Evaluating your property assessment valuation
- Review all of the information on the assessment notice.
- Visit www.imslake.org to review assessment information including property characteristics and comparable property information.
- Call or stop into the Ela Township Assessor’s office well before the deadline if you find any errors on your property record.
- You can complete an assessment appeal electronically using the e-filing system and submit with supporting evidence to the Board of Review before the deadline.
Requesting a review of your assessment with Ela Township and the Lake County Board of Review
Our office has merged the the pre-review and formal complaint process to eliminate the need to complete multiple copies of appeal forms for both the Assessor’s Office and the Board of Review. If you have reviewed your assessment and determined a review and/or appeal is necessary, you can file an assessment appeal electronically using the Lake County SmartFile EFiling system before the deadline.
Ela Township will review all cases and contact you if we are able to offer a reduction, otherwise the case will automatically go through the Lake County Board of Review formal complaint process.
Starting an appeal
Before you begin the appeal process, we recommend reviewing your property characteristics at IMSLake.org.
If you have reviewed your assessment and determined a review and/or appeal is necessary, you can research properties and populate a grid of comparable sales at IMSLake.org.
After entering your PIN, a page displaying your residence and characteristics will appear.
At the bottom of the page, under Comparable Property Information, select how you would like to search for properties.
Generate your grid by selecting your comparables (you may select up to five per grid) and clicking on View Comparable Report.
Once your grid is created, download it and save it as a PDF on your computer.
Now you can file on Lake County’s SmartFile E-Filing Portal. When you are at the comparable section of the portal, go to the Attachments tab at the top of the page and upload your previously generated grid as evidence. Do not use the comparable grid in SmartFile as this data does not contain the most current and accurate data.
Should you need assistance with the SmartFile E-filing process, a video tutorial is available on the Lake County website. You can also call the Ela Township Assessor’s Office @ (847) 438-8370 or the Chief County Assessment office at 847-377-2050 for further assistance.
The rules of the Lake County Board of Review can be found here.
If you do not receive an e-mail as confirmation within 24 hours, please call the Ela Township Assessor’s Office @ (847) 438-8370. Ela Township will review all cases and contact you if we are able to offer a reduction.
Remember, we are here to help you. My job as your Assessor is to create the assessed values to apportion the tax burden, but I am also here to help you by correcting factual errors, ensuring you have all the exemptions you qualify for, and helping you ensure that you are properly assessed. We are your local resource and most importantly, we are here for you.