Code Attorney

A young woman lost her life in Chicago recently during a fire.  The fire began in a unit in a high rise apartment building, the residents fled the fire but left the door open so one of their pets could escape, the unsuspecting woman took the elevator up to the floor where the fire had spread, and was overcome as soon as the doors opened up.  The building did not have sprinklers, a fire alarm system or an automatic recall elevator system according to ABC news in Chicago.  The City of Chicago had delayed forcing older building to conform to the fire code by extending the time for compliance in its ordinance.  In an interesting development, the State Fire Marshal cited the building owner for 19 violations of the fire code including the above violations which violate the Life Safety Code.  Building owners are now arguing that they are confused over which law to follow.  The State of Illinois has adopted the Life Safety Code as its state code.  Chicago has home rule powers but that doesn’t exempt buildings from following state law unless state law grants such a waiver.  Unfortunately, Illinois is  hodgepodge of laws.  We don’t have a state building code.  Local governments basically adopt whatever they deem proper for the locale though most of the cities and villages I know of do adopt the Life Safety Code in addition to the IFC as their local ordinances.  The caselaw in this area uses a balancing test weighing the cost of the upgrades versus the safety of the public.  The safety of the public usually prevails which is why owners can be forced to retrofit their buildings. We know what prevents loss of life in fires but the outcry from building owners that delay upgrades due to the cost too often results in loss of life.

I received a request that I post this question for all of my readers to answer.  Do any of your jurisdictions have an ordinance allowing you to shut down a business if it is occupying the space without a certificate of occupancy?  Certainly if the work is hazardous, an inspector can use emergency powers to do so.  However, most of the cases don’t fall into this category.  The way I usually handle those cases is to recommend that the inspector ticket the owner every day the business remains open.  If that doesn’t work in a couple of days, the inspector starts giving tickets to the managerial staff, and if that doesn’t work, the inspector gives tickets to the employees (it doesn’t usually go that far).  In Illinois, a defendant who commits an ordinance violation can also be arrested. I actually had a case where we gave the person a ticket in the morning, told them not to reoccupy the space, and then arrested him in the afternoon when the inspector found the business still operating.  If anyone has something to share, I will post it and give you credit.