The New Real  Property Disclosure Act 

presented by 

Dan Greenberg

MCLE approved for 1.5-hour credit

Registration is Free for IRELA Members

Non-Members ~ $50

Pursuant to the Illinois Real Property Disclosure Act, a sale of residential real estate is supposed to start with the seller providing a disclosure report to the buyer, prior to the parties entering into a contract.  The Act delineates who is a seller, which sellers are required to disclose, and what and when a seller must disclose to a prospective buyer.  Overall, the Act has served well since it became law in 1994.  However, since its enactment over a quarter of a century ago, much has changed in the practice of real estate and related areas of law.  Until now, there had not been any comprehensive review or update of the Disclosure Act, though it was seriously needed.

Seeing the need, IRELA undertook reviewing the entire Disclosure Act, debating its provisions and drafting amendments to modernize it, to alleviate confusing provisions and misinterpretations thereof, and to clarify its requirements.  The IRELA committee, was chaired by Dan Greenberg and consisted of members Marc Blumenthal, Karen Patterson, Michael Rooney, and Colleen Sahlas, with occasional input, inspiration, and direction from John O’Brien, and in the legislative process itself from Jay Curtis.  The committee spent many hours over a good number of months reviewing, discussing, and debating the entire act and its provisions, resulting in HB 4322.  That bill passed the House 111-0, the Senate 53-0, and was signed into law by the Governor on May 13, 2022, as P.A. 102-765.   

IRELA endeavored to reasonably protect buyers, to facilitate real estate practice, and to alleviate the proliferation of attorney review changes related to the Act.  While working within the framework and intent of the original act, these new amendments bring much more clarity to the Act, as well as some new additions.  This course will delve into how those amendments affect every day real estate practice and the clients we represent.

Presenter

Dan Greenberg has been an Illinois Real Estate Lawyers Association (IRELA) board member for many years, spending many hours participating in the 4.0 and 5.0 contract drafting committees and other endeavors to improve the practice of real estate.  In February, 2020, he presented a CLE seminar for IRELA on the Illinois Real Property Disclosure Act.  In preparing for that presentation, Dan noticed some shortcomings and confusing provisions in the Act.  After his IRELA presentation, he received numerous further inquiries from other practitioners pointing to the need for additional revisions to the Act. 

To attempt to clarify confusing provisions, to remedy some of the Act’s shortcomings, and to appropriately update the act commensurate with current real estate practice, Dan volunteered to chair an IRELA committee to draft amendments to the Disclosure Act.  The committee spent many hours over a good number of months reviewing, discussing, and debating the entire Act and its provisions, resulting in HB 4322.  That bill passed the House 111-0, the Senate 53-0, and was signed into law by the Governor on May 13, 2022, as P.A. 102-765.

Dan has been a real estate practitioner in the south suburbs for 40 years.  Shortly after opening his own firm in 1981, inflation and mortgage rates escalated to all time highs, requiring him to quickly learn real estate in the trenches, including more unusual transactions such as rent with option to buy, assumptions, and Articles of Agreement.  In the Fall of 2019, Dan semi-retired and turned over his real estate practice to his daughter, Stephanie Greenberg, and her law partner, Michelle Sinkovits, and is now of counsel to their firm, Greenberg & Sinkovits, LLC, in Homewood.  He enjoys watching the next generation step up and move the practice of real estate law into the future.  Dan further enjoyed participating to bring some of the future of real estate practice to the next generation with the passage of this new update to the Disclosure Act.