Chicago Building code Violations

[Franklin Azie]

Hey guys, I am looking to purchase my first building in Chicago and I have a couple of questions about how the violations work.

I looked up the building and it seemed to me like there were some violations. I told the owner this and he told me that there are no violations and that the city inspected the property but I want to be absolutely sure. Please see below what I found when looking up the building.

12743222	05/03/2019	CLOSED	DEMO COURT
12697734	01/09/2019	CLOSED	DEMO COURT
12343668	10/11/2018	CLOSED	DEMO COURT
12313591	08/22/2017	CLOSED	CHECKLIST INSPECTION
11690691	10/30/2015	CLOSED	CHECKLIST INSPECTION
11419342	01/13/2015	FAILED	PLUMBING COMPLAINT INSPECTION
11361163	11/14/2014	FAILED	CONSERVATION COMPLAINT INSPECT
11361113	11/12/2014	FAILED	CONSERVATION COMPLAINT INSPECT

I see that the building was in Demo court but those were closed. In 2015 and 2014 the building failed for a plumbing complaint inspection and conservation complaint inspections. My question is this: If he in fact took care of this would the status change from FAILED to CLOSED? Or does the FAILED Designation stay there?

How am I suppose to know or where do I need to go to see whether a previous violation was taken care of and no longer against the building?

[Matthew Olszak]

Originally posted by @Franklin Azie:

Hey guys, I am looking to purchase my first building in Chicago and I have a couple of questions about how the violations work.

I looked up the building and it seemed to me like there were some violations. I told the owner this and he told me that there are no violations and that the city inspected the property but I want to be absolutely sure. Please see below what I found when looking up the building.

12743222	05/03/2019	CLOSED	DEMO COURT
12697734	01/09/2019	CLOSED	DEMO COURT
12343668	10/11/2018	CLOSED	DEMO COURT
12313591	08/22/2017	CLOSED	CHECKLIST INSPECTION
11690691	10/30/2015	CLOSED	CHECKLIST INSPECTION
11419342	01/13/2015	FAILED	PLUMBING COMPLAINT INSPECTION
11361163	11/14/2014	FAILED	CONSERVATION COMPLAINT INSPECT
11361113	11/12/2014	FAILED	CONSERVATION COMPLAINT INSPECT

I see that the building was in Demo court but those were closed. In 2015 and 2014 the building failed for a plumbing complaint inspection and conservation complaint inspections. My question is this: If he in fact took care of this would the status change from FAILED to CLOSED? Or does the FAILED Designation stay there?

How am I suppose to know or where do I need to go to see whether a previous violation was taken care of and no longer against the building?

So I wrote the portion below as a general response, but then I thought to check out this property's history.  This is still in an active building court case, next court date is 08/27, and the judge its with is not typically the easiest to work with. The owner is lying to you - if you buy the property the city will name you as a party to the suit. The demo court lines you see there notate that the court inspector assigned to your case has come out to the property to do a follow up inspection, which they do before each court date.

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Since the property has been in building/demo court, all of the previous violations that the city wants corrected should have been corrected already. A different department handles the inspection of violations vs. the court inspections, so if you don't call in for a reinspection to the former, the violations will remain open. You'll find a lot of properties on the south and west sides with open violations dating back 10+ years, but straight from the mouth of multiple inspectors I've spoken with, they simply don't care. There is too much of a workload to follow up on open violations from years ago. 

To double check though, head over to the Daley Center and you can view the court docs to find out what was going on with demo court and ensure the case is closed.

The typical flow is 311 Complaint -> Conservation Inspection / Violations -> Administrative Hearing -> Building Court. If the building is open/unsecure and vacant it'll skip those middle 2 and go straight to demo court. The other cause of inspections is through the Strategic Task Force which is sent out to "problem buildings" where there have been multiple instances of criminal activity.