NO SAVINGS, NO FEE
Property Tax Appeal Fees: Simple, Transparent Pricing
25% of your first-year savings, only if your assessment is reduced.
Our fee is 25% of your first-year tax savings, invoiced only after your assessment is reduced. No retainer. No upfront costs. If your reduction lasts three years, you still pay once, on the first year's savings.
No Savings, No Fee
25% of first-year savings, only if your assessment is reduced.
No Upfront Fees
No retainer and nothing to pay up front. We invoice our fee after your assessment is reduced, once the second-installment bill for that tax year is issued. Payment is due within 30 days of the invoice.
Every Term in Writing
Your agreement sets every term, including interest on a balance paid late. You read it in full before you sign.
Your Estimate
How We Estimate Your Savings
When you check your property, the report shows an estimate of what an appeal could save. Here is how we build it.
1. We start from the county's records.
We use the Assessor's current assessment of your property and the details on record for it. We add the latest published tax rate for your area and the state equalization factor.
2. We find the value the evidence supports.
For a home, we compare your assessment with similar homes nearby, the way the Assessor and the Board of Review compare them. If you bought the property recently, we also compare your assessment with the price you paid. The estimate uses whichever supports the larger reduction.
3. We turn the lower value into dollars.
Your yearly savings are the reduction in your assessment, times the state equalization factor, times your tax rate. The Homeowner and Senior exemptions come off your taxable value both before and after an appeal, so they do not change the savings. If you have the Senior Freeze, an appeal may lower your bill by less than it lowers your assessment. We check this before we file, and our fee is 25% of the first-year savings that reach your bill.
4. We count the years the lower value should last.
For a home, a reduction usually stays in place for the rest of your township's three-year reassessment cycle. The county can change it in a later year, so we review your assessment each year. The report shows the yearly figure and the total for those years, at today's tax rate, because future rates are not yet set.
5. The figure is before our fee.
Every figure is your savings before our fee. Our fee is shown on its own: 25% of first-year savings, only if your assessment is reduced.
6. It is an estimate, not a promise.
The Assessor or the Board of Review decides your appeal. Either may grant less than our estimate, or no reduction at all. If there is no reduction, there is no fee.
For a commercial building.
We start from the Assessor's own income model for the building: its rent, vacancy, expenses and capitalization rate (the return an investor expects). The report shows where the assessment could land. One row is where similar buildings landed when their appeals succeeded, from the county's public records; they are not our firm's results. Another row is the county's own model, rerun with vacancy, expenses and investor return at typical market levels, if your records support them. Commercial reductions are not reliably carried into the next year. So the report shows one year's saving at a time, and each year's appeal is billed on its own.
When you see the savings.
First-year savings are the savings for the tax year you appealed. They show on that year's second-installment bill, which the county issues the following year. If your lender pays your taxes from escrow, the savings reach you through your lender, at its next yearly escrow review.
How It Works
How Your Fee Is Calculated
An example, not an estimate for your home: a $500,000 home whose assessment is reduced by 10%.
Calculate Assessment Reduction
Calculate Tax Savings
Calculate Amount Due
Calculate Assessment Reduction
Calculate Tax Savings
Calculate Amount Due
| Savings | Our fee | You keep | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | $1,094.13 | $273.53 | $820.60 |
| 2 years | $2,188.26 | $273.53 | $1,914.73 |
| 3 years | $3,282.39 | $273.53 | $3,008.86 |
Years two and three assume this year's tax rate and factor. Both change a little each year.
For a home, a reduction usually stays in place for the rest of your township's three-year reassessment cycle. The county can change it in a later year, so we review your assessment each year. You can appeal every year, not only in your reassessment year.
The state equalization factor is a multiplier the Illinois Department of Revenue sets for Cook County each year.
Example rate: tax year 2025, Cook County tax code 10043 (Cook County Clerk, 2025 tax code rate report).
Have the Homeowner Exemption? The savings are the same. It takes $10,000 off the taxable value before and after the appeal, so this home's bill falls from $10,219.13 to $9,125.00: the same $1,094.13.
If you have the Senior Freeze, an appeal may lower your bill by less than it lowers your assessment. We check this before we file, and our fee is 25% of the first-year savings that reach your bill.
For comparison: for tax year 2025, residential appeals that received a reduction were cut by 9.2% on average at the Assessor and 6.4% at the Board of Review. Most appeals received none. These are county-published outcomes for every owner who appealed.
An illustration only. Your savings depend on your own assessment, your tax rate and what the Assessor or the Board of Review decides.
You sign up online, and we file your appeal, usually at the Cook County Assessor and then the Board of Review. If you agree, we take it to PTAB or the Circuit Court. 25% of first-year savings, only if your assessment is reduced.
How a Cook County property tax appeal works, step by step ->
How much does a property tax appeal cost?
Our fee is 25% of your first-year tax savings, invoiced only after your assessment is reduced. If there is no reduction, there is no fee.
What if my reduction lasts three years?
You still pay once, on the first year's savings. You keep 100% of the savings in years two and three. An agreement signed in an earlier year may set a different fee. Your invoice follows the agreement you signed and states its fee basis.
When do I pay?
No retainer and nothing to pay up front. If your assessment is reduced, the lower tax shows on your second-installment bill the following year. We invoice our fee, 25% of the first-year savings, after that bill is issued. Payment is due within 30 days of the invoice.
The Assessor lowered my assessment and the Board of Review lowered it again. How is the fee figured?
If we filed at both, there is one fee: 25% of the first-year savings from both decisions together. If the Assessor's reduction came from your own filing, the Board of Review fee is on the additional savings from the Board's decision only, not on the savings you already had from the Assessor.
Do you charge for exemption work?
Our fee is 25% of any refund or credit we recover. For a missed exemption added going forward, the fee is 25% of the first year's tax savings it brings. If we recover nothing and add nothing, there is no fee.
Do I need to sign up again next year?
Yes. Each year, before your township's filing window opens, we send you a new agreement by email, and by text if you agreed to texts. We file that year's appeal only after you sign it. Each appeal's fee is 25% of its own first-year savings, only if your assessment is reduced.
Are there any costs besides your fee?
Filing at the Assessor, the Board of Review and PTAB is free. If you choose a tax objection complaint in the Circuit Court, you pay the court's filing fee. We tell you the amount before we file. A few commercial cases need an appraisal. If yours does, we tell you the cost before anything is ordered, and nothing is ordered without your approval.
OUR PROMISE
Why Property Owners Choose Us
Cook County Tax Appeals
- Tax attorneys and CPAs
- Focused on Cook County
- No Savings, No Fee
Appeals led by Hani Khatib, JD, CPA, LL.M.
About our firm ->The Supreme Court of Illinois does not recognize certifications of specialties in the practice of law. Hani Khatib's CPA license is issued by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation and is not a requirement to practice law in Illinois.
The same fee applies to commercial property: 25% of the first year's tax savings, only if the assessment is reduced. What a property tax appeal lawyer costs ->
A commercial example
(10% for homes and apartment buildings, 25% for most commercial property)
Example rate: tax year 2025, Cook County tax code 10043 (Cook County Clerk, 2025 tax code rate report).
Commercial reductions are not reliably carried into the next year, so many owners appeal again. Each appeal is billed on its own: 25% of that appeal's first-year savings, only if the assessment is reduced.
An illustration only. Your savings depend on your own assessment, your tax rate and what the Assessor or the Board of Review decides.
Own a commercial or apartment building? See how commercial property tax appeals work ->
Find Out How Much You Could Save
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