Check Your Tenants' Utilities Before Heating Season

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by Mel Metts

In 2005, the city of Waukegan enacted Ordinance 05-O-47.

The ordinance makes you - the landlord - responsible for tenants' emergency housing expenses if they fail to pay for their own heat.

One way to deal with this is to add a lease provision that makes it a lease violation if the tenant has any utilities disconnected for non-payment. Here is how I have amended my rental agreement:

Tenant is responsible for □ gas and □ electric utility, and will put □ gas and □ electric in Tenant's name. Tenants whose utilities are not connected within three days of lease inception, or are disconnected at any time for non-payment, are in violation of this lease, and are subject to eviction.

If tenants are responsible for gas and/or electric, I simply check the appropriate box.

It is the landlord/agent's job to routinely check to ensure that the tenants' utilities have not been disconnected. Don't wait until the tenant calls code enforcement about their lack of heat.

To enforce this lease provision, you'll need a Ten-Day Notice. This form is available from our website at http://www.lcaoa.org/_memberforum/downloads/10DAY2.pdf.

Be specific about what lease provision was violated, and allow ten days for the tenant to comply-or move. If the tenant neither complies or moves, no further warnings are necessary. Simply proceed to file the Forcible papers at the courthouse.

ORDINANCE

05-O- 47

AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE 96- O - 153, THE PROPERTY MAINTENANCE CODE OF THE CITY OF WAUKEGAN, REGARDING HEAT SUPPLY

BE IT ORDAINED BY THE City Council of the City of Waukegan, as follows:

SECTION 1: That Section 602.2.1 of the BOCA Property Maintenance Code, which has been adopted in Ordinance 96-0-153, by the City Council of the City of Waukegan as the Property Maintenance and Housing Code of the City of Waukegan is hereby amended as follows:

DELETE existing Section 602.2.1 and REPLACE with the following:

Sec. 602.2.1 Heat Supply: Every owner and operator of any building who rents, leases, or lets one or more dwelling units shall supply sufficient heat during the period from September 1 through June 15 of each year to maintain the following room temperatures: from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., 65 degrees F; from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., 68 degrees F; and from 10:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m., 60 degrees F. The Building Official is hereby authorized, in cases whereby tenants are adversely affected by the failure of an owner or operator of a building to comply with the terms of this paragraph, such that an emergency results, to relocate the said tenants on a short-term emergency basis, through the Red Cross, Catholic Charities, or some similar relief agency, all at the expense of the said owner or operator.

SECTION 2: All ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict herewith are hereby repealed, to the extent of such conflict.

SECTION 3: This ordinance shall be in full force and effect from and after its passage, approval, and publication as provided by law.