Our square footage is off.
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Our square footage is off.
We just found out that our property taxes are going up a ridiculous amount with the new evaluations. Our property is listed as being 1870 square feet. It is not. I have measured the exterior and, doubling it for the second floor, it is 1629 square feet. It seems the 1870 includes our basement, which I was led to believe is not proper. I pointed this out to our agent when we bought the house, and she said not to worry about it, it doesn’t matter. Now I see our taxes are calculated based on a square footage evaluation. We are going to appeal the new evaluation in any case, but I am curious how I go about checking and hopefully fixing the square footage mistake. I’d imagine the state requires a special inspector to measure it unless they just trust me, which would be amazing. I can’t find any information about this process online.
Asked on July 20, 2018 under Real Estate Law, Illinois
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 5 years ago | Contributor
Yes, you will need a report and testimony from a qualified person to show what your square footage is. A good choice would be a professional real estate appraiser, who does appraisals for realtors, banks (e.g. for loans or mortgages), and/or for attorneys (such as when there is a lawsuit over property and its value).
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