The New Real Property Disclosure Act

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.