Third-party notices tell you if a relative or anyone you know misses a tax payment

By Maria Pappas

My office lets you sign up a relative or anyone you know receive copies of certified notices that are mailed a month before the Annual Tax Sale if your property taxes become delinquent.

You can also register to receive copies of notices sent to a relative or other person.

The Third-Party Notification program allows any homeowner in Cook County to identify someone to receive delinquency notices by mail from my office. After I introduced this program in Cook County, it was enacted as law for the entire state.

The program is designed for all homeowners and may be particularly helpful for:

Relatives
Senior citizens
People with disabilities or special needs
People with long-term, serious health issues
People who are away from their homes for extended periods of time

You can enroll in the program by downloading a form at cookcountytreasurer.com. Simply print the form, fill it out and mail it to my office.

When you enroll, you designate someone to receive notices of tax delinquency in addition to yourself. The program serves as a safety net and is designed for family members and other trusted individuals or organizations; a house of worship can receive the notices. The program is not intended for use by mortgage companies or banks.

You can enroll at any time. However, applications received within two weeks prior to the mailing of certified notices of delinquent taxes may not be processed before third-party notifications are mailed. Third-Party Notifications can help homeowners avoid the Annual Tax Sale, an auction of unpaid taxes.

The Annual Tax Sale occurs about 13 months after your Second Installment taxes were due. My office will hold a four-day Annual Tax Sale beginning Dec. 10 for 2022 taxes that were due Dec. 1, 2023. My office will send certified notices in early November to property owners with delinquent taxes that will be auctioned unless paid in full before the sale.

The third party you designate to receive duplicate copies of delinquency notices assumes no liability for paying your taxes. You, as property owner, are still responsible for that. The intent is that the third party will follow up with you to find out if you received your delinquency notice, that your understood its importance and are making arrangements to pay your taxes before they are offered at the tax sale.

The program is offered for free to all residential property owners. Under state law, there is a $5 registration fee for nonresidential properties. Once enrolled you do not have to renew your participation on an annual basis.

You may designate only one person or entity to receive third-party notices at any time. If you decide that you no longer want a copy of delinquency notices mailed to a third party you may cancel at any time. If you sell the property, you must cancel the request on file or advise the new owner to change the party designation to receive notifications.

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Ray Hanania is an award-winning opinion columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.

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