So … after all the work I did this summer (in between filming “South Side” for HBO Max) to get my mom’s house ready to get repaired for the winter, there’s only one thing standing between her and getting the house fixed — a ridiculous, previously unknown bill from the city that it attached (in the form of liens) to her property.
She was completely unaware of these liens until a title company ran a report on the property for the purpose of getting a loan for the repairs. Some of these fines date all the way back to 2005.
Liens are like getting parking tickets from the city and not being able to renew your registration. The difference is, instead of not being able to renew her registration, she cannot get a loan to fix her house — specifically, the heat. There are some old fines for things like uncut weeds on a vacant lot she owns and other repairs on her current house that have long since been fixed.
The thing about my mom, though, is that she’s on top of whatever goes on with her properties. If she ever gets a notice, a violation or a fine, she’s down at City Hall lickety-split. In these cases, she was not notified. The only proof of notification the city must provide is saying the notice was mailed. Well, we’ve never had any issues with the mail in Chicago, have we?
The City of Chicago has, however, had a history of cheating Black, Latine and poor people out of their properties using redlining (refusing to provide insurance or a loan to someone because that person lives in an area considered to be a poor financial risk), predatory lending, fines, liens, etc.
Recently, the city of Chicago has come under fire for unfair and illegal fees for parking tickets, registration delinquencies, moving violations and other fines.
Now it seems, instead of (or in addition to) parking, registration and speed camera tickets, the city is also using building violations and fines to unfairly punish people and possibly stage more property revocation or allow other, cash-liquid individuals to acquire them.
While negotiating with the attorney for the city, I asked for a payment plan or a more reasonable solution for my mother. She responded after a couple of days and said the “value of the property and the equity in the property are too high” for them to offer any additional consideration. They are actually punishing her for taking care of her home! Would it be different if she were drowning in debt or the property was worth less (or worthless)? To me, this also means people have been watching and studying the property. There is no other justifiable reason for the attorney to know what the property value is and how much equity exists in the home.
Meanwhile, the situation is getting dire. My mother is using electric heaters to stay warm in a house with old, faulty wiring. It’s very dangerous and the loan has a very short time frame to close before we lose it. If (God forbid) something were to happen to her or the house, the city could easily try to snatch it away, sell it for a fraction of the value or further encumber any progress unless and until the ransom is paid. The fact that it’s in a historic area — near the lake and right by the Tiger Woods Golf Course and the Obama Presidential Library — makes it very attractive.