NEW LAW: Cook County landlords cannot refuse Section 8

Posted on May 9, 2013 by

cook8newIn a vote being celebrated by Tenant’s rights advocates, the Cook County Board of Commissioners voted yesterday to amend the Cook County Human Rights Ordinance to prohibit landlords from discriminating against tenants who are participating in Section 8 housing choice programs.  Like landlords in Chicago before them, Cook County landlords governed by the Human Rights Ordinance who reject a tenant based upon section 8 participation will be illegally discriminating based upon source of income.  To put it another way, Cook County landlords cannot refuse to participate in the Section 8 program and those who do are committing a fair housing violation based upon source of income discrimination.  The new law becomes effective in August, 2013.

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UPDATE: Cook County Section 8 amendment

Posted on May 6, 2013 by

sec8updateOn May 8, 2013, the Cook County Board will once again take up the topic of amending the Human Right’s Ordinance to make it a fair housing violation (for source of income discrimination) for a Cook County landlord to refuse to participate in the Section 8 housing choice voucher program.  The Illinois Rental Property Owners Association and the Northern Illinois Commercial Association of Realtors are vehemently opposed to the amendment and are calling upon landlords to urge the Cook County Commissioners to defeat the amendment.

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Chicago renters foreclosure protection law passes housing committee

Posted on May 2, 2013 by

Yesterday, the City of Chicago Housing Committee passed the Keep Chicago Renting Ordinance which will now go on to the City Council for a full vote.  Before that, the committee is “holding” the ordinance to give lenders time to respond.

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“Keep Chicago Renting” ordinance comes before Chicago City Council today

Posted on May 1, 2013 by

kcroIn the wake of the report issued by Lawyer’s Committee for Better Housing indicating that crime has increased in vacant lots and buildings, the Housing Committee of the Chicago City Council plans to conduct a hearing and possibly vote on the “Keep Chicago Renting” ordinance today (Mayday).  Originally introduced in July of last year, the ordinance has been kicking around for about a year in various forms.  In its current form, the City proposes that banks or other entities that take title to foreclosed real estate at a foreclosure auction must pay (yes, you read that right) tenants who are forced to vacate the premises or offer them leases with rent restrictions. Continue reading →

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Sanity from the City of Chicago on Bedbugs

Posted on April 30, 2013 by

bbugWell, thankfully sanity has prevailed for now on the issue of bedbugs.  The Chicago Tribune is reporting that alderman on the City’s housing committee have declined, for now, to pass an ordinance that would declare bedbugs a nuisance and fine landlords up to $2000 a day for renting infested unit.  The alderman were smart to step back and reconsider the issue. Continue reading →

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Illinois appellate court clarifies penalty for failure to disclose code violations under section 5-12-100

Posted on April 10, 2013 by

crltolitA new Chicago Residential Landlord Tenant Ordinance opinion was just recently issued by the first district Illinois Appellate Court.  In the case Ranjha v. BJBP Properties, Inc., a tenant sued a landlord in a class action related to the landlord’s failure to disclose City of Chicago Building Code citations and violations for the twelve months prior to the lease and sought damages equal to one month’s rent or the tenant’s actual damages. Continue reading →

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Having tenant troubles? Don’t just “fix the glitch”

Posted on April 4, 2013 by

Chicago landlords tenant troublesThe scene is from the movie Office Space:

Bob #1: Uh, Milton Waddams.
Dom: Who’s he?
Bob #2: You know, squirrely looking guy. Mumbles a lot.
Dom: Oh, yeah.
Bob #1: Yeah, we can’t actually find a record of him being a current employee here.
Bob #2: I looked into it more deeply, and I found that apparently what happened is that he was laid off five years ago, and no one ever told him about it. But through some glitch in the payroll department, he still gets a paycheck.
Bob #1: So we just went ahead and fixed the glitch.
Lumbergh: Great.
Dom: So, uh, Milton has been let go.
Bob #1: Well, just a second there, professor. We, uh, we fixed the glitch so he won’t be receiving a paycheck anymore so it’ll just work itself out naturally.
Bob #2: We always like to avoid confrontation whenever possible. The problem is solved from your end. Continue reading →

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How not to evict tenants in Chicago

Posted on March 20, 2013 by

badappleNews agencies across the City of Chicago are reporting that Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart is calling for a local property management company to stop serving illegal eviction notices.  (This story has a copy of the pruported notice which is obviously not a notice from the Sheriff)  A number of Chicago aldermen and the Chicago Anti-Eviction campaign are also protesting the company along with Sheriff Dart.  The reports indicate that Dart alleges that the property management company is serving notices informing tenants that foreclosure proceedings are underway, that the tenants must vacate immediately, and that the Sheriff will be out soon to evict the tenants. Continue reading →

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More on new Cook County jury trial procedures

Posted on March 19, 2013 by

interrogatoriesThe courts have now had a little over a week to work out some of the procedural kinks in the wake of the new procedures for Cook County evictions with jury trials.  I have heard from a number of sources about some of the interesting “features” of the new system for jury trials in Cook County evictions.  Each of the sources I have spoken to has confirmed the rumor that the jury trial judges assigned to eviction cases are not allowing the litigants to conduct discovery as part of the jury trial process.  (Discovery is the pre-trial gathering of evidence through legal procedures such as depositions, requests for the production of documents, requests to admit facts, and interrogatories.)  Instead, Continue reading →

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New procedure for Cook County eviction jury trials

Posted on March 15, 2013 by

Cook County Jury Trial General OrderWe became aware this week of a “pilot program” being initiated in the first municipal district (Daley Center) of the Circuit Court of Cook County to deal with jury demands in forcible entry and detainer (eviction) cases.  On March 7, 2013, the Presiding Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County’s First Municipal District entered General Order 2013-01 establishing the procedure.  Positioned as a way to “improve the judicial process and efficiency, and, eliminate a backlog of current and future cases awaiting jury trials”, the order will radically modify the way cases are handled after a jury demand is filed in Cook County evictions. Continue reading →

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