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.
Not good news for Chicago landlordsApril is fair housing month and to celebrate, the Office of the General Counsel of HUD has released “Guidance on Application of Fair Housing Act Standards to the Use of Criminal Records by Providers of Housing and Real Estate-Related Transactions“. This little ditty is a wonderful little gift to landlords throughout Chicagoland! If you think that the application of fair housing to landlord screening procedures was hard before, just wait until you get a load of this one. Unfortunately, folks, it’s the law (or at least, it’s HUD’s position on how the law will be enforced) and you need only head over to their website to see gleeful press releases related to big dollar settlements with landlords for fair housing violations to see the logical result of noncompliance. This law applies to private landlords as well as public housing entities. This one is going to get a bit long, so buckle up.
It is bold. It is outrageous. It is unbelievable. Back in May of 2011, I wrote about the rise in scams against landlords. Those scams seem not to have abated in the time since then. Based on the phonecalls our office receives, these scams are still occurring in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. The scams target owners with vacant property.
The scam works like this.
If we outlaw guns, then only outlaws will have guns. I’d rather have outlaws holding the guns instead of tenants! (This is not a post about gun control!) Well, the news wires are blowing up (pun intended) tonight over the story of a south shore gentleman who drew an AK-47 assault rifle on his landlord. Apparently, the landlord had gone to see the tenant to discuss the tenant’s impending eviction. NBC news reported that the tenant allegedly had a stockpile of ammunition in the house. Luckily, no one was hurt and the tenant was arrested and charged with felony assault.