CHICAGO (CBS) — A Morgan Park area woman said she paid her property taxes on time for more than a decade, only to be told her house had sold out from under her.
A paperwork problem appears to be the cause of the nightmare.
Robin McElroy said she loves everything about her Morgan Park home, except the panicky surprises she receives in the mail about her supposedly unpaid taxes.
“I just started receiving letters from different tax buyers,” McElroy said.
McElroy showed CBS News Chicago the receipts for her property tax payments that she has made on time since purchasing her home in 2012.
“I don’t like wasting money. I don’t pay that ‘stupid tax,'” she said. “I pay my bills.”
A year ago, CBS News Chicago went to the Cook County Assessor’s office and then to the County Treasurer’s office to try to resolve the issue.
An April 2019 letter from the treasurer’s office explained that the PIN on the assessor’s website had been exchanged with McElroy’s neighbors. But McElroy had properly paid her own taxes and there were “no grounds to proceed with the sale” of her properties, the treasurer’s office said.
Relieved, McElroy thought this meant the problem had been solved.
“They basically told me, ‘Don’t worry about it,’” she said.
But five years later, in 2024, it turned out that there was still something to worry about: something very serious.
“I’m about to cry,” McElroy said.
McElroy received a chilling letter from Cook County Circuit Court. It read: “This notice is to inform you that the above property has been sold.”
The letter stated that McElroy’s home had been “sold due to unpaid taxes.” In addition, McElroy was later told she owed three years’ rent to the owner who purchased her home.
“This lady shouldn’t have to be put in this position to go through all these headaches and heartache,” McElroy said of the new owner. “This is stressful.”
CBS News Chicago has determined that the earlier 2019 letter flagged an error on the Assessor’s website regarding the mixed-up PIN, and also flagged the need for an internal correction. But it appears an internal resolution never occurred, leading to the tax sale mess.
“Keep in mind that this is someone’s property that they paid for; that they live in,” McElroy said.
After being contacted by CBS News Chicago, the Assessor’s Office acknowledged that it has now made the correction regarding the swapped PIN.
A spokesperson for the Assessor’s office declined CBS News Chicago’s request for an on-camera interview, but as of Friday afternoon the office said it was working with its legal team to resolve the issue — and that the taxes on the PIN from McElroy have been paid.
McElroy said she won’t believe any of this until she sees it in writing.
‘You can point fingers all day long. I don’t care,” she said. ‘I want what is rightfully mine.
In the meantime, McElroy said she has had to pay out of her pocket for a lawyer to help her sort out the mess. According to current court documents, she has until next week to file a response, so she’s hoping things can all be cleared up before then.
