Back in March 2024, we discovered something new on the City of Chicago website section dealing with rentals. The link for the Chicago RLTO summary connected to a document that vaguely looked like an RLTO summary. It had all the same information as the prior summary with just a small bit of new information. The summary did not, however, look “real”. There was no City of Chicago seal on the document and it was undated. After a bit of digging, it was discovered that the summary available online was a “draft” of a new version to be released by the City.

Fast forward to April 1, 2024 when I got my hands on what purported to be the official, approved summary. That summary was dated as “Approved by the City of Chicago: July 2020” and “Summary Revised: December 2023”. December 2023? Was this an April fools joke? What about all the leases executed between January 1, 2024 and March 31, 2024?

As I understand it, a number of housing advocates reached out to the City of Chicago about this discrepancy. The new, fully official, version of the Chicago RLTO summary is now live (in both Spanish and English) on the Chicago at this link.

The City of Chicago has added a notation on the website in red text now indicating “Effective as of May 1^st 2024:” After inquiry was made as to whether or not this was sufficient or whether or not the City of Chicago would revise the summary to indicate a May 1, 2024 date, the City indicated that they do not intend to do anything further and that they believe what they have done is sufficient.

As such, beginning with all Chicago leases governed by the Chicago Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance as of May 1, 2024, they must have the “new” summary attached. The Chicago Association of Realtors has updated their form lease to reflect this change.

Yesterday, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation’s Division of Banking announced the new rate of interest for security deposits governed by the Illinois Security Deposit Interest Act 765 ILCS 715 (and other local laws that utilize the Illinois rate). The rate was explained to be “paid by the largest commercial bank with its main banking premises in Illinois on minimum deposit savings accounts as of December 31, 2023 was 0.005% with an Annual Percentage Yield (APY) of 0.01%.”

It seemed like things were getting better with the City of Chicago, however, the last two years haven’t been great when it came to the timely release of security deposit interest rates. It is January 3, 2024 and the page that was updated on January 5, 2023 remains up (see below in case they change the link). When will we get a copy of the new interest rate sheet so that landlords can update their leases? I’ve opined on this in the past – how can the City expect strict liability and strict compliance with their law when they don’t respect landlords enough to give them the information necessary to do the job right? Per the City of Chicago Department of Finance, the rate itself is .010 percent.

This week, Governor Pritzker signed SB1817 which amends the Illinois Human Rights Act and adds “Immigration Status” as a protected class under State of Illinois fair housing laws. The law becomes effective on January 1, 2024. This law answers a question we get all the time – “do I have to rent to someone who is not a citizen?”

Prior to this amendment, the law was somewhat unclear. The Illinois Immigrant Tenant Protection Act prohibits landlords from evicting a tenant based on citizenship/immigration status, but whether or not a landlord could decline a tenant because of immigration status was a gray area at best. Illinois Landlords were still prohibited from discriminating based upon protected classes such as national origin, race, color, and ancestry.

The law defines “Immigration Status” as “a person’s actual or perceived citizenship or immigration status”. That means landlords cannot, among other things, refuse to rent to an applicant based upon their immigration status, cannot charge extra because of immigration status, or cannot indicate a property is unavailable for rent because of immigration status.

As my readers know from my posting infrequency over the last few months, things are super busy in our landlord-tenant practice.  However, this morning, a fellow attorney alerted me to an issue that I want to take time out to share.  The Supreme Court Commission on Access to Justice has promulgated a set of new Answer, Defenses, and Counterclaim forms for tenants’ use in eviction cases.  The forms can be found here on the Illinois Courts webpage.

These forms will be a game-changer for unrepresented tenants.  Why?  They will make it exceedingly easy for tenant-defendants in evictions to raise issues that may or may not be correct but that will result in a stall, delay, or additional complexity in the eviction action.  When those issues, such as defenses related to property condition are raised, complex procedural actions will need to be taken by the litigation participants (including and especially pro-se defendants).  These actions will add to the time in litigation.  When things take more time, that means there is more cost to the landlord for the eviction in (1) time where the property cannot be used to generate income and (2) attorney’s fees and costs.

