Law: Illinois has a law that requires (I believe) the insurance company to give a 'General and Special Taxes & Demolition Expenses' Form (Important info for this issue) to the city when claims/damages are over a certain dollar value. This form references Section 397.1 of the Illinois Code (215 ILCS 5/397.1)

The City Completed the form and form subsequentially was passed to insurance company. The insurance company wrote a check to my LLC, which owns the house, less the amount required by the City written on the General and Taxes & Demolition Expenses Form. A different check of the required amount was written by the insurance company to my LLC, the City and the mortgage company. All will sign the check except the City. I have the check in my possession.

The SFH in question has been sold in fire damage condition, nothing was completed to repair the building except being boarded up and throwing a couple of tarps over the holes in the roof. House was sold as-is condition. Property sold in June 2023. If people are curious, the damage/work exceeded my skill set to repair the house.

A call to the City, two weeks after the sale of the property, the City asked if the house was repaired or demolished. I said, "no, but the house was sold a couple of weeks ago." The city said because the house was not repaired or demolished, they cannot release the check.

Frustrated, I didn't revisit this issue till recently, mid January 2023. Trying again, I went to the City Hall, they took a copy of the check and I received a call from a City representative and I believe the same person and again, she said the same thing. "The house is not repaired or demolished, so they cannot release the check." Side note, the buyer/current owner of the property has not done a single thing to the property. It looks like nothing has been touched. Very weird.

After getting nowhere with this city representative, I called a local lawyer whom helped a bit however, this is a very specific issue and only could help with basic facts. Then, I called a local insurance adjuster I have dealt with in the past. He agree with me and the City holding the money, 'hostage' and he mentioned to call and talk to the building inspector and perhaps get a lawyer to send a letter to the City.

Yesterday, the City building inspector called and said the same thing as the previous City representative, along with that the Form is for the tax payers not to pay for a demolition of a property. "Why should the tax payers pay for the demolition of the property?", He said. I gave him the example of, "This is no different from a 1000 years from now, 10 property owner changes later and if the property stays in the current state. You can still hold my money for a property that I don't even own?!" I understand the spirit of the this Illinois law/Code and somewhat disagree with it for my situation. This Code does not show provisions or mention about what happens when a property is sold.

As of now, I am getting nowhere with the city and I have reached out to a couple lawyers whom I have yet to see if they are versed in this very particular and uncommon situation. Currently, I have very low hopes and figured I reach out to this community to see if anyone can help with a direction, options or other that will not be erroneously expensive. Personally, I would like not to go through litigation and court but if I do, can I sue the City for damages, inflation adjustments, loss of gains from not being able to use the money to help my Real Estate Portfolio grow?

For reference, here is a copy of the Illinois code: https://codes.findlaw.com/il/chapter-215-insurance/il-st-sec...

Pictures of The General and Special Taxes and Demolition Expenses (and addendum that was stapled to the Demo form) are redacted and below.