook County Assessor's Office, and it said it's "continuing to research this case and will work with both the township assessor and taxpayer to ensure that the property characteristics are correct and to check whether an assessment reduction may be warranted for prior years. As part of that research, we will also examine whether the characteristics of other homes in the area may be affected by a similar issue."
Schnell Is praying that research will be in her favor.
The Cook County Assessor's Office said it has not conducted an in-person field inspection on the home in question since 2018. As the I-Team has reported there has not been a full, in-person field evaluation for all of Cook County's nearly 2 million properties since 1997.
The assessor's office said it conducts inspections and uses other software to evaluate property values.
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