In essence, the tenants are being spoon-fed the way to answer an eviction complaint.  Unscrupulous tenants will make unsubstantiated or exaggerated claims because the form makes it easy to do so.  As though the efforts to provide resources to tenants such as free legal services, legislative fee-shifting, and the Early Resolution Program (ERP) are not enough, these answers and instructions on answers, defenses, and counterclaims will make an already cumbersome process that (under current conditions) usually takes at least six months in Cook County (1st district) to complete even longer and cost even more.

It begs the question – is this a circumstance of the State of Illinois giving legal advice to tenants?  Even worse, is this the State of Illinois taking a position in a private contractual matter between parties in favor of one party (tenant) and against the other (landlord)?

As a landlord, what can you do about it?  There is a time period for public comment that is open until December 30, 2022.  After that time, the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Access to Justice will review feedback and will make necessary revisions.

House Bill 2775 was signed into law on May 23, 2022.  The law, introduced by Representative La Shawn K. Ford, amends the Illinois Human Rights Act by prohibiting source of income discrimination in real estate transaction under the State’s fair housing laws.  This change brings the entire State of Illinois into line with Chicago and Cook County on the issue of participation in the Section 8 housing voucher program which will no longer be voluntary.  It also opens up a number of questions with regard to whether a landlord must participate in emergency rental assistance programs.  The new law goes into effect January 1, 2023.

I get the phonecalls from landlords every day.  “I hear we can evict tenants again – is that true?”  Hmm… that’s a simple question that requires a nuanced answer.  It is true that on October 4, 2021, the eviction moratorium was lifted, but what replaced it is a system that pre-covid landlords (and their attorneys) might not recognize.  A system that was flawed could arguably be said to be purposefully broken.  We couldn’t evict (except in rare circumstances) before the moratorium ended.   Now, with the moratorium lifted, we face a system that seems almost designed to slow the process and is already in need of significant reform.  Here’s a “state of the union” for evictions in Cook County’s 1st district:

Return Dates

When a case is filed in the Daley Center, a return date (an initial court date) is issued by the Circuit Court.  Before Covid-19, we would routinely be give a return date that was 14 days after a case was filed.  If we were able to get service of process on the tenant, something would happen on that return date – a default eviction order entered, a tenant would appear and ask to file an answer or to get an attorney, or a bench trial might take place.  Upon the lifting of the moratorium, we found that two week return dates had gone away, replaced by 28 day return dates.  In the last few weeks, we have seen return dates of between 60 to 90 days.  That’s right.  If you file a Chicago eviction case today, you are likely to have to wait a minimum of 60 days before you get to see a judge.  To add insult to injury, if we filed two evictions for the same landlord, one right after the other, they used to be assigned, if not to the same courtroom, at least the same return date.  That is no longer the case, so filing multiple evictions at the same time does not allow us to maximize the efficiency of our efforts.  Is all of this purposeful?  Is this because there are so many cases pending?  I’m not sure.  What I do know is that this delay just adds more time to the process and, accordingly, more lost income to the landlords.

Cattle Calls

Before Covid-19, a filed case would be assigned to one of four 14th floor eviction courtrooms.  Now, the Circuit Court seems to have created a single “hub” in the courtroom in 1302.  All cases now seem to originate there.  And what’s the result of that policy?  Huge court calls that begin at 9am and run into the afternoon, some going five hours while others go seven or eight hours.  That’s right.  We sit in zoom court for hours waiting for a case to be called.  Think of courtroom 1302 as the L train station at State and Lake.  You can be in room 1302 for an initial court appearance, a contested continuance, an ERP status matter (the Early Resolution Program of mediation), or just a transfer between courtrooms.  All of those cases are heard in Courtroom 1302 and the Judges give those matters the attention they require which results in long, long court calls.

