Chicago’s Vacation Rental Ordinance (“Ordinance”) has been on the books for several years, but a quick scan of Airbnb provides evidence that it’s being routinely ignored.
Back in July we questioned whether Flats Chicago had the licenses required by the Ordinance for its Airbnb listings at 4875 N Magnolia. We also questioned whether Flats Chicago had made proper license disclosures and whether the units conformed to occupancy and zoning restrictions.
An email and phone conversation with a disgruntled ex-employee of the company (I’ve heard from several over time) prompted me to revisit Flats Chicago’s Airbnb’s listings.
The company currently has ads for what appear to be eight separate units at 4875 N Magnolia. The Ordinance limits the number of licensed vacation units in a building to six. A former flats employee has told me that the company also has seven short-stay apartments at each of two other properties.
A current detailed scan of Flats Chicago’s website didn’t surface the license disclosure that the Ordinance requires.
I’ve placed a phone call to Anthony Mugnolo at Flats Chicago requesting clarification, but haven’t heard back as of the time of this post. I’ve also filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the City of Chicago to determine the licensing status of the three properties.
The Ordinance provides for a fine of $500 to $1,000 for each violation and for each day that a violation continues. It also provides that “any person who operates a vacation rental without a license issued under this chapter may be subject to incarceration for a period not to exceed six months.”
Added 12/8: The City provided a one business day response to my FOIA request. You can click the following image and note that the City’s records contain no vacation rental licenses for Flats Chicago units at 4875 N Magnolia, 5411 N Winthrop or 5051 N Kenmore.
I’m sorry to have to ask this, but is this the worst thing happening in the world today? I value your blog, but this seems nitpicky, almost as if you have a personal vendetta against Flats Chicago. I have no affiliation with them whatsoever, I promise, but why the smear campaign?
They have right units instead of six… call the police! Shut them down! Fine them! Put them out of business!
You have a great.service, your blog. To see a post like this, I would expect it to be signed “Gladys Kravitz.”
Doug
Smear campaign? Get a grip on reality. I haven’t posted on Flats in months. I haven’t reported the disturbing allegations I’ve been hearing from renters and ex-employees.
Eight instead of six? No, eight instead of zero, i.e. the number of licenses that are properly disclosed and that may not have been obtained.
If there are no licenses the city is being cheated out of revenue that has to be made up by someone else. If there are no licenses then any number of people who book on Airbnb may be blindsided if they’re shut down for not having them. If there are more units in a building than there should be, then renters in the building are being inconvenienced by that. And if Flats Chicago is serially violating a law that has criminal sanctions, everyone should know what kind of a company they might be dealing with.
I would have expected your post to be signed by “know-nothing head-in-the-sand apologist.”
Has anyone ever been incarcerated for a vacation rental violation?
Just curious but how long will it take to get back the info from the FOIA?
One more……would each violation include…a paid night…or each night, each unit was marketed?
I live in Uptown, fairly active and fair to say in opposition to the Alderman Cappleman (a fawning flats follower of fashion), I have had no conflict directly with Flats even while on the zoning committee because they never asked for a zoning change.
In the last month or so I started checking out their art shows and reaching out a bit, have heard back an email or two. I’m an artist and I wish more developers would their spaces for the arts when possible. Promoting art and artists can be cheaper then a single print ad so why not? Flats is doing…something…so that is worth noting.
The jury is still out as far as I am concerned, the art shows are nice. The effort could reach farther into the neighborhood and gather more authenticity and depth, Flats and others, including my friends need to suspend disbelief forget the politics for a minute and give it a chance or…just fuggetaboutit.
Cheers to Yo.
Jeffrrey,
I’m unfamiliar with anyone ever having been jailed for violating the Ordinance.
A staffer at the city’s Business Affairs and Consumer Protection bureau told me over the phone that they aim for responses to FOIA requests within two business days.
According to the Ordinance:
Since a separate license is required for each unit, each day a unit was rented without a license is “a separate and distinct offense.” Each day that a license wasn’t disclosed on a website is “a separate and distinct offense.” Follow that approach for a number of other provisions of the Ordinance that may have been violated, including e.g. failure to display a license in the unit, and do the math. You’re looking at a large number.
Thank you for the clear concise answer.
So its been by my guesstimation about a 140 days these have been marketed, 8 units, $500.-1000 fine each per day…
That would be a possible exposure to fines in the range of $560,000 to $1,120,000…..ouch…for the Magnolia property.
Unless…multiple offenses are assigned to each property per day it can only go north from there.
Jeffrey,
someone told me a few weeks back that you were cozing up to FLATS. I didn’t want to believe it. Say it ain’t so Jeffro? I guess the potential to display some of your “artwork” outweighs any other considerations, huh? Oh well I’ll be nice or less unnice and not mention twerking and crayolas.
Joe,
FLATS has been improving. Perhaps that’s like the Cubs—perennial losers of the National League. FLATS does seem to be finishing some buildings and they apparently stopped “branding” their buildings with gray paint. The only suggestion I would make for FLATS in this instance is to learn from the mistakes of another Uptown related property interest.
Lost Horizon.
IP,
My take – Horizon was ethically bankrupt long before it was legally bankrupt. I’ve deliberately omitted Horizon properties from our comprehensive lists on what I consider the well-founded assumption that renters should avoid this company. You can expect the same players to be running the same business under a new name in short order.
