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Richard Magnone to present to @properties agents

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I’m routinely asked by some of Chicago’s biggest and best brokerage houses to give seminars for their agents on the topic of Chicago leasing procedures and the Chicago Residential Landlord Tenant Ordinance.   This is one of my favorite things to do – I really enjoy talking about landlord-tenant topics and meeting agents who are working … Read more

Chicago Good Cause Eviction Ordinance to be Proposed

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What about landlord’s rights?

I received from a friend a copy of an ordinance that one of the Chicago Alderman is apparently planning to present to the Chicago City Council on May 23, 2018. The ordinance appears to be penned by the tenant-friendly Lawyer’s Committee for Better Housing.  Its contents are shocking.  If you are a landlord, prepare to be shocked and awed as your property rights are whittled away.  The law is known as the Good Cause for Eviction Ordinance.  A text of the entire proposed ordinance, as believed will be introduced, can be found here.  A number of other landlord-hostile cities have adopted ordinances similar to this one.  The stated goal is to stabilize the community against greedy landlords.  A position paper from the Lawyer’s Committee for Better Housing dated February, 2018 indicates that “If “housing is a human right,” then it begins with “security of tenure,” which promotes long-term neighborhood stability.”     So what does this proposed law, in part, do?

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Updates on trending Illinois and Chicago landlord-tenant stories

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Over the past months, we have been tracking a few stories that will affect landlords and their rental businesses in the Chicagoland area.  We wanted to take a moment to provide some updates.

With respect to the potential change in Illinois Supreme Court Rules related to the contents and attachments to an eviction complaint that we discussed in early march, it appears that the proposed rule change is not being considered at this time and is now listed on the court’s website as “withdrawn”.

At the end of 2017, we also discussed the attempts

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Amendment to Illinois Security Deposit Return Act Effective 1/1/2018

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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?

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Rent control advocates employ new tactic

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Push to erode landlord rights continues

The Chicago Sun-Times published a story today explaining that advocates in favor of rent control are going to make the issue a referendum on ballots in the March, 2018 primary elections.  I’ve been reporting on this movement this year and this latest tactic is one more attempt by rent control advocates to reverse a state-wide ban on rent control.

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Class Action Attorneys sue Property Manager under CRLTO

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Failure to provide CRLTO Summary at issue

That silly little summary of the Chicago Residential Landlord Tenant Ordinance that needs to be attached to every lease governed by the CRLTO.  It’s no big deal, right?

Wrong.  Class action attorneys at JS Law have filed a case against Mac Property Management LLC that we will be watching closely.  The case was brought in the chancery department of the Circuit Court of Cook County under case 2017CH13659.  The suit alleges that the landlord failed to attach the CRTLO summary to a tenant’s lease and the leases of other tenants and seeks to certify a class.

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Announcing our newest blog – chicagoclosings.com

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I know many of my readers come here looking for information about landlord-tenant related law.  Before you can be a landlord, you have to buy a property.  After you read this blog about landlording, you might want to sell your property!  That’s where we come in.  In addition to handling landlord-tenant related matters, we also … Read more

Cook County Assessor pursues Landlords with Notice of Discovery

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A number of real property owners across Cook County have been surprised to receive a “Notice of Discovery” from Cook County Assessor Joseph Barrios.  The notice informs property owners that the Assessor’s Office believes the property owner may have received one or more improper homeowner exemptions.  Basically, the assessor is letting owners know that the … Read more

Eviction cases and municipal districts

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Right now, there is a bit of a change going on in the Cook County eviction world.  There was a time where any case in Cook County could be brought in the First District downtown (ie. at the Daley Center).  What I believe was an improperly decided foreclosure case seems to suggest that eviction cases … Read more