Keep Chicago Renting Ordinance is DONE

[Matthew Olszak]

This probably doesn't affect a whole lot of folks, but if nothing else its a good sign as far as the appellate court's view of excessively overreaching ordinances:

https://courts.illinois.gov/Op...

"It is evident that the KCRO clearly regulates and controls the amount of rent a landlord may charge for residential property—no more than 102% of a qualified tenants’ current annual rent. As such, it clearly runs afoul of the Act, which prohibits such control or regulation by “home rule” bodies such as the City."

"¶ 25 Ms. Rivera suggests that a landlord may avoid the effect of this control by declining to rent the property to a qualified tenant altogether and instead offer the relocation assistance fee. However, this reasoning strains logic because under that analysis, no rent control measure would ever be contrary to the Act because rent control, even as traditionally understood, does not require a property owner to rent the property. An owner is always free to decline to rent his property and, as such, avoid any restrictions on the amount of rent that can be charged."

"Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the Chicago City Council would not have passed the KCRO without the rent limitation. In other words, rent control is an integral underpinning of the ordinance. For this reason, we conclude that the invalid portion of the KCRO is not severable from the remainder of the ordinance. Therefore, the KCRO is wholly preempted by the Act, and the trial court erred in denying the defendants’ motion to dismiss on that basis."

On a side note, check out what the circuit court awarded the tenant before the appellate court reversed: $21,200 in statutory damages, $807.50 in costs, and...

$98,420.00 in attorney fees!

[Henry Lazerow]

Great news! I feel the pritzker eviction ban is in a way very similar to rent control (taking control of private property) especially now that they just renewed it even AFTER a vaccine. We need to launch class action civil suits which several other states have already started.