City of Chicago interest rate to be paid on Security Deposits under CRLTO remains unchangedThe City of Chicago has released the new interest rate for 2016. That rate, for security deposits under rental agreements governed by the Chicago Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance, is unchanged from 2015 and will be set 0.01%.
As part of the recently passed ordinance to address bedbugs in Chicago, the Chicago Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance was amended to add a new disclosure requirement for landlords. Brand new section 5-12-101 (this is based on the proposed ordinance – we are still awaiting a copy of the officially published ordinance) institutes yet another … Read more
Calculating the interest due a tenant on a security deposit held by a landlord pursuant to a tenancy governed by the Chicago Residential Landlord Tenant Ordinance should be simple enough, right? It should be, however, because of the “high stakes” involved in the case of an incorrect calculation, landlords need to make sure the calculation is done right.
So, without much further ado, here is an example of how to calculate the interest payable to a tenant with a security deposit on a one year lease subject to CRLTO section 5-12-080(c).
I was not planning on discussing bedbugs this week, however, in the wake of Orkin’s recent report that Chicago has the worst bedbug problem in the nation, the City Council of Chicago has proposed a new ordinance that would impose a responsibility on Chicago landlords to address bedbug problems and the law is getting quite a bit of press. We’ve been discussing tenant move-in and move-out this week, so let’s talk just a bit about when bedbugs move-in and what, if anything, landlords have to do to move them out. The Chicago Tribune reported that alderman had a hearing this past Tuesday at a joint meeting of the City Council Health and Housing committees on comprehensive new proposed ordinance to deal with these increasingly common pests.
The Kübler-Ross Model of the stages of grief deals with the feelings people experience in response to death or terminal illness. There are five stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. There is no real “order” to the stages and many people move from one stage to the other and back again. Eventually, people move on to a peaceful acceptance of death.
Interestingly, in my landlord-tenant practice, I have found that Chicago landlords who have violated the Chicago Residential Landlord Tenant Ordinance go through these same stages after being served with a complaint or a nasty attorney letter threatening legal action based upon violations of the Chicago Residential Landlord Tenant Ordinance.
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.
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.
January 2018 Update: This news is as relevant today as it was in 2012.
Today’s news demonstrates yet another high profile example of a landlord ignoring the law. According to the Chicago Tribune, one Chicago landlord has notified its tenants that building repairs are expected to leave tenants without heat or hot water for about three weeks. Instead of leaving tenants without a warm shower, the landlord found itself in hot water with the City of Chicago.
Just asking to make matters worse, the building’s management company delivered a letter (the Chicago Tribune has posted a copy of the letter here) to tenants suggesting that building occupants use a space heater for heat and that the tenants “can also turn your oven on to supplement heat as needed”.
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.