Our staff must verify your legal eligibility for the Certificate of Error and must review your submitted documentation. This can take anywhere from 1-3 weeks. After they finish this review, you will receive an email via Docusign from the Online Exemptions team. The email will say whether the application has been accepted ("Completed") or had to be denied ("Declined").

If you did not receive your Homeowner Exemption on your second-installment property tax bill, you can file an application to receive a corrected bill or refund. This application is a Certificate of Error, and you can apply online:

https://www.cookcountyassessor.com/certificates-error  

Time permitting, you may receive an adjusted bill and pay a reduced amount reflecting your omitted exemption(s). 

The exemption is available to owners of single-family homes, condominiums, cooperatives, and apartment buildings up to six units, who occupy the home as their primary place of residence. Read more.

The Home Improvement Exemption allows a homeowner to add improvements to their home that add to its value (for example, by increasing the building’s square footage, or repairing after structural flood damage) without being taxed on up to $75,000 of the added value for up to four years. 

You can receive the Homeowner Exemption if you own or have a lease or contact which makes you responsible for the real estate taxes of the residential property. It must also be used as your principal place of residence for the year in question.

The Illinois Property Tax Code, which lists the legal requirements for the Senior Freeze Exemption, measures eligibility by considering an entire household’s income.

The Home Improvement Exemption allows a homeowner to add improvements to their home that add to its value (for example, by increasing the building’s square footage, or repairing after structural flood damage) without being taxed on up to $75,000 of the added value for up to four years. 

No application is required. When the Cook County Assessor’s Office receives building permits, our staff conduct a field check of the improvement. After this is complete, if this property is deemed eligible for the exemption, we send a notice to the property owner and apply the exemption.

If the value of your residence has decreased or if tax rates increased, you may not receive any savings. In order to realize a savings on your tax bill, the equalized assessed value (EAV) must be greater than your base year (the original year you filed for this exemption.)

If the previous year’s value is higher than the current year’s, no exemption amount would be shown on the bill since the assessed value would be lower.

You can correct a property's location address here: https://www.cookcountyassessor.com/form-document/property-location-correction 

Note: this does not change the property's taxpayer's name or mailing address. To change the taxpayer's name or mailing address for this property, please visit the Treasurer's website.

If your taxpayer exemption application is being mailed to the wrong address, so might your tax bill, your reassessment notice and other important property tax correspondence. You should call the Treasurer’s Office to have this corrected. The Treasurer’s phone number is (312) 443-5100. They will mail you the proper form for you to complete and return to the Treasurer’s Office. You may also visit their Web site at www.cookcountytreasurer.com.