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City Publishes List Of "Problem Landlords"

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Four months after four children died in a house fire in Roseland, city officials were cracking down on landlords who routinely violate Chicago building codes.

The city is putting the spotlight on scofflaw landlords until they make sure all rental homes are habitable, by publishing a list of problem landlords on the city's website.

The list identifies landlords who have been repeatedly cited for failing to provide their tenants with heat, hot water, working smoke detectors, or other basic services and safety measures. Every landlord on the list has been found liable for building code violations in two or more separate cases within two years, and has been cited for three or more serious code violations.

Fifty-nine owners of 45 problem properties were on the initial list, posted Tuesday.

The city's tenant protection ordinance was approved by the City Council last week. It was prompted by the deaths of four children in September, after they were unable to escape a blaze at their apartment building in Roseland.

The city had cited the landlord for a series of code violations, including failure to provide working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

"As a clear signal to bad landlords, this was a shot across the bow to get your act together," Emanuel said.

This case is not related to a nationwide outbreak of measles linked to Disneyland.
Building Department Commissioner Felicia Davis says properties on the list are past the point of simple corrections, but not quite at the point of demolition.

"We're trying to get these buildings to come into compliance so that we can prevent something more serious from happening in those properties," she said.

Davis says while this is the first list of its kind in the city, the focus is not just on the properties on the list.

"It's about making sure that landlords are accountable all over the city," she said.

The city's Buildings Department said it will send letters to landlords on the list, reminding them of the need to address their code violations.

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