Two and a half years ago, six tenants challenged an ordinance in south suburban Park Forest requiring annual inspections of rented single-family homes.
The plaintiffs complained the law amounted to an invasion of privacy and violated their civil rights. But this past spring, a federal judge disagreed, saying the law was constitutional if applied to all residential rental properties in the village.
Still, it appears the plaintiffs will be victorious.
After all the legal wrangling, the future of the ordinance will be dictated not by its lawfulness, but by its affordability.
Park Forest officials say they are ready to concede defeat and repeal the ordinance because it will be too costly, even though they still defend the spirit of the ordinance.
Officials say the ordinance was designed to protect the rights of tenants from slum landlords and to preserve the housing stock.
Research shows that rental properties require more frequent inspections, Village Manager Janet Muchnik said. The village targeted single-family rentals for annual inspections because tenancy in those residences typically runs longer than in apartment dwellings.
Muchnik said conducting annual inspections of multifamily units would be “cost prohibitive.”
“Park Forest is in a fairly unusual position in that we do have large numbers of multifamily rentals,” she said. “We could never afford the staff and couldn’t make it back from the fees that are charged.”
The ordinance charged landlords an annual fee of $100 per house to cover the cost of inspections. To raise the fee would be “onerous and unreasonable,” Muchnik said.
Now, on the advice of attorneys, village staff members are drafting a repeal of the rental ordinance to return to inspecting single-family rentals at change of occupancy, which had been the practice before the law was amended in January 1994.
Muchnik said she has reviewed a first draft and expects the proposal to be put before the Village Board for a vote within the next few weeks.
The current ordinance states that all single-family rental properties in the village must undergo an annual exam by a licensed village inspector, even if the tenant has filed no complaints.
In March, U.S. District Judge Joan Gottschall upheld the law but mandated that it also apply to multifamily dwellings. Anything less could be viewed as discrimination, she said.
Currently, the village inspects individual units in multifamily dwellings at change of occupancy only. Only the common areas, such as boiler rooms, are examined annually.
Repealing the law effectively would settle a lawsuit filed by six tenants in December 1995 challenging the constitutionality of the inspections ordinance.
Neighboring Olympia Fields passed an ordinance earlier this year requiring annual inspections of rented single-family homes.
“Rental houses can present a particular problem,” said Olympia Fields Village President Linzey Jones. “Owner-occupied property tends to be better maintained.”
Unlike Park Forest, Olympia Fields has few single-family rental homes and no multifamily dwellings. Jones said there have been no complaints about the law and the village will proceed with the ordinance, which is not due for review until next summer.
In the Park Forest suit, lawyers for the Institute for Justice, a non-profit public interest law firm in Washington that is representing the plaintiffs, contended the ordinance violated the 4th Amendment protection against unreasonable government searches.
The suit also challenged the law’s language, specifically the part stating that if the tenant did not give consent to enter the home for an inspection, the landlord’s consent was sufficient.
Park Forest suspended the inspections in March until Gottschall, who said she needed more time, could rule on the consent question. Before she could issue a ruling, the village informed the court that a repeal of the ordinance appeared imminent, Village Atty. Kathy Orr said.
Scott Bullock, an attorney with the institute, issued a statement declining comment on the case due to an impending settlement.
Orr said that when the ordinance first was passed, the support from residents was overwhelming. She added that inspectors never attempted to enter a residence without the tenant’s knowledge.
“No one ever intended to go into a home without the owners/occupants being aware of it,” she said. “It’s not smart.”
Gottschall also upheld the village’s right to obtain a search warrant to conduct inspections but struck down a provision that charged landlords a $60 fee every time the village had to obtain a warrant.
Still, Orr said, images purported by critics of village inspectors rifling through drawers and personal belongings were unfounded.
“We would never want anyone to suggest we harmed anything,” she said.
Rick Reinbold, a landlord with several rental properties in Park Forest who had encouraged his tenants to reject village requests to inspect his properties, called plans to repeal the law “good news.”
“It’s certainly a confirmation of what we’ve maintained all along,” he said. “Why didn’t (the village) do this when (they) were asked to do this?”
Most landlords address problems, he said, conducting periodic self-inspections on heating and air equipment, and doing periodic drive-bys to look for exterior damage.
“But most landlords respect tenants’ rights to privacy,” he said. “We don’t walk through their home unless they have a problem.”
