Chicago woman has home sold out from under her in tax sale, all due to county paperwork issue
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Morgan Park neighborhood woman said she paid property taxes on time for more than a decade—only to be told her home had been sold out from under her.
A paperwork issue appears to be the cause of the nightmare.
Robin McElroy said she loves everything about her Morgan Park home—except for the panic-inducing surprises she has been getting in the mail about her supposedly unpaid taxes.
"I just started receiving letters just from different tax buyers," McElroy said.
McElroy showed CBS News Chicago the receipts from her property tax payments she has been making on time since she bought her house in 2012.
"I do not like wasting money. I do not 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 the county Treasurer's office to try to clear up the issue.
An April 2019 letter from the Treasurer's office explained that the PIN assignment on the Assessor's website had been swapped with McElroy's next-door neighbors. But McElroy herself had been paying her taxes correctly, and there were "no grounds to proceed with a sale" of her property, the Treasurer's office said.
Relieved, McElroy thought this meant this issue was fixed.
"They actually told me, 'Don't worry about it,'" she said.
But five years later in 2024, it turned out there was still something to worry about—something very serious.
"I'm about to cry now," McElroy said.
McElroy got a terrifying letter from the Cook County Circuit Court. It read: "This notice is to advise you that the above property has been sold."
The letter said McElroy's house had been "sold for delinquent taxes." On top of that, McElroy was later told she owed three years of rent to the owner who bought her house.
"This lady should not have to be put in this position to go through all of this headache and heartache," McElroy said of the new owner. "This is stressful."
CBS News Chicago has determined that the earlier 2019 letter flagged an error in the Assessor's website regarding the swapped PIN, and also flagged the need for an internal correction. But it appears that internal fix never took place—leading to the tax sale mess.
"Keep in mind that, you know, this is somebody's property that they paid for; that they're living in," said McElroy.
After CBS News Chicago reached out, the Assessor's Office acknowledged that is has now made that 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 the taxes on McElroy's PIN have been paid.
McElroy said she will not believe any of this until she sees it in writing.
"You guys can point fingers all day long. I don't care," she said. "I want what's rightfully owned to me.
In the meantime, McElroy said she has had to pay out of her pocket for a lawyer to help her sort the mess out. The current court records give her until next week to file a response, so she is hoping everything can all get cleared up before then.
