Illinois homeowners and brokers/agents beware, there is a new radon disclosure form required of ALL sellers in the state as of January 1st, 2008.  The new Illinois Radon Awareness Act goes into effect just as you're toasting your friends and singing that corny old Auld Lang Syne song.

Furthermore, before a buyer will become bound on a contract to purchase real estate the seller will be required to provide a pamphlet entitled "Radon Testing Guidelines for Real Estate Transactions" and the "Illinois Disclosure of Information on Radon Hazards," (sellers, get it from your agent, agents, get it from your broker). The pamphlet is provided by the Illinois Emergency Management Agency Division of Nuclear Safety. That's interesting, and scary - the nuclear people are in charge of this - maybe there's more to this than they are telling us?!

On the carbon monoxide detector front, for more information, here is an article on that law which went into effect on the first of the year (yes, 2007).  CO detectors are required effective that date in ALL homes in Illinois (rental, owner occupied...ALL homes) and must be within 15 feet of every room used for sleeping purposes. 

"But what if I live in a high rise?" you ask.  There's good news then for you.  There are exceptions to the rule.  As per the article "The law exempts residential units that are in buildings that: (1) do not rely on combustion of fossil fuel for heat, ventilation or hot water; and (2) are not connected in any way to a garage; and (3) are not sufficiently close to any ventilated source of carbon monoxide. Buildings that have electric heat are exempt."

For everyone else, not having one is a class B misdemeanor.  Tampering with or removing one is a class A misdemeanor.  I asked Enoch and angel