The 2024 spring legislative session was one of the busiest for Illinois REALTORS® in recent memory. With legislation dealing with everything from real estate license law, new housing initiatives, rental regulations, human rights and all aspects of private property rights, your Illinois REALTORS® Legislative Team was involved in more than 300 bills that would affect you and your business. Here is a summary of the highlights and key issues from the Spring Legislative Session.

Illinois REALTORS® and Sen. Cristina Castro (D-22nd, Elgin) proposed Senate Bill 3497, the “Illinois Homebuyers Savings Account Act.” This bill would create an avenue of financial assistance for new homebuyers. Individuals could receive a tax deduction for funds they save and put toward their first home purchase. Single tax filers could create designated savings accounts and receive a tax deduction of up to $5,000 per year, while joint filers or married couples could receive up to $10,000 in deductions each year for contributions to their account. The bill would cap tax deductions over the lifetime of the account at $25,000 for single filers and $50,000 for joint filers.

Outcome – While Senate Bill 3497 was heard in a subject matter hearing in the Senate Revenue Committee, it was not included in the approved state budget. Conversations are expected to continue over the summer.

Within the ongoing inventory crisis, a consistent problem for REALTORS® and their homebuyers has been the lack of available “missing middle” or starter homes. Illinois REALTORS® believes we can lead the country in reimagining the starter home and Senate Bill 3769 could be the crucial first step in that direction.

The legislation provides grants to incentivize construction of economical starter homes to be built near electric vehicle projects, manufacturing locations and would be supported through Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Reimagining Energy Vehicles (REV) Act. This pilot program would provide grants that could be used to cover all costs associated with new home construction, including land acquisition subsidies, in an effort to create an abundance of new homes that can be purchased at an affordable sales price.

Outcome – The pilot program idea gained momentum as budget discussions were ongoing, but ultimately the concept of the program was held to be discussed further in the summer and Veto Session.

Illinois REALTORS® and Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz (D-17th, Glenview) proposed House Bill 5432, which focuses on preserving housing stability by banning so-called local, crime-free housing ordinances and rendering any existing version of a local crime-free housing ordinance invalid and unenforceable. The bill would also prohibit any municipality from creating new, similar regulation.

Crime-free ordinances have been a front-line advocacy issue for Illinois REALTORS® and our local Governmental Affairs Directors (GADs) for more than 20 years. Crime-free provisions can violate federal fair housing laws and create conflict for property owners. It can force them into a position of choosing to not follow a local mandate and potentially losing their licensing with the local unit of government or they can chose to follow the local mandate and be susceptible to a human rights violation for a wrongful eviction, which in turn creates the possibly of a property owner losing their real estate brokers license.

Outcome – House Bill 5432 gained a tremendous amount of support in both chambers and was passed out of the House Housing Committee but was not ultimately called on the floor. Discussions are expected to continue this summer with the idea of having an agreed bill ready for Veto Session.

We SUPPORTED Senate Bill 3740 amending the Real Estate License Act (Sen. Javier L. Cervantes, D-1st, Chicago and Rep. Jenn Ladisch Douglass, D-45th, Westmont). Through a collaborative effort with the legislators, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) and Illinois REALTORS®, Senate Bill 3740 was an example of the rare completely agreed bill. We are very fortunate and appreciative of the strong working relationship that has been established with IDFPR and the following amendments were made to the real estate license law:

• Changes to Brokerage Agreements: Written brokerage agreements will now be required when a licensee acts as an agent for buyers and/or sellers and making it a violation not to have a written brokerage agreement, as well.
• Brokers seeking to upgrade their licenses will only be required to take an Illinois state-specific exam to obtain their managing broker license
• Fair Housing Continuing Education; Mandatory Core CE Hours will increase from four to six where two of the six will be mandatory Fair Housing related courses
• Added language to emphasize and support the independent contractor relationship for a licensee conducting brokerage business when that is the nature of the agreement between the sponsoring broker and the licensee.

