North Cook News

Property taxes owed to Cook County, and to a third party who bought a portion of the tax debt, are piling up on a car wash in Elgin owned by state GOP chairman and former Cook County Commissioner Tim Schneider.

Records from the Cook County Clerk’s office show that the estimated of cost of redemption (amount necessary to satisfy taxes that have been sold to a third party) as of Feb. 8 for the WaterWerks Car Wash at 928 East Chicago St. is $73,747.70.

Wheeler Financial bought the debt on May 4, 2018, records show. The date of redemption has been extended to May 13, 2020. The amount owned must be redeemed to prevent the loss of the property, according to the Clerk’s website.

Tim Schneider

This was the second tax sale in last five years on the property, according to Margarett Zilligen, director of Real Estate and Tax Services for the county clerk. The first sale, in 2016, involved both the first and second installment of taxes for 2014. The tax buyer then added both installments of 2015 taxes and the first installment of 2016 taxes to the same tax sale. That tax sale was vacated by the circuit court on April 25, 2018, sending the debt, including what is owed for 2014 and 2015, back to the owner. Those taxes are in delinquent status, Zilligen said. Records obtained by the North Cook News show that total tax bill at just under $75,000. 

“We don’t have any information on why the sale was vacated,” Zilligen told the North Cook News. “But sometimes the sales are vacated when the buyer finds out that property is in worse shape than originally believed.”

In addition, the Cook County property tax portal also shows that $22,710.31 is owed on the property for the 2018 tax year.

In 2016, Schneider nearly lost his car wash over his 2014 tax debt, according to an earlier article on the car wash’s tax problems published in the North Cook News. The property went up for auction in June 2016, but Schneider arranged for San Antonio-based Propel Financial Services, a “leader in property tax financing” whose “primary focus is resolving tax debt and avoiding foreclosure” to pay his $37,000 tab-- $30,645 in taxes and $6,279 in penalties.

Schneider has been president and registered agent of WaterWerks LLC since 1995, according to state records.