Tenant Screening

Enforcement of Just Housing Ordinance Delayed

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Cook County Delays JHO Rules As the January 1, 2020 deadline for implementation of the new law looms, the Cook County Human Rights Commission remains unprepared to handle the questions or to provide the resources necessary regarding the new rules adopted to enforce the Just Housing Amendment (JHO) to the Cook County Housing Ordinance.  In … Read more

Cook County Issues Yet Another Set of Just Housing Rules

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Cook County Landlord Rules for Criminal Background Checks

The Cook County Board of Commissioners released a new set of rules on October 23, 2019 to implement the Just Housing Amendment to the Cook County Housing Ordinance.  This set of rules is basically a rejection of a number of landlord suggested modifications.  The County went with a pro-tenant version.  Distilled down to its essence, under the Just Housing Amendment, a landlord cannot run a criminal background check until after following a number of procedural steps. 

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Call to Action for Comment on Just Housing Ordinance

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Call to Cook County Landlords time to act on Criminal Background Screening

Yesterday, I posted about the Cook County Joint Housing Ordinance.  Today, the Neighborhood Building Owners Alliance issued a landlord “Call to Action” related to the proposed interpretive rules that are under consideration by the Cook County Commissioners.  Oftentimes, landlords ask me “what can I do about all this legislation that points in favor of tenants and against landlords”.  The only real answer is to get involved and get active in landlord advocacy.  This is one of those opportunities.

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Do you know about the new Cook County Just Housing Ordinance?

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That was FAST

On April 21, 2019, the Cook County Board proposed an amendment to the fair housing portion of the Cook County Human Rights Ordinance.  They voted on and passed the measure on April 25, 2019.  That’s not a typo.  They proposed it on a Sunday and passed it by Thursday.  That sure seems like shady dealing.  Dubbed the “Just Housing Ordinance” (do justice-y laws usually need to get rushed through a legislative body without comment or consideration?), the law is to take effect on October 25, 2019.   What is the purpose of the ordinance? 

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Lots going on – Illinois amending Human Rights Act

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Illinois Landlords Criminal Screening to Change Drastically

I’ve been away busy most of the summer, but plenty has been going on in Illinois and Chicago and not much of it has been good for landlords.  In the coming weeks, I’ll be back with some quick hits to go over some of the important things that have gone on over the last 120 days.

I’ll start with the State of Illinois legislature’s amendments to the Illinois Human Rights Act.  This law prohibits discrimination in real estate transactions, financial transactions, employment, and public accommodations based upon membership in a protected class.  Senate Bill SB1780 has passed both houses of the Illinois legislature and has been sent to Governor Pritzker.  if the law is not vetoed by August 31, 2019, it will pass into law and will be effective beginning January 1, 2020.

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HUD issues fair housing “guidance” on landlord use of criminal background checks

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stupidNot good news for Chicago landlords

April 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.

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Just one simple check of Cook County eviction court records could save landlords money

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tscreenI received a great email from a person I spoke to about a landlord tenant issue just a bit ago.  We did not come to an engagement on the case, but this landlord wanted to update me about the eviction situation.  The landlord suggested I pass along one simple tip to my readers and so I’m going to do that.

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Look deeper when conducting tenant screening

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A few years ago, I penned an article about The Art of Finding the Right Tenant.  While that article remains useful today, America’s troubled economy further complicates the already difficult procedure of choosing a tenant.  Landlords still need to do the legwork ensuring that application information is complete, consistent, and truthful.  However, because today’s tenants may have a more “precarious” economic situation, Analysis of application data is important.  Landlords in 2012 need to think a few steps ahead and outside the box when making their tenant

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