Riverside’s village board has directed staff to simplify the property transfer documents issued to buyers of residential property in town before closing to avoid overloading potential residents with information.
At their March 20 meeting, trustees agreed the paperwork should include only the required information, certifying a seller’s outstanding debts have been collected and that the building permits are finalized, and exclude additional information about the property that will be communicated to buyers after a sale is final. The document, called a certificate of compliance, is issued by Riverside to property sellers, who share it with the buyer at the time of closing, according to village documents.
The excluded information, which was previously required to be included, consists of general facts about the property, such as whether it falls into a flood zone, has been granted landmark status by the village, is enrolled in the residential rental registration program or has extra curb cuts that could be removed when Riverside next resurfaces the street. Buyers would also learn whether their property has been granted any special uses that are not normally allowed, non-conforming uses that cannot be re-established if the property is redeveloped or variations from the village code.
Additionally, buyers will learn zoning information about their new property, like the amount of building and impervious surface coverage, after closing on the home rather than on the pre-sale paperwork.
Village Planner Anne Cyran told trustees that including this extra property information would require staff to verify it before Riverside can issue the certificates of compliance, drawing out the sale process for residents unnecessarily.
Trustees agreed to continue to call the paperwork a certificate of compliance while removing the need to inspect properties before a sale can be finalized. Cyran explained that calling the document by a new name would require staff to establish a new process to record the documents with the Cook County Clerk’s Office. In 2016, she said, it took staff six months to create the current process.
“We can change everything and just keep that legacy name,” she said.
The board’s discussion started at its Feb. 20 meeting, where Cyran recommended trustees direct staff to only perform property inspections before issuing the certificates when needed rather than for every property sale. She said the inspections create extra work for staff and rarely result in findings of code violations that need to be enforced before the sale can go through.
