An Illinois Appellate Court upheld a trial court’s demolition order against a hotel cited for numerous
unabated municipal code violations. City of South Beloit v. New Charter Group, Inc.
City code enforcement officers
inspected the hotel several times in 2019 and issued numerous citations to the
hotel owner for violations of the City’s property maintenance and building
codes. The hotel was ultimately condemned and declared unfit for occupancy
until the hotel owner made repairs and corrected the code violations. In 2021,
the City engineer inspected the hotel and prepared a report estimating the repair
costs to correct the City code violations would cost approximately $7 million.
The hotel’s assessed property value in 2023 was $499,836.
The City filed a lawsuit seeking a demolition order from the court and assessment of fines against the hotel owner for past
and continued code violations. Based on testimony from the
City’s code official and engineer, the trial court found the hotel was dangerous, unsafe beyond
reasonable repair, and that the repair costs far exceeded the hotel’s current
value. As a result, the court granted the City’s demolition order and
awarded the City fines exceeding $8 million for the code violations.
On appeal, the hotel owner argued
the City failed to prove the repair costs exceeded the hotel’s value, that the City
assumed control of the hotel and blocked repairs from being made, and that the City
failed to exhaust its administrative remedies.
The Appellate Court upheld the
trial court’s decision and upheld the City’s demolition order.
First, the Appellate Court
rejected the hotel owner’s argument that the City failed to prove repair costs
exceeded the hotel’s value, finding that the trial court reasonably relied on the
City engineer’s estimate of repair costs as he testified that he was familiar
with local construction costs.
Second, the Appellate Court held that the City only
prohibited occupancy of the hotel by guests and did not prohibit the hotel
owner from accessing the hotel to make repairs and remedy the code violations
at the property. Additionally, the Court ruled the hotel owner failed to show
the asserted defense of “unclean hands” applied to a demolition order and
assessment of fines for code violations. The Appellate Court also found
that the City provided adequate notice of the code violations at the hotel by
citing the specific municipal code sections the hotel owner allegedly violated
in the citation notices.
Finally, the Appellate Court ruled the City was not
required to exhaust administrative remedies as state law permits municipalities
to also enforce local ordinance violations through lawsuits filed in a circuit
court.
Post Authored by Tyler Smith, Ancel Glink