Ben Bradley was happily paying less on property taxes on his $1.7M hinsdale home thanks to a screwup by the county. lucky guy
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HINSDALE, IL – Cook County failed to get $105,000 in back taxes that it says it was owed for WGN reporter Ben Bradley's former house in Hinsdale.
The assessor's office did not issue the bill until a new owner took possession last year. Bradley lived in the house for more than a decade with abnormally low tax bills.
In July 2022, Patch spotlighted Bradley's house in the 200 block of North County Line Road.
He put his house on the market for $1.9 million, but he was only paying $5,000 a year in property taxes. A house like that would typically generate $40,000 in taxes.
It turns out the Cook County Assessor's Office never assessed the house after it was built in 2010. The county still was assessing a century-old, far smaller house that had been demolished to make way for Bradley's 6,100-square-foot home.
Last October, Bradley sold the house for nearly $1.7 million.
The country tried to charge the new owner $105,000 in taxes for the previous three years because the house was "omitted" from the tax rolls. Under state law, it can go back no longer than three years.
But the new owners, Michael Muskievicz and Erin Brown, appealed to the county's Board of Review, which rejected the assessor's back charges.
According to Board of Review documents, the county cannot charge a homeowner for back taxes from before the owner took possession.
Asked about the assessment issue, Bradley's attorney, William Cadigan, said it was a matter between the new owner and the county.
David Lavin, the attorney for Muskievicz and Brown, said the previous owner benefitted from the low assessment, not his clients.
"(Muskievicz and Brown) didn't gain one penny from any of that," he said.
No local taxing body lost any money as a result of the assessment mistake. Instead, other taxpayers picked up the slack.
Lyons Township Assessor Patrick Hynes, whose area includes east Hinsdale, said the assessor should never have issued the bill for back taxes. The agency, he said, was not following state law.
He said a person without the money to pay for a lawyer may have paid the back taxes without appealing.
"It's one of the many ways our system lets the rich guy get the pass while the regular joe takes it on the chin," Hynes said in an interview. "If you send these illegal assessments, some people will end up paying."
In Cook County, township assessors serve as taxpayer advocates. They have no power to assess properties.
Hynes has watched for properties that don't make it on the tax rolls. He has been a critic of the assessor's office, where he worked for years.
In an email to Patch, Angelina Romero, a spokeswoman for the assessor's office, said her agency is allowed to charge "omitted" assessments under state law.
"In the appeal filing, the attorney submitted no evidence to support that we knew about any improvements by way of permit or otherwise at any point in time between 2010 and 2022," Romero said. "The Assessor’s Office has no evidence of a permit between that time period."
Romero disputed the idea that poorer homeowners are put at a disadvantage. Filing an appeal is free, and no lawyer is required, she said. And she said the assessor's office helps by providing both in-person and virtual workshops on how to file appeals.
Hynes said the assessor's office cannot back tax to correct its own "misfeasance."
"The property tax code does not allow them to back tax this parcel. They received a permit when originally built, and the property sold prior to the request for back taxes," Hynes said in an email to Patch. "(T)he attempt to back tax will not pass legal muster."
Patch has written about other Cook County assessment problems in Hinsdale and La Grange.
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