Monday, February 27, 2012

 

New Laws for Landlords

Public Act 97-470 (HB 1233) requires landlords in cook county to change or rekey the locks for each unit when the unit is vacated by one tenants before a new lease begans. So everytime you have a apartment turn over you have to re-key that apartment. The law limits the liability of the landlord to damages due to theft due to the apartment not being rekeyed.

If you want to read up on this law and others effecting rental units in Illinois check out this web site: http://www.illinoisrealtor.org/sites/illinoisrealtor.org/files/Governmentaffairs/2011endofsession.pdf
You need to scroll down to page 11 for the apartment rental laws.

Monday, February 06, 2012

 

Fire Safety

After the death of a woman in a high-rise fire at 3130 Lake Shore Drive the City of Chicago will be posting the fire safety reports of older high-rises, built before 1975, online. data.cityofchicago.org
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-02-04/news/ct-met-fire-safety-online-updates-20120204_1_fatal-high-rise-fire-older-high-rises-residential-high-rises

For smaller buildings I could not find any specifics in the CRLTO about fire safety accept the building owner must provide smoke and carbon dioxide detectors for all of the units and the tenant is to maintain the batteries. I still recommend that you replace the batteries in the detectors when new tenants are moving in. First is gives you a chance to make sure the detectors are in working order and also starts your tenants off with the right fire safety message. Landlords are also responsible for keeping the exits in good working order and free of obstruction (even if your tenant is the one obstructing things). For additional information about fire safety standards for individual building you will need to check the building code.

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