Proposed Illinois law to regulate rental application feesEveryone knows the importance of tenant screening. In order to offset the cost of screening “the right way”, many landlords collect application fees. Now, Illinois lawmakers are getting ready to regulate these application fees.
New Illinois pot law could get landlords in the soup!On January 1, 2014, the “Illinois Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act” took effect making Illinois the twentieth state in the union to permit some form of lawful medical marijuana. This may be a great victory for people who are sick and people who want to try to play the system to get recreational drugs, but it creates a whole new world of regulation and requirements for Illinois landlords.
The new 2014 security deposit interest rate for those leases and tenancies governed by the Illinois Security Deposit Interest Act has been released by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation Banking Division.
For Illinois leases governed by the law, the security deposit interest rate to be paid on security deposits for 2014 is:
The Illinois Legislature has passed an amendment, effective immediately, to the Illinois Property Tax Code adding a new section to the law at 35 ILCS 200/9-275. The law, which has been long opposed by Illinois landlords, allows the county assessor to go back as many as six assessment years (depending on the number of exemptions claimed) prior to the current assessment year, to record a tax lien against a parcel that was granted an improper property tax exemption. Exemptions that the assessor can challenge are the disabled veteran exemption, returning veteran exemption, disabled person exemption, disabled veteran standard homestead, senior citizen exemption, senior citizens assessment freeze, general homestead exemption, alternative general homestead exemption, and long-time occupant exemption.
In addition to handling landlord-tenant legal issues for our clients, our firm also handles real estate closings. One interesting trend I have taken notice of recently is the number of my landlord clients who have decided to quit. That’s right, they are quitting the landlording game. During the last week of May, I closed a real estate sale for a client I had helped just a few months before remove an unruly tenant from her condominium unit. Just last week, a client hired me to “handle my eviction and then help me with the sale of this place”. The scenario is getting more and more common. A landlord comes to me to get the tenant out and then to help with the sale of the real estate. It is a trend that I think will continue.
“Moving Week” ends today with a final installment about move-out. If you have ever seen me at a speaking engagement on landlord-tenant law, you have probably heard me opine about what I think is a great way to manage risk when a tenant moves out. I think landlords should go out of their way to make sure that they have an opportunity to conduct an in-person move-out inspection walk-through with a tenant. Personal contact is the key. The landlord is there. The tenant is there. Any damage or lack of damage is mostly obvious and it is pretty darn difficult for a tenant to claim that the door is not broken when both the landlord and the tenant are standing in front of the broken door!
The Banking Division of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has issued its statement of the interest rate paid by the largest commercial bank with its main banking premises in Illinois which sets the interest rate for landlords to charge under the Illinois Security Deposit Interest Act.
The rate for 2013 is
Many landlords ask me if there is a limit on how much rent they can demand for their rental units or or if there is any limitation on rent increases when a lease is renewed. Luckily for those landlords, there is no rent control in Chicago. In fact, rent control is prohibited throughout all of the State of Illinois.
UPDATE: The law was signed 8/17/12 and goes into effect on 1/1/13
The Illinois House of Representatives and Senate have voted to approve an amendment to the Illinois Security Deposit Return Act. The law, currently awaiting the Governor’s signature to become law, will amend the state law governing the return of certain security deposits to allow a landlord to send the required itemized statement of damages and paid receipts to a tenant via “electronic mail to a verified electronic mail address provided by the lessee”.