The words on a public record, in plain English

What the assessor says your property is worth for tax purposes. In Cook County that is a fraction of the assessor's estimate of market value — 10% for most homes — so an assessed value of $30,000 corresponds to an estimated market value of about $300,000. Your tax bill is calculated from the assessed value after equalization and exemptions, never from the market value directly.

Defined by Cook County Assessor · Used on Tax Appeal Evidence Packet

The price a property would fetch in an ordinary sale. An assessor estimates it from sales of comparable properties; it is an estimate, not a price anyone paid for your home. An appeal argues that this estimate is wrong — usually by showing near-identical homes nearby assessed lower.

Defined by Illinois Department of Revenue · Used on Tax Appeal Evidence Packet

A multiplier the Illinois Department of Revenue applies county by county so that assessments across the state sit at the one-third-of-market-value level the law requires. It is set by comparing three years of actual selling prices against the assessed values the county placed on those same properties. It is applied after your assessment, so appealing does not change the factor — it changes what the factor is applied to.

Defined by Illinois Department of Revenue · Used on Tax Appeal Evidence Packet

Cook County's second, separate appeal. It is not an appeal against the Assessor's decision — it is a fresh filing to a different elected body, and you can bring it whether or not the Assessor changed anything. In the years we hold, 51.9% of self-filed residential appeals to the Board were decreased.

Defined by Cook County Board of Review · Used on Who wins a Cook County appeal · Appeal it yourself

Cook County's assessment unit. Reassessment, appeal windows and comparables all run township by township, not by city or ZIP code, and the appeal window in your township may be open for only a few weeks a year while a neighboring one is shut.

Defined by Cook County Assessor · Used on Cook County townships

Milestone inspections for condominium and cooperative buildings three habitable stories or more: by 31 December of the year the building reaches 30 years of age (the local enforcement agency may require it at 25 years where local circumstances such as proximity to salt water warrant), and every 10 years thereafter. In plain terms: a structural engineer or architect inspects the building, in two phases, and the association must act on what phase two finds.

Defined by Florida Statutes §553.899 (2025) · Used on Condo Assessment Risk · Florida milestone and SIRS

Usually called a SIRS. Structural integrity reserve study for each building three habitable stories or higher, at least every 10 years; associations existing on or before 1 July 2022 by 31 December 2025, except that an association whose milestone inspection is due on or before 31 December 2026 may complete the study with that inspection, and in no event after 31 December 2026. In plain terms: a study that prices the building's structural items and sets what the association must save for them — and, for budgets adopted from 31 December 2024, owners can no longer vote to fund less than it requires.

Defined by Florida Statutes §718.112(2)(g) (2025) · Used on Condo Assessment Risk · Florida milestone and SIRS

A citation written by a Chicago building inspector against a property, with a code, an ordinance section and an inspector's comment. It is a finding by the city, not a court judgment, and it stays on the property's record whoever owned it at the time.

Defined by City of Chicago Department of Buildings · Used on Permit History & Discrepancy · Unpermitted work in Chicago

CMS Certification Number: the six-character identifier Medicare gives a certified nursing home. It, not the name, is what follows a home through ownership changes and rebrandings — which is exactly why a home with a bad record can look new and a search by name can miss it.

Defined by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services · Used on Nursing Home Record

A finding by a state survey team that a nursing home failed a federal requirement. Each one carries a tag number identifying the requirement, a description, and a scope-and-severity letter. Homes respond with a plan of correction; the file records whether a correction date was logged, not whether the problem actually stopped.

Defined by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services · Used on Nursing home inspections by state · Read an inspection record

The letter A to L attached to every nursing home citation. Severity runs down the grid — A–C no actual harm with minimal potential, D–F no actual harm but more than minimal potential, G–I actual harm that is not immediate jeopardy, J–L immediate jeopardy to health or safety — and scope runs across it: isolated (A, D, G, J), pattern (B, E, H, K), widespread (C, F, I, L). Anything from G is what our pages call serious; anything from J is immediate jeopardy.

Defined by CMS State Operations Manual, Appendix PP · Used on Nursing home inspections by state · Read an inspection record

The most serious finding an inspector can make: a situation that has caused, or is likely to cause, serious injury, harm, impairment or death to a resident. It carries scope-and-severity letters J, K or L and must be corrected at once. Across the 14,690 certified homes we hold, it is rare enough that a single such citation is worth asking a home about directly.

Defined by CMS State Operations Manual, Appendix PP · Used on Nursing Home Record

A nursing home CMS has singled out for more frequent inspection because of a persistent pattern of poor care. Homes are listed either as an SFF or as an SFF candidate; leaving the program requires sustained improvement across consecutive surveys.

Defined by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services · Used on Nursing Home Record

The share of a home's nursing staff who left over a year, calculated by CMS from payroll data the home files, not from a survey. High turnover does not by itself mean poor care, but it is the figure most likely to describe the home you would actually walk into, because it is about who is there this month.

Defined by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services · Used on Nursing home inspections by state

National Provider Identifier: the ten-digit number every US healthcare provider bills under. Like a CCN for a home, it is the identifier that survives a name change or a move between practices, and it is the key that joins a named clinician to Medicare claims and to industry payment records.

Defined by CMS NPPES NPI Registry · Used on Surgeon Record

The federal register of payments and ownership interests that drug and device makers report giving to physicians and teaching hospitals — consulting fees, speaking fees, travel, food, research funding. Reporting is a legal obligation on the manufacturer, not the clinician, and a payment is a disclosure, not an allegation.

Defined by CMS Open Payments · Used on Surgeon Record

The license class a California contractor is allowed to work under: A (general engineering), B (general building), or one of the C specialities such as C-10 electrical or C-36 plumbing. A contractor working outside their classification is working unlicensed for that work, whatever their license number says.

Defined by California Contractors State License Board · Used on Contractor Record · Free contractor check

A California contractor with no employees may file an exemption instead of carrying workers' compensation cover. It is lawful — but if that contractor brings anyone onto your job, the cover you assumed was there is not, and the exposure lands on the homeowner.

Defined by California Contractors State License Board · Used on Contractor Record