IRELA

This program will discuss the intricacies of the Chicago Zoning Ordinance and its implications on the real estate transactions in the City of Chicago. The webinar will provide (1) an overview of why and when a zoning inquiry and analysis is necessary and beneficial for your real estate clients; (2) how to efficiently and effectively perform zoning due diligence and obtain necessary zoning information about a property; (3) what types of zoning relief are available and authorized by the Ordinance, and how to apply for such relief from the requirements of the Zoning Code; (4) the program will also touch on the following select recent changes to the Chicago Zoning Ordinance that may affect clients who own or develop real estate in the City of Chicago: the Additional Dwelling Unit Ordinance, Pilsen Preservation District Ordinance, Predominance of the Block (606) District Ordinance and the Air Quality Ordinance. The program will provide helpful practice tips and strategies to incorporate the zoning due diligence into your real estate practice. Participants will learn to use the zoning map tool and navigate the zoning ordinance, which will enhance the level of legal services provided to their clients.

A review of recent studies and statistics surrounding cyber security and how people continue to be the weakest link. This session will be led by Tom Cronkright who is an attorney, title agency owner, wire fraud victim and Executive Chairman of CertifID. He will review statistics around COVID and how work from home, mobile payments and social distancing has increased the threat of cyber fraud on companies and consumers. This session will also include new insights, strategies, and technologies to keep you and your customers safe from cyber fraud.

Generally speaking, title company seminars on surveys are often limited to the various types of surveys, encroachments, and building line violations. “Advanced Survey Analysis” is a quantum leap forward. Topics to be discussed are gaps and overlaps; the center of section problem; the apportionment rule; fences and the rectangular survey system; the basis of the bearing problem; legal descriptions and occupational evidence; and surveys of riparian (waterfront) property. An illustrated treatise on the subject, prepared exclusively for this presentation, will be distributed to all attendees.

Pursuant to the Illinois Real Property Disclosure Act, a sale of residential real estate is supposed to start with the seller providing a disclosure report to the buyer, prior to the parties entering into a contract. The Act delineates who is a seller, which sellers are required to disclose, and what and when a seller must disclose to a prospective buyer. Overall, the Act has served well since it became law in 1994. However, since its enactment over a quarter of a century ago, much has changed in the practice of real estate and related areas of law. Until now, there had not been any comprehensive review or update of the Disclosure Act, though it was seriously needed.
Seeing the need, IRELA undertook reviewing the entire Disclosure Act, debating its provisions and drafting amendments to modernize it, to alleviate confusing provisions and misinterpretations thereof, and to clarify its requirements. The IRELA committee, was chaired by Dan Greenberg and consisted of members Marc Blumenthal, Karen Patterson, Michael Rooney, and Colleen Sahlas, with occasional input, inspiration, and direction from John O’Brien, and in the legislative process itself from Jay Curtis. The committee spent many hours over a good number of months reviewing, discussing, and debating the entire act and its provisions, resulting in HB 4322. That bill passed the House 111-0, the Senate 53-0, and was signed into law by the Governor on May 13, 2022, as P.A. 102-765.
IRELA endeavored to reasonably protect buyers, to facilitate real estate practice, and to alleviate the proliferation of attorney review changes related to the Act. While working within the framework and intent of the original act, these new amendments bring much more clarity to the Act, as well as some new additions. This course will delve into how those amendments affect every day real estate practice and the clients we represent.