2019 Legislation Affecting the Apartment Industry

Several new Illinois state laws effective Jan. 1, 2019 may affect the apartment industry or your business. 

Streamlining licensing regulations for real estate professionals (Public Act 100-831, House Bill 5210) In an attempt to reduce the burdensome licensing requirements placed on realtors, this new law reduces the number of licenses a real estate broker must have with the State. Real estate brokers will now only need one license for their principal pace of business, but must only notify IDFPR of the other places of businesses they operate. Prior to this change, brokers who had more than one office were forced to apply for a separate license for each branch and pay a fee for each branch they operate.

Water and sewage system combination (Public Act-100-847, House Bill 1190) Sanitary districts are permitted to combine their waterworks system and their sewage system into one utility and to combine their billing for cost and efficiency purposes.

Real estate trainee appraisers (Public Act 100-832, House Bill 5502) Associate real estate trainee appraisers who don’t wish to advance to become real estate appraisers will be able to continue limited appraisal duties without actually becoming full-fledged appraisers. Many trainees wish to continue conducting research on properties, dealing with customers, and writing appraisal reports, but do not want to perform the actual appraisals and do not need to have the full license

Providing public housing applicants better status information (Public Act 100-1021, Senate Bill 3081) Upon request by an applicant for a Housing Authority’s public housing, or other housing owned or operated by a Housing Authority for which the Housing Authority manages a waiting list, the Authority shall provide the applicant with information on the applicant’s position on the waiting list within 10 business days.

Extending sunset date requiring “Design-Build” be used in public building projects (Public Act 100-736, Senate Bill 3561) Sunset dates are extended for five years in regard to public building projects being required to use the design-build method of construction. Design-build is an often utilized building option that will continue to be available for public construction and maintenance projects until June 1, 2023 under the Act.