Outcome – The bill passed unanimously in both the House and Senate and will become effective Jan, 1 2025.

Some familiar rental regulation initiatives were front and center in 2024, including a “Just Housing” bill and another attempt to seal eviction records.

We OPPOSED Senate Bill 2818 (Sen. Rachel Ventura, D-43rd, Joliet), another “Just Housing” initiative. For the second consecutive year, REALTORS® successfully opposed legislation that would make it a human rights violation for a landlord to not select a perspective tenant due to the applicant being a formerly incarcerated person. We are concerned that this law would put brokers, landlords and any housing providers in the position of being liable for making a decision based on person’s past criminal history, without having any knowledge or experience of criminal justice offenses.

Outcome – After several unsuccessful negotiations attempts, the bill was never heard in committee.

We also OPPOSED House Bill 5023 (Rep. Kevin John Olickal, D-16th, Chicago and Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-8th, Chicago), which would have been a new way of attempting to seal eviction records. House Bill 5023 is a 58-page bill with the intent of codifying federal criminal terminology in Illinois state code and the majority of the bill does just that. But tucked away in the final paragraph of the final page is a change in the eviction code, changing the term “sealing” to “impounded,” which has the meaning of “upon agreement” by the parties involved, meaning eviction records could be permanently sealed. Our opposition and position on the matter never wavered; we want to make sure landlords are protected by allowing them to have access to public records.

Outcome – After an overwhelming response to a Call for Action from Illinois REALTOR® members, the bill was not called for a vote on the Senate floor and discussions are expected to continue over the summer. A huge thank you goes out to all members who responded to the Call for Action!

NEUTRAL, AS AMENDED on House Bill 5371 (Rep. Ann M. Williams, D-11th, Chicago and Sen. Laura Fine, D-9th, Glenview). This bill was a joint initiative of the Illinois Attorney General’s office and the Illinois Department of Human Rights. It amends the Illinois Human Rights Act to provide that to change the definition of “real estate transaction” to include any act that alters a person’s availability or otherwise makes unavailable a person’s right to real property and makes it a civil rights violation to do so. The penalty for such a violation would have been the suspension of your real estate license. After weeks of negotiations, all parties finally agreed to remove “otherwise makes unavailable” making it more acceptable.

Outcome – Amended to include our suggestion, the bill passed and will become effective on Jan. 1, 2025.

We OPPOSED Senate Bill 771 (Sen. Laura Ellman, D-21st, Naperville), which was introduced as an attempt to fill possible gaps in the protection of certain wetlands after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government overreached in the exercise of its authority in the case Sackett v. EPA in 2023. These wetlands, referred to as non-jurisdictional wetlands because they do not fall under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, are oftentimes hard to identify, have minimal impact on drainage or environmental quality, and have the potential to impact virtually every sector of the economy if regulated in an ineffective manner. We firmly believe that this legislation is a serious threat to the use of private property in Illinois by imposing restrictions on landowners to do anything on their property that would affect any body of water, including collection of rainwater. The federal courts already decided that this law cannot be implemented at the national level, and we remain in our position that they should not be imposed on the state level either.

Outcome – The bill was heard in a subject matter hearing but did not advance in the spring legislative process. We are committed to remain engaged on this very concerning issue.

We SUPPORTED House Bill 5502 (Rep. Daniel Didech, D-59th, Buffalo Grove and Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-8th, Chicago). At the request of REALTORS®, and in conjunction with the community associations in Illinois, the bill amends the Condominium Property Act to provide that in a sale of a condominium unit by a unit owner, no condominium association may exercise any right of refusal, option to purchase, or right to disapprove the sale based on a purchaser’s involvement with a federal housing program or any other unlawful discrimination.

Outcome – The bill passed the House and Senate and will become effective on Jan. 1, 2025.

About the writer: Jimmy Clayton is Illinois REALTORS® Senior Director, State Government Affairs.