The Illinois Real Estate Lawyers Association is comprised of experienced attorneys dedicated to assisting individuals and businesses in connection with real estate transactions of all types.

Regular meetings of the Illinois Real Estate Lawyers Association take place at 8:00 a.m. on the second Wednesday of each month at the Belvedere Events and Banquets facility in Elk Grove Village, Illinois (847-534-0600) (or at other announced locations).

 

 

"Computerizing Your Law Office"

to make your practice

more efficient and more profitable.

The upcoming monthly meeting of the Illinois Real Estate Lawyers Association (IRELA) will be held on

Wednesday, September 8, 2010, at 8:00 a.m.

at the

Naperville Country Club

25w570 Chicago Ave, Naperville, IL 60540  |  (630) 355-6015

 Our speaker, Leonard M. Monson, a 1986 Graduate of DePaul University College of Law, is a partner with the Naperville, Illinois law firm of Kuhn Heap & Monson.  Len's Partner, Dick Kuhn, serves as a Director of IRELA and is our host for this event.

Whether you already have a fully computerized operation, or are still getting by with a typewriter and an abacus, you will find this presentation helpful and informative.  Mr. Monson has spoken extensively on the topic of computerizing a law firm, and has some important insights on how to select, implement and get the most out of practice management software bundled with a time and billing module.   If you are experiencing a bit of a downturn in the volume of real estate transactions you are handling currently, take advantage of this opportunity to learn how to make your day-to-day operations more efficient, how to keep track of the key details on all of the files you are handling and clients you are serving, and how to generate a complete set of documents at the push of a button.

Materials from the seminar will be made available to IRELA member attorneys in the Members Only section of this web site.

 

Click below for a map of the location:

Naperville CC Map

 

At our June, 2010, Meeting,
Attorney Charles G. Brown of Boyle Law DeKalb, LLC, addressed the membership regarding

"The Illinois Residential Real Estate Transfer On Death Instrument Act"

was the topic of the monthly meeting of the Illinois Real Estate Lawyers Association (IRELA) held on

Wednesday, June 9, 2010, at 8:00 a.m.,

at Belvedere Events and Banquets,
1170 W. Devon, in Elk Grove Village.

(Map and Directions.)

Our speaker, Attorney Charles G. Brown of Boyle Law DeKalb, LLC, DeKalb, Illinois, provided an in-depth analysis of the genesis and implementation of this new proposal, designed to provide a mechanism for residential real property to be passed to beneficiaries at death outside probate. Mr. Brown serves on the ISBA Trusts and Estates Section Council, and has been spearheading the proposal. Topics included how the proposed Act works, how it differs from the Uniform TOD Act adopted in other states, and how it will affect real estate practitioners and their practices. 

Handouts from the seminar are available to IRELA member attorneys in the Members Only section of this web site.

____________

At a Previous Meeting on Wednesday, May 12th,
Dick Bales of Chicago Title addressed the membership regarding

"Road Vacations, Covenants and Other Minefields"

 

Richard F. Bales, well-known Assistant Regional Counsel and Assistant Vice President with Chicago Title Insurance Company, Wheaton office, discussed how to deal with vacated rights of way, vacated alleys, CCRs, TIFs, municipal plat approvals and the like.  Mr. Bales brought to bear his extensive experience in solving title problems, with reference to many real life examples.

Thanks very much to our gracious host, IRELA Board Member Dick Kuhn.

 

 

IRELA President Ralph J. Schumann Spoke at a Chicago Bar Association Seminar on May 6, 2010, on the Multi-Board Residential Real Estate Contract 5.0

To access and download a copy of the Powerpoint from Ralph Schumann's presentation as a PDF file, click on: 

Schumann Powerpoint

Joseph R. Fortunato, Jr., Past President of IRELA, has developed, in conjunction with other associations, a new Loan Status Disclosure Form designed to help standardize information provided by lenders regarding the status of mortgage loan processing. (Do you know the difference between a "pre-approval" and a "pre-qualification"?) IRELA urges you to download and use the form in your practice to help bring some order out of the chaos.

Click here for the Approved Loan Status Disclosure Form in Adobe PDF format.

Joseph R. Fortunato, Jr., Past President of IRELA, is pictured at left at an IRELA meeting in Chicago with Jack Carey (left) and Irene F. Bahr. Joe Fortunato is to the right of Irene Bahr, and to the right of Mr. Fortunato is IRELA Past President and Chairman of the Board John O`Brien. Fortunato has long been active in the DuPage County Bar Association, the Illinois State Bar Association Real Estate Section, and in IRELA.



