Council suspends apartment ordinance Review ordered: Landlords criticize inspections, say rents will absorb fees

Basically, their concerns center on requirements that all rental units apply for business licenses and be subjected to periodic inspection for code violations.

The city has contended that these measures are part of the overall effort to police housing standards.

But apartment owners have gone public with claims that the inspections amount to warrantless searches and come with substantial fees that would be passed along to tenants in the form of rent increases.

Mel Metts, a Mundelein-based member of the apartment owners association, told the council this week that "it's not just the landlords that are against (the ordinance). The Lake County Association of Realtors has a problem with this.

Fair Housing (Center of Lake County) has a problem with this.

The banking industry is also concerned.

"We have a vested interest in improved property values," Metts said.

"We're not sure what this ordinance was trying to achieve."

Mayor Richard Hyde responded to Metts with an olive branch.

"I hope you understand what we were trying to do," he said.

"We've got problems in our apartments.

Not all of them, but some of them ... It was targeted at bad landlords."

Several alderman picked up on this theme, saying the ordinance was intended to target slumlords and might have had the unintended effect of pinching legitimate business owners.

"I didn't realize we'd be hitting these folks for $10 an apartment," said 1st Ward Ald. Sam Cunningham, referring to one estimated cost of fees.

"I was a proponent of (the ordinance), but until we get a better understanding of it, I'd like to see it brought back into committee."

Fifth Ward Ald. Frank Harris Jr., a real estate agent, said landlords should have been consulted when the ordinance was crafted.

He recommended that they be included during the review.

"If we're going to affect their lives and livelihoods, then they should have some input," Harris said.

The council voted unanimously to suspend the new inspection procedures and sent the ordinance back to the Judiciary Committee for review.

The matter will be on the agenda March 18 before the regular council meeting, and public input will be welcome.

Rickerd lauded landlords for what he called their "professionalism" in lodging their complaints.

"They weren't threatening at all" in questioning the ordinance, he said.

Other alderman pointed out that the reconsideration of the issue is not the result of undue pressure.

"It isn't a matter of being pressured," Harris said.

"It's a matter of what's right and what's wrong.

Sometimes it's hard to admit when you're wrong.

But we failed to do our jobs as well as we should have.

We need to back up and start over."