NBC 5 Responds was able to help a Cook County family get results as they sought to correct a property tax increase of more than 600%.
In Cook County, second installment property tax bills are now past due. Newly assessed properties saw record-setting increases, costing some residents thousands of dollars more than they budgeted for.
One Orland Park family has been appealing an assessment mistake for more than one year. NBC 5 Responds has been with them almost every step of the way—documenting the hoops they’ve had to jump through to get a 600% property tax increase corrected.
Sandy and John Kucala own three adjoining parcels of land. In the middle is their family home, to one side is a rental property, and on the other side is an open field and an old barn which use to house horses years ago.
In 2024, Cook County reassessed the three parcels of land. They all saw a spike. In particular: the assessed value of the parcel housing nothing but the barn jumped from $75,000 in 2023 to more than $752,000 in 2024, despite no physical changes occurring to the property.
The Kucalas filed appeals with Cook County for the three parcels, but they were rejected. Sandy said the process started taking a physical toll.
“He [John] had chest pains, and he went in the hospital,” she explained. “ I not only was having to worry about losing our property, now I have to worry about my husband dropping dead because of the stress.”
The family decided to call NBC 5 Responds in early 2025. NBC Chicago helped the couple get answers from the county so they could re-appeal the tax hikes. They resubmitted the appeals for the three parcels– and won. Their home of nearly fifty years was saved from going to a county tax sale.
Sandy and John were hopeful the fight was over, but it turned out, NBC 5 Responds needed to step in again.
When their 2024 property tax bills arrived, the Kucala’s found only two of the three parcels were corrected. The piece of property housing the old barn was still valued at more than $752,000. The county said the couple owed more than $18,000 in property taxes for the old barn alone.
“I’m OK with paying a little more money, but that’s ridiculous,” Sandy said.
NBC Chicago asked the Cook County Assessor’s office and the Cook County Board of Review why the approved certificates of error were only applied to two of the three land parcels. Assessor Fritz Kaage’s office turned town our interview request.
Via email, it explained the last certificate of error was not applied because the Board of Review needed to complete its endorsement process for the parcel. But in an on-camera interview, Board of Review Chief Deputy Commissioner William O’Shields disputed that statement, saying the commissioners completed their part of the process in May 2025.
NBC 5 Responds continued following up with the Cook County Assessor’s office.
On December 15, the day property taxes were due, the Assessor’s office emailed a corrected bill to the Kucala’s reducing the taxes on the barn from more than $18,000 to just over $3,300. Sandy Kucala said she made an immediate payment upon receiving the bill.
“We would be nowhere without you people [NBC 5 Responds] that have been on our side all the way,” said Sandy.
“The bottom line is you guys helped us a lot,” added John.
In all, NBC 5 Responds helped the Kucala family save $25,393 in property taxes for the 2024 tax year. The correction should apply to their parcels moving forward. The family is still working to get a property tax bill from 2023 corrected.
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