John O`Brien, past president and chairman of the board of IRELA, recently completed his term as President of the Illinois State Bar Association.  Previously, he had been elected to the board of governors of the Illinois State Bar Association, the 25-member board functions as the governing body of the state`s largest bar association. O`Brien, who served five consecutive terms as president of the Illinois Real Estate Lawyers Association, saw IRELA grow under his leadership from a group of a few dozen lawyers in 1997 to an organization of over 2,200 members which has gained a reputation nationally for its efforts in combating the unauthorized practice of law. O`Brien has long been active in the ISBA, serving as a member of its assembly as well as on its Real Estate and General Practice, Solo & Small Firm Section councils. In the fall of 2001, he was appointed vice chair of the ISBA Task Force on the Unauthorized Practice of Law.

In the Spring of 2002, O`Brien was elected to the board of directors of Attorneys` Title Guaranty Fund, Inc. In the Spring of 2001, O`Brien received the President`s Award for distinguished public service from the Northwest Suburban Bar Association for his commitment to protecting the public against the unauthorized practice of law.

To access the section of the web site for the Office of Banks and Real Estate that has links to the new rules for licensing of home inspectors and to the text of the Illinois Home Inspector License Act as amended, click on:
OBRE Home Inspectors Information

For persons interested in more information on the topic of mold and mold inspections, additional data can be obtained at: http://www.safestartinspections.com/ (Web site for the inspections division of Safestart Building Consulting, Inc.)

IRELA Members can access additional information in Portable Document Format (.pdf) regarding mold by clicking on: additional mold information

Mold Information Booklet is in Adobe PDF format. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to download this document. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader, click here:

The IRELA GOLF OUTING held at the St. Charles Country Club was a great success, setting a new standard for bar association golf outings! Watch this space for information about next year's golf outing. Questions? Call Leanne Walsh Klein (847-255-7100; lwklein@premier-title.com).

		IRELA PAST PRESIDENT FORTUNATO SOUNDS OFF!
		Joseph Fortunato`s timely Letter to the Editor of the ISBA Bar Journal on the economics of the practice of real estate law.

		AMENDMENT TO TENANCY BY THE ENTIRETY REQUIREMENTS!!
		The requirements for Tenancy by the Entirety have been eased. Now, it is sufficient to indicate "John Q. Client and Mary T. Client, his wife, as tenants by the entirety" to create this estate. IRELA is pleased to have been instrumental in bringing about this change, which should make life easier for all of us. To view a summary of Public Act 92-0136, click on the heading above.

		IMPORTANT CASE INTERPRETING "SOLE INTENT" STANDARD IN TENANCY BY THE ENTIRETY SITUATION DECIDED BY SECOND DISTRICT
		In La Salle Bank v. DeCarlo, (Docket # 2-01-1146, Decided January 17, 2003) the Illinois Appellate Court, Second District, has addressed the issue of "sole intent" in connection with a post-judgment transfer of residential property. Affirming the decision of the Circuit Court of DuPage County (Honorable Bonnie M. Wheaton) setting aside a transfer of residential property formerly held in joint tenancy into Tenancy by the Entirety, the appellate court stated that the intent of the spouse who claimed to have no knowledge of the underlying litigation that resulted in a judgment against her husband (or of the judgment itself) was "irrelevant" and concluded that the transfer of the title to Mr. DeCarlo`s residence into tenancy by the entirety was made "with the sole intent to avoid the payment of debts existing at the time of transfer" beyond DeCarlo`s "ability to pay those debts as they became due." To view the case, click on the heading of this paragraph.

		IRELA SETTLED ITS LAWSUIT AGAINST KOENIG & STREY!
		The Illinois Real Estate Lawyers Association (IRELA) is pleased to announce that IRELA and the Koenig & Strey Defendants (Koenig & Strey/GMAC Real Estate and Ft. Dearborn Title) have settled the unauthorized practice of law case filed by IRELA, and entered into a Consent Decree (available on this website).

		ILLINOIS COURTS OFFICIAL WEB SITE
		The Illinois Courts Official Web Site can be accessed through this web site. It contains a wealth of information regarding the Illinois Supreme Court, as well as the Illinois Appellate Court and Circuit Courts. The web site also includes a link under the heading of "Bar Associations and Related Links" to IRELA`s web site.

Multi-Board Residential Real Estate Contract  "Knock-off" Alert:

Some unauthorized versions of the copyrighted Multi-Board Residential Real Estate Contract (the "Common Contract") used widely in Illinois are still surfacing with deceptively altered provisions. Typically, a service provider such as a title insurance company modifies the authorized contract form by, e.g., inserting a provision in the "Title" paragraph requiring that it be used as the source of title insurance for the transaction, and sometimes this change is accompanied by a modification of the attorney review clause blocking attorneys from proposing modifications to "stated purchase price and title insurance company". To download the authorized version of the Multi-Board Residential Real Estate Contract, see the Members Only Section of this web site. For more information on this issue, please click on the "Developments" button above and then click on "Contract Alert" in the menu box on the left margin.