Daley to Propose New Condo, Renter Protections

By Kevin Robinson in News on Sep 7, 2010 2:00PM

Mayor Daley is preparing to propose a series of new protections for renters and condo buyers in the city of Chicago. Acknowledging that his proposal is too late to help most Chicagoans with housing troubles, the mayor said, nonetheless, that the housing market would come back and the city needs to be prepared for that. "It's gonna come back, and we want to be able to learn by mistakes, let's be realistic, things that did not take place in order to protect people, simple as that," he told the Tribune. "These proposals will serve residents and neighborhoods now, and when the housing market begins to rebound, so there's no better time to enact them into law," he added.

The proposal, which Daley plans to introduce at this Wednesday's city council meeting, will increase from four months to nine months the notice developers have to give renters before they can begin a condo conversion. The mayor's ordinance also requires landlords to give their tenants $1,500 in relocation funds if their building is going condo, and developers must inform buyers the condition the building was in, as well as a list of "standardized" disclosures including assessments and property taxes prior to the sale.

The ordinance is based on a set of recommendations that the Condominium Conversion Task Force sent to the mayor. That task force was empaneled in 2007 (really? It took them three years to come up with this?) by Daley and is comprised of a group of aldermen, real estate agents, developers and renters' rights advocates.