The Comptroller of the City of Chicago has issued its statement of the interest rate paid on passbook savings accounts, insured money market accounts and six month certificates of deposit at the commercial bank having its main branch located in the city and having the largest total asset value which sets the interest rate for landlords to charge under Section 5-12-080 of the Chicago Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance.
The rate for 2013 is
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
Every now and then, we come across “uncitable” orders filed pursuant to Illinois Supreme Court Rule 23(e), that deal with fundamental Chicago Residential Landlord Tenant Ordinance (RLTO) security deposit issues. These are strange birds. They are “out there” in the stream of discourse, however, they cannot be cited (except in rare exceptions) and have no precedential value. Depending on your perspective, this might or might not be a good thing.
I know. Really, I know. You hate the ordinance. I hate it too. I think it is poorly written, contains lots of ambiguities, and is certainly draconian. The law leaves much room for improvement, however, landlords themselves have brought some of the law’s harshness upon themselves with their past bad acts. Unfortunately, it is the law. Landlords need to comply strictly… before it is too late.
Lawrence v. Regent Realty Group, Inc. et. al. (197 Ill. 2d 1, 9-10 (2001)) is the grand poo bah of Chicago Residential Landlord Tenant Ordinance lawsuits. Sure, there were others that came before it, but Lawrence opened the floodgates to a generation of attorneys who have great success in making landlords pay for simple little violations of the CRLTO.
Meet Bill. He’s owned a condo in the West Loop for six years. Two years ago, Bill got married. He and his wife just closed on a new home in Wheaton. Bill never intended to own his condo this long, but he could not find a buyer in the hosing bust. He’d still like to sell, but the market is soft. Things were fine when he was living in the condo, but he now owns a house and a condo and two mortgages. Cash is tight and his reserves are running low. Bill puts an ad on Craigslist to find a renter. A few months and fewer showings later, Bill finds a person interested in renting his condo. He’s relieved because his mortgages are due on the 15th and he doesn’t have the cash in hand to make both payments. “There’s only one problem”, the prospective renter explains, “I don’t get paid until the 6th, so I have the first month’s rent, but I don’t have the security deposit”. Bill needs the money to pay his mortgage, so he drafts up a lease with the new tenant and includes a promise that the tenant will pay half of the security deposit on the 6th and the other half of the deposit on the 20th. Bill takes the first month’s rent and hands over keys to his new tenant! Now the trouble starts (after the break).
I have often told landlord clients that the Chicago Residential Landlord Tenant Ordinance is simple in pieces and complex as a whole. There is no one provision of the ordinance that is unduly difficult to comply with. However, the law is packed full with tiny requirements and the penalty for noncompliance with tiny requirements is large. In July of 2010, the Chicago City Council amended the section of the CRLTO related to security deposits. Among the changes was a simple new requirement. Read about it after the break.
This City of Chicago has made available the 2012 CRLTO security deposit interest rate summary. The summary can be found here. This is ONE of the TWO summaries that must be provided to tenants pursuant to CRLTO Section 5-12-170 when a rental agreement (oral or written) is initially offered pr renewed to a tenant or … Read more
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, Division of Banking, has announced the security deposit interest rate to be used for 2012 under the Illinois Security Deposit Interest Act is 0.005%.
As most readers of this blog know, the CRLTO requires that the Comptroller of the City of Chicago set the rate of interest for security deposits annually. The new interest rate on security deposits under CRLTO governed rental agreements for the period from January 1, 2012 through December 31, 2012 is 0.057 percent.