ERP Program

The ERP Program or “Early Resolution Program” was designed to allow for mediation between landlords and tenants.  When a case is filed, Cook County landlords must attach a summary form describing the program to their summons (a portion of that form is in the image to the left).  The mediation program is mandatory.  While the ERP program has certainly helped to resolve some matters between landlords and tenants, there are tenants who utilize the system to slow the eviction process.  Those tenants agree to enter the program and attempt mediation.  They then barely participate in the program.  That results in multiple continuances in Courtroom 1302 before the case is sent over to a trial court for a prove-up or an eviction trial.  Gone now are the days of one or two week continuances.  Most are three or four weeks.  Two or three such continuances can cost a landlord months of time in the process.  Once the case leaves the mediation process, if there is going to be a default in the case, a prove-up is scheduled for 2 to 4 weeks into the future and it can take even longer to get a trial date if one is necessary.

Pleading Requirements

If you have followed this blog in the past, you probably already know that the size of an eviction complaint has ballooned after Covid-19.  We now must include a copy of the five day notice and affidavit of service of the notice with the complaint along with a copy of the lease.  For any documents we don’t have, we need to submit an affidavit explaining what those documents are and why they are unavailable.  Eviction complaints used to be, in line with the summary nature of an eviction proceeding, short documents. They now look like a book.

Court Orders

Before an eviction order can be placed with the Sheriff, a certified copy of that order needs to be obtained to be delivered to the Sheriff.  During the pandemic and beyond, we are having a horrible time getting copies of court orders that are entered in eviction cases.  Sometimes it can take upwards of six or seven weeks before an order comes into our possession from the Court.  It is my understanding that the pandemic has created a large backlog in the order processing departments of the Circuit Court.

Endgame

So what is the result of all of this?  Time.  And for landlords, time is money.  In the post-Covid-19 world, evictions are not quick.  They are not cheap.  They are not easy.  Whether purposeful or by happenstance, the post-Covid-19 eviction process is more cumbersome, more complex, and more tedious than before the pandemic.  That means longer waits and higher attorney fees.  I wish that wasn’t the case, but it is.  I haven’t even delved into a number of other issues that must currently be considered by an eviction attorney (30 days notice under the CARES Act, the implications of the Fair Notice Amendment, the different requirements of the various Cook County, Chicago, Evanston, and Mt. Prospect landlord tenant ordinances, etc.) and all of it adds up to a tough time to be a landlord in (take your pick): Cook County, Chicago, or Illinois.

Why does this happen every year?  It is now January 4, 2022 and we still do not have a bilingual interest rate summary from the City of Chicago as required by Section 5-12-170 of the Chicago Residential Landlord Tenant Ordinance.  Why?

As most Chicago landlords know, the ordinance requires, among the many disclosures provided to a tenant, that a landlord provide to all tenants signing a lease in 2022 a “separate summary describing the respective rights, obligations and remedies of landlords and tenants with respect to security deposits, including the new interest rate as well as the rate for each of the prior two years.”  It is the obligation of the Chicago Commissioner of Housing to prepare this summary.  If this summary is not provided, a lease is voidable by the tenant and the tenant will have a claim against the landlord for $100 plus attorneys fees and court costs.

Over at the City of Chicago website, the 2022 interest rate has been released but when a landlord (as of 1/4/2022) clicks on the link provided for the bilingual flyer, they get redirected to the 2021 flyer.  This. Is. Unacceptable.

It is hard to comply with the Chicago Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance.  The law provides little, if any, protection or benefit to landlords and imposes strict liability on landlords to comply with its strictures.  The VERY LEAST Chicago landlords can expect is that the City of Chicago would provide them with the tools necessary to comply with the ordinance in a timely way.

What can you do?  I would encourage Chicago landlords – in a POLITE way – to explain the need to provide a timely copy of the summary necessary to make leases valid in 2022 to the Housing Commissioner’s office.  There’s no reason to be mean or snippy – but this is a document we need to make valid leases and it should be as simple as changing a few dates and adding a new line to revise the document and drop it on the City’s website.

If this law is so critical to landlord protections and the City is so adamant that it be enforced in a strict liability fashion, then the City also needs to pay the respect to landlords and the law that is necessary so that those landlords who want to comply can comply.  The City needs to make this an end of year/new year priority.  There’s not a single good excuse for the summary to be tardy in any year.

Remember, the Illinois Security Deposit Interest Act applies to “A lessor of residential real property, containing 25 or more units in either a single building or a complex of buildings located on contiguous parcels of real property…”