With the onset of COVID-19 in 2020, the Cook County Treasurer, Maria Pappas, seized on an opportunity to delay tax sales in Cook County. For years, Treasurer Pappas has consistently fought to have tax sales delayed in Cook County. When presented with the full picture, one can see that these delays actually cost homeowners additional money in the long run which could contribute to a loss of property to a tax deed.

Every county treasurer in Illinois, except Treasurer Pappas, must file an application for judgment and order of sale for taxes on delinquent properties within 90 days after the second installment of taxes is due. 35 ILCS 200/21-150. As such, almost all counties in Illinois conduct tax sales in the fall following the second installment due date.  Before Treasurer Pappas was elected, the Cook County Tax Sale generally occurred in January following the second installment due date.

However, since Treasurer Pappas took office, the Cook County Tax Sale has been consistently delayed  and reached a point where it was being held in September of the next year from the second installment due date. The default interest penalty which accrues on these tax delinquencies accrues at a rate of 1.5% per month or 18% per year. For every month there is no tax sale, the homeowner must pay an additional 1.5% in interest to the county. Further, if there is a delinquent payment, the municipalities are not allocated any of the interest Cook County collects as those funds are placed in the County’s general fund.

Additionally, the delays in having the tax sales in Cook County prohibits municipalities from timely collecting the tax revenue it should have received months prior. These delays have an effect on a municipality’s services to the public as they are underfunded since the tax sale is delayed. A delay of any Cook County Tax Sale has no benefit to any municipality.

The legislature recognized the problems associated with these delays amended the statute about 10 years ago to require Cook County to have its tax sales sooner with an ultimate goal of having the sales in March or April following the second installment due date.  As the tax sales moved to the spring, Treasurer Pappas increased her public relations campaign to vilify these earlier tax sale dates by using rhetoric to increase a homeowners’ anxiety about the tax sales being held sooner than before. This campaign never properly explained to the homeowner the fact that for each month the tax sale was delayed, interest was accruing at 1.5% each month on the total unpaid tax amount which would only increase the overall tax delinquency.

For homeowners who cannot pay before the tax sale, a larger amount of delinquent tax ends up being paid by the tax purchaser at the tax sale. Additionally, by the time the tax sale occurs, the next year’s tax is usually delinquent as well. Under the Property Tax Code, the tax purchaser can pay those subsequently accruing taxes almost immediately after the delayed tax sale and add it to their purchase causing a significant increase in redemption to the homeowner.

Also, the realities of the Cook County Tax Sale are never quite thoroughly explained to the homeowner by Treasurer Pappas. Almost all of the properties sold at the tax sale are sold at a 0% penalty rate which immediately stops the county’s 1.5% interest from accruing. Further, most homeowners have 2 and ½ to 3 years to redeem their property from the tax sale. For example, the 2017 taxes were due in 2018 and if unpaid, the properties were sold in May of 2019. For residences sold, the redemption dates will fall between November of 2021 and May of 2022. That approximates to almost 4 years from the original tax due dates. The length of time of the redemption date, the process by which tax purchasers must notify interested parties of the final redemption date and the court’s insistence of strict compliance with the law, all were designed to protect a homeowner from losing their home to a tax deed.

In July of 2020, Treasurer Pappas supported legislation which amended Section 21-150 of the Property Tax Code to specifically address the 2018 Cook County Tax Sale and all subsequent Cook County Tax Sales. The amendment prevents the application for judgment and order of sale for taxes on delinquent properties for the tax year 2018 from being filed until the first day of the first month during which there is no longer a statewide COVID-19 public health emergency, as evidenced by an effective disaster declaration of the Governor covering all counties in the State. To date, the Governor’s disaster declaration has not been lifted and Treasurer Pappas has not filed her application.

It appears that when the 2018 tax sale does indeed occur, the amount of tax due from the homeowner will have increased by almost 40% based on the 1.5% the county charges on delinquent taxes. Further, the 2019 and 2020 taxes, if unpaid and delinquent, will also continue to accrue the 1.5% county interest and once the 2018 tax sale occurs, the 2019 and 2020 taxes will be quickly paid by tax purchasers. Those payments will immediately triple the amount due from the homeowner to redeem their property. As one can see, these delays cost the homeowner additional funds and increase the likelihood that a redemption of the property will not occur.

Finally, Treasurer Pappas also supported additional language to the statute which allows her to delay all future Cook County Tax Sales as she is now only required to file her application for judgment and order of sale within 365 days of the second installment due date. As described above, the delays she supports only penalize the homeowner as more money will be owed and belies Treasurer Pappas’s own reasons for delaying Cook County Tax Sales.