As to whether Flats Chicago has upped its game – you might want to see whether renters in the recently-completed portion of 5411 N Winthrop have the same impression.
Joe,
I thought Horizon also owned the buildings it managed. Maybe I was/am wrong.
Perhaps they have a separate property management company and LLC’s for each building.
In any case if that case did somehow develop out of their “tweet controversy” it could be named “The Tweet that ROARED”.
As for “FLATS” improvement is a relative concept.
IP,
Uptown Update is dead so here you are?
I wouldn’t call it “cozying up” just reaching out because that is what neighbors do, give each other the benefit of the doubt, good neighbors anyway. Bad neighbors slam each other anonymously on the internet with a tired old schtick.
I have no interest in hanging my art in group shows, Flats or otherwise. I can give Jay Michael credit for doing something for artists, visual and performing, in his spaces.
I know Flats reads this, if they have a thick skin they will reach back and I can help expand their support in Uptown. If not life goes on I don’t need Flats anymore then they need me simply put.
I believe his effort can be more effective with more artists involved, more neighbors. You are the guy who thought Sedgewick was a great thing for Uptown, you are a hack and 90% of Uptown agreed.
The twerking schtick is cute but…I do not have the a** for it.
Amy Crawford is going to beat the pants off of your fickle and ineffective Cappleman…Ha…sucker….:)
Mr. Zekas
Isn’t there shared family interests between Flats and Horizon or is Micheals just a common enough name?
From my experience in the trades Flats projects are run very shoddily and the site is always unkempt. Contractors at the former Lawrence House were throwing debris into a pick-up from the forth floor fire escape the other day, very unprofessional singular example and there are so so many. If I was a jerk I would be snapping away and reporting, but I am not.
Flats is in a negative cash flow situation fair to say? How long can they cruise along…anybody’s guess.
I never use crayons….I can tell you like my art but its ok…its ok.
Jeffrey,
A responsible citizen who saw the environmental and safety hazards you describe would have dialed 311 and reported the behavior.
See the addendum, above, to my post. According to the City of Chicago, Flats Chicago does not have vacation rental licenses for the units in question.
I agree but I make enough waves as it is in Uptown. In the past I saw scaffolding permits over a year expired. I have reported a lot of things in the past but the city has a better track record screwing over the little guy then the big cheeses. The fire escape as debris dropping platform happened about 150 yards from Ald. Cappleman’s house, same alley. But I see him and his husband Richard out there taking pictures of litter outside the ICA building, building a case as his circle calls it.
Uptown is dysfunctional, I do the best I can but will take your comment to heart in the future.
Jeffrey,
I’ve been posting comments here for years. As for Ms Crawford please refrain from making any artwork regarding her or her campaign. I recall hearing about a painting you did of your favorite candidate in 2011.
My brain needed bleach after I considered the implications.
Toodles.
IP
Please spare everyone the Uptown vendettas. It just isn’t fair for anonymous pirates to pick on individuals who disclose their identity.
Wait – did I just ask an Irish Pirate to play fair?
Joe,
It’s not a vendetta. It’s more like Ahab chasing a minnow.
Anyhoo……..I’ll leave it at that.
You are a ham. I have no idea what silly art you are talking about. My candidate in the last election was Molly Phelan in the runoff, I stayed nuetral in the general because I was moderating 8 candidate forums.
I had some art in her office and in Mike Carrol’s, Cappleman asked me to hang art in his office but I declined.
Commenting on blogs seems to be the way you fluff yourself which is fine and dandy cotton candy. But at this point your schtick is tired, played out. You are flat out inaccurate half the time and inappropriate the other half. Your fav outlet UU is dead, the facebook page has limited reach because the administrators are to chicken sh*t to promote it, that is why the comment gene pool is so small.
Good luck with your hobby.
Amy Crawford certainly doesn’t need me to paint..something…but she has my support and she will be getting votes…you politi-hack. Ha!
Thanks but its all good, I have the same problem with CappleTrolls you have had with others…who shall remain nameless for posterity. Goes with the territory.
I appreciate the work you do.
If I was a minnow they would ignore me…I will just leave it at that.
Joe
Are you willing to really look into this? This is a real problem. There are 1000’s of rental on Airbnb, ALL unlicensed, NONE paying the tax. The City and State are losing millions in tax revenue. There are true operators on Airbnb that are operating quasi Hotels out of several buildings in Chicago.
I think you need to really look into this, because the City is doing NOTHING.
Michael,
I pay more attention to the Airbnb issue than I report on YoChicago.
Airbnb operators in rental high-rises are violating the terms of their lease and almost all the high-rises don’t tolerate them. I’ve reported dozens of violators to high-rise managers who have quietly, quickly and effectively shut them down. The buildings have genuine security concerns when random strangers are given keys to units and access fobs to common amenities.
That doesn’t generate any revenue for the city, since people who lease apartments aren’t eligible to apply for vacation rental licenses and would be unlikely to if they were. The “quasi hotel” operators you’re referring to, I suspect, are in the same category, i.e. ineligible for licensing. The city’s revenue loss in that case is indirect – hotels are losing room rentals that would have generated hotel taxes for the city.
With regard to Flats Chicago, I’d say “stay tuned.” We’ll see whether the city takes action against what appears to be a flagrant violator.