Honestly, if I have the comps in my area and everything will get reassessed again next year, do I really need a lawyer to appeal my taxes this August?

Property taxes are assessed at the county level and each county handles appeals differently.  Most counties have a specified time window in which to file assessment appeals.  The deadline in many counties in Illinois is in the first or second week of September.  Since real estate taxes are paid in arrears, if you are successful in lowering the assessed value of the property this year, it will not be reflected in your tax payment until the following year.  A successful appeal in 2012 will be reflected in the first installment of real estate taxes, which will come due in the spring of 2013.  To successfully appeal the assessed value, you will typically need some evidence of the value of the property.  The most common and successful ways of demonstrating the current value is a recent appraisal or a settlement statement from a recent arms-length purchase.  Generally comparable properties alone are not sufficient to have an assessment lowered, unless they have been incorporated to an appraisal report prepared by a professional appraiser.  Some counties simply require you bring evidence of the valuation to the county assessor's office in the specified time frame.  The process is more onerous in other counties, in which my you may be better served to hire an attorney to handle the appeal in the county you are located.  A good starting point would be to contact your county assessor to determine the process for appealing assessments in the county where the property is located. This is general advice not commencing the attorney client relationship, nor is it protected under attorney client privilege.  Randy Green is an attorney at Meyer Capel, a Professional Corporation E-mail: rgreen@meyercapel.com Phone: (217)352-1800