The Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal wrote “Rent control has in certain Western countries constituted, maybe, the worst example of poor planning by Governments lacking courage and vision.”
Well, the people trying to “lift the ban” on rent control are back at it
Cook County Court Halts EvictionsOn November 25, 2019, Circuit Court of Cook County Judge E. Kennth Wrights, Jr. issued the expected General Order 2019-01 which sets out the annual eviction moratorium for the enforcement of Cook County eviction orders for December 2019 and January 2020. As usual, the order applies to residential (not commercial) eviction in Cook County.
HB0255 defeated A number of sources, including Capital Fax, are beginning to report that Rep. Will Guzzardi’s HB0255 intending to repeal the ban on rent control has been defeated in committee. Other bills remain in both the House and the Senate but this is a major victory for landlords in Illinois. Landlords need to remain … Read more
He’s Baaaa-aack!The 101st General Assembly began work yesterday (January 9, 2019) and on the first day in session, 309th district state representative Will Guzzardi (D) once again introduced House Bill 255 (HB0255) to repeal the Rent Control Preemption Act that prohibits the imposition of rent control laws in Illinois.
As I mentioned a few days back, there was a meeting in downtown Chicago of the Illinois Special Senate Committee on Housing to discuss rent control legislation. So what happened? Predictable things happened. Community organizers and tenants’ rights advocates filled the room with folks with yellow signs demanding rent control. Landlord and real estate agent activists spoke about the perils of rent control. You can read all about it in an article published in Crain’s Chicago Business.
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
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?
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
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?
Push to erode landlord rights continuesThe 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.