DO NOT SIGN UP WITH CHICAGO'S NEW HOST ORDINANCE! YOUR HOME MAY BE SEIZED!
IF YOU ARE AN AIRBNB HOST, THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD NOT SIGN UP WITH THE CITY TO REGISTER AS A HOST. YOU OPEN YOURSELF UP TO AN INSPECTION AND CAN LOSE YOUR HOME! This is what happened to a host who the city mistook her for an airbnb host....not a host manager! She helps hosts in Chicago who can't focus on their guests. She allows host guests to come to her home and leave their bags, answering the inquiries of hosts and perform other 'host' services for their guests.
The incident that happened in the video on June 9, 2016 was based on a fraudulant police complaint that was made 4 days earlier on June 4, 2016. On June 4, 2016 A police came to her home to investigate a crime they claimed happened to a guest over a mile away. When he couldn't get into the gate, he called someone and they gave him the key to open up the gate! The police just walked into the property without any permission. Once in, and after finding out they were in the home, he started to tell this story about how this guy had a seizure and it 'appeared that he may have been robbed of his luggage and his shoes' and they wanted to investigate. She asked what does that have to do with her since the crime happened miles away. The cop wanted to know where he slept! She didn't understand the nature of his question since the crime took place somewhere else. After she refused to let him search the house without a warrant, another cop arrived in her home. She then told them both to leave. The 2nd cop asked who was sleeping in the back room and if there were others in the 'back' and if the cameras were working and 'looping'. She told them to leave and unless they had a warrant, they can be in the house. She thought that was the end of that.
Two hours later, the 'seizure' guy came back to apologize and wanted to explain what happened. When she allowed him to go around back to look for his wallet (so I assumed). She went to check the cameras to see if he may have had the seizure near the house. When he came into the house to the back, thats where he found his luggage and his shoes. Although he found it, she was curious as to what really happened and why did those cops were insistant on investigating the crime in her home and wanting to go to the back. So they looked on the security camera and could not find him based on the time he proposed he left. Afterwards, he pulled out a device to put in her phone to download the video so he could look at it later. But she refused. She told him that she would look at it later. She that was the end of that until four days later.
Four days later, on June 9th, 7 officers and 3 building inspectors came based on a complaint which was later revealed in this 2 hour ordeal, that it was a police complaint that happened 'earlier' that week.'....the seizure guy incident of the lost shoes.
When they came, on the video, you can see that they were trying to reach into the gate to unlock it from the inside on several occassions. They eventually took a picture of the lock and had some other officer jiggle the lock to open the gate. They went thru her home and after discovering that the cameras were working, they then came down the stairs saying that the 'building' is a illegal SRO (bed and breakfast). They didn't have one receipt with her name or address on it, they didn't have any warrent when they first arrived at which the officers were inside her property, they didn't even have any list of violations. They created 27 violations based on a 'bed and breakfast' criteria and not a residential. She had a previous inspection in 2012 which had NO Violations report and was the result. They tried to force her out of the house by entering a Do Not Enter Enter Premise but changed it to Do Not Enter 'basement or attic' and included the empty lot next door. When they left, they wanted to leave her a court date and asked of her, her name and number. She couldn't believe it because they did all of this and didn't even have her name. She refused to give it to them. On June 24, they posted a court summons on her gate for June 30 in a DEMOLITION COURT! As if Englewood don't have enough REAL crime, they are treating as if she was in a gang! She has had over 110 police that came to the house in the last 3 years (30 at a time), each leaving no ticket. She made the cameras operational when in september 2015 when they brought some girls from four blocks to the house and asked if she knew them. She thought they were girls from couch surfer and told them they could go in and wait until she return from the store. Within minutes they were in the house after she left.
Even her 1st court appearance within a 5 day window of her first day in court is in a DEMOLITION COURT! SHE HAD NO WARRANTS, NO PRIOR VIOLATIONS, NO CHARGES! AND WITH ALL OF THE CRUDE VIDEO YOU SEE HERE, IS NOTHING, compared to what happens on the videos you don't see. They didn't know all of her 8 security cameras were working!
I'm putting this out there to show that in this last ordinance that past....
1) If you sign up with the city, they have no intention of respecting your home as a home. Any police complaint is followed by a building inspector which then they come in, create these list of violations not based on any residential code but 'building' code based on the standards of hotels. ITS A TRAP! We found out that this is exactly what the city has been doing in Michigan. A friend called and said you see it everywhere in Michigan. The city makes more money on the fines then any agreement they have with airbnb.
2) If a guest come home with the police, DO NOT acknowledge the guest. The police can't create a 'complaint' if the guest does not live there. Refuse the guest into your home.
3) If at all possible, change your listings to 30 day or more listing. You do not have to register with the city for long term rentals.