Archive
A buyer who will live in one unit of a Chicago two-flat or three-flat inherits the existing leases and deposits. This guide covers the owner-occupied RLTO exclusion and what still applies, deposit transfer at closing, rent rolls and estoppels, and the contract terms to add during attorney review.
What a buyer of Illinois commercial property should do between the signed contract and closing: CERCLA landowner protections and the all appropriate inquiries rule, Illinois Site Remediation Program letters, survey, Chicago zoning, tenant estoppels, and transfer tax declarations.
A commercial purchase or lease is a sequence of legal decision gates: preliminary terms, definitive documents, diligence, title, zoning and environmental review, financing, closing conditions, and recording. The useful question at each gate is what right or deadline disappears next.
Attorney review in an Illinois residential transaction is a contractual right defined by the signed form. The clause can create a short period for approval, disapproval, or modification, but the deadline, permitted changes, notice method, and consequences come from the actual contract.
Earnest money is controlled by the contract, not by a general rule that the deposit is always refundable or always forfeited. The key questions are what contingency applies, what deadline controls, what notice is required, and what remedy the contract allows after a breach.
The 5-business-day attorney review window in Chicago-area Multi-Board residential contracts: what can be modified, the parallel inspection deadline, Cook County tax prorations, seller disclosures under 765 ILCS 77, and the three first-time buyer mistakes.
What Illinois home sellers must disclose under 765 ILCS 77: the material-defect standard, no duty to inspect, why ‘as is’ doesn’t erase disclosure, flood disclosure, the buyer’s five-business-day termination right after a late disclosure, and remedies under 765 ILCS 77/55.
Where the Chicago-area attorney-review clause comes from, how Illinois courts have read modification letters and disapprovals, when the contract becomes final, and how to use the review period without creating a dispute.
How to read an Illinois title commitment (215 ILCS 155, ALTA structure): Schedule A vs. Schedule B, requirements vs. exceptions, and the endorsements that add real coverage.
A step-by-step Chicago-area closing checklist from accepted offer to keys: attorney review and inspection deadlines, financing, title, the walkthrough, and closing day.