Richard Magnone 
When will the eviction madness end?Yesterday, the Chicago Reader ran an article entitled “Failed eviction attempts wouldn’t haunt tenants under proposed state law“. The article touts the benefits of a proposed state law to automatically seal eviction records in Illinois.
Legislative Alert!On February 13, 2018, Representative Emanuel Chris Welch introduced House Bill 4760 that proposes to seal all eviction records for the first 30 days after a case is filed and at various other points in the eviction process. Since its introduction, nineteen state representatives have signed on as sponsors of the bill, many from the Chicagoland area. This would be a state statute and would apply throughout Illinois.
Changes to Illinois Eviction ComplaintsUPDATE: see here
The Supreme Court Commission on Access to Justice, by way of proposal18-03 (UPDATE: the proposal language is no longer available and merely shows as withdrawn). is proposing a new supreme court rule that would change the basics of an eviction complaint throughout the state. The rule is set to be heard by the rules committee on March 26, 2018.
I just saw a story in the Chicago Tribune indicating that the Cook County Sheriff “this week” enforced an eviction order entered on December 15, 2017 against a Logan Square health club. Doing some quick math, that’s about an 11 week delay between the order and enforcement. As I mentioned in my last post, this … Read more
Periodically, I like to do a little anecdotal sample of cases to see where the Sheriff is running when it comes to Cook County evictions. Based on a VERY unscientific poll, it seems that evictions from early December are now being processed. That means we have about a 12 week backlog in the system. Keep … Read more
New Eviction Form ReleasedBack in September, I wrote about changes made to the Forcible Entry and Detainer Eviction Act. The gist of the changes was to get rid of the words “Forcible Entry and Detainer” and replace them with “Eviction” and to create a “standardized” eviction order. The law went into effect on January 1, 2018 and the state-standardized Eviction Order (known as form E-O 3500-2 in Cook County) is now available in courtrooms and online. The form is radically different than the Order for Possession form that many Chicagoland landlords may be used to. Let’s take a closer look.
For all leases governed by the Chicago Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance (RLTO), Section 5-12-170 requires that a landlord attach a summary of the ordinance and an interest rate summary to the lease. The City of Chicago has finally released the summary that includes the 2018 security deposit interest rate. The summary contains an English … Read more
Well, better late than never, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, Division of Banking today (1/8/18) released the new interest rate for security deposits governed by the Illinois Security Deposit Interest Act. That rate is
On January 3, 2018, NBC Channel 5 reported that the City of Chicago Building Department is taking landlords to court during this cold snap. The report indicates that the Department of Buildings has received over 600 heat complaints. City building inspectors are going out in response to 311 calls. For those landlords who are not in compliance with the City’s heat ordinance, the City is bringing court actions to appoint receivers to run the buildings and provide the heat tenants are entitled to receive.
The Illinois Security Deposit Return Act has been amended by Public Act 100-0269, effective January 1, 2018. Some of the amendments are small, like changing the words “rental property” to “rental premises”. Other changes are more substantive and align the law more with the requirements of the Chicago and Evanston ordinances. The Illinois Security Deposit Return Act applies to a landlord of residential property containing five or more units who holds a security deposit. So what’s of substance in the new change?