Cook County liable for property tax sale violations, judge rules

A federal judge ruled Monday that Cook County is liable to pay back potentially millions of dollars to people who lost their homes in the county’s annual property tax sales, three years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the system unconstitutional.

Since 2020, nearly 2,500 homeowners not only lost their properties but also the equity they’d built in those homes after their delinquent property taxes were sold.

Under that system, if taxes went unpaid, counties sold tax certificates to buyers to recuperate money from properties with unpaid taxes. Those tax buyers often tacked on fees and interest in addition to the existing tax, which homeowners have 2½ years to pay off before the tax buyer can go to court to get the deed to their home, forcing the owner to vacate.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly wrote in his decision Monday that the county was “deliberately indifferent to the need to address the … violations that occurred from property tax sales.”

Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas’ office, a defendant in the case, wouldn’t comment.

To read the full report, visit chicago.suntimes.com.