Vacant 20 Unit under demolition order. Can it be stopped?

[Rich Wilken]

There is a 20 unit apartment building in a small submarket in the Chicagoland area that I have had my eye on for the last few years. The building is held in an LLC that is owned by the son and the wife of the original owner. The son calls himself the manager but has never returned my calls. He replied to my email once, never to letters of intent. The building has needed work for years and is the victim of deferred maintenance as the owners treated it like a cash machine instead of an investment. Well, that has all caught up to them over the last few months. The Village where the building is has now sought a demolition order for the building due to; smoke alarms, improper boiler venting, leaking gas lines to stoves, and leaking roofs over the front and rear entrances. We are not even talking about major issues here. The Village forced the eviction of the remaining 4 tenants. It blows my mind.

Does anyone have experience getting a court injunction to stop a demolition order issued by a municipality?