Responsible Property Ownership
ICON believes good property owners, good landlords and all of Springfield benefit when property is maintained according to City code and problem property owners are held accountable.
To resolve long-term issues with problem and absentee property owners, the City needs to consistently and proactively enforce problem property laws, efficiently and legally foreclose on problem properties, and register non-owner occupied properties to provide a point of contact for complaints and legal action.
It is important to keep a record of your complaints and to follow up to be sure inspectors have been sent out, that they have identified the violation, and that the violation has been abated and forwarded to City of Springfield Administrative Court.
City of Springfield lacks one contact point for all problems. Therefore it’s important to understand where to report different problems.
Property owners are fined even if they abate under certain specific conditions within a particular timeframe.
Defenses to Code Violations Ordinance details…
In general, an administrative court is a type of court specializing in administrative law, particularly disputes concerning the exercise of public power. Their role is to ascertain that official acts are consistent with the law. Such courts are considered separate from general courts. The administrative acts are recognized from the hallmark that they become binding without the consent of the other involved parties. Official decisions contested in administrative courts can include: taxation, dispensation of monetary benefits, environmental licenses, building inspection, child custody, involuntary commitment, immigration decisions, summary public payments (other than fines imposed by general courts). From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administrative_court.
Administrative Court Calendar – Dockets & Actions
Springfield IL Administrative Court is held Wednesday mornings in the City Council Chambers, starting at 8:30am. Sessions are open to the public. The administrative court judge arrives around 10am to adjudicate cases that are liable for fines. These cases are then referred to the Circuit Court.
Click on “mm/dd/yyyy DOCKET” for the date you wish to view.
“Sheet for mm/dd/yyyy Docket” displays at top; click on the download button to download a PDF.
Scroll down to see “Actions for 08/09/2017 Docket” at the bottom; click on the download button to download a PDF. Actions appear about a week after the court date.