Your Porch @Home

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Is Your Porch Safe?

A year after the city's Buildings Department created a special task force to step up inspections of unsafe porches, city data shows that 166 porches cited as hazardous after a fatal porch collapse in 2003 still do not have the proper permits required to fix them.

Last June, the Buildings Department announced that inspectors would re-inspect the 250 sites listed in the RedEye and Tribune report. Then-commissioner Stan Kaderbek formed a new squad of city porch inspectors and said checking up on the porches would be the first priority of the new squad.

Not sure about your porch? If you are a renter, owner or neighbor and you have concerns about a porch, call 311. A Buildings Department inspector will be assigned to inspect it, according to the city.
For more information, go to www.cityofchicago.org/buildings. At the site, you can find checklists that inspectors use when looking at porches. You also can find information on requesting records through the Freedom of Information Act. More..