Collection of "Forfeited" Real Estate Taxes in Illinois

Abstract

BOUT 250,000 parcels of Cook County real estate, almost onefourth the total number in the county, are to the State each year for nonpayment of property taxes.' The Revenue Act of I939 provides that tax delinquent properties not sold at the annual tax sales are forfeited to the State of Illinois.2 Tax buyers at the annual sales purchase properties in order to collect the taxes with heavy penalties from the delinquent owners, and select only those delinquent properties on which the prospects of early payment are good. The properties remaining unsold-those forfeited-are, therefore, mostly the unwanted residue which continue delinquent year after year and which have frequently been abandoned by their owners. The term carries a connotation of change in ownership which the actualities deny, for the State makes no claims to title or possession and the properties remain on the tax rolls. The term means only that the properties become liable to the collection methods which are the subject of this article. The importance of these 250,000 parcels does not lie in the loss of tax revenue. In recent years only 3 or 4 per cent of the real estate levy has remained uncollected.3 The importance lies in the removal from economic use of one-fourth the real estate parcels in the county. These parcels are chiefly lots in vacant subdivisions, dilapidated structures and lots in slum and blighted areas, and old and obsolete buildings elsewhere. The accumulated taxes constitute an obstacle to economic use. A prospective purchaser often finds that the delinquency amounts to more than the property is worth and that the settlement methods are too expensive and too dilatory. The owner clings to his title in the faint hope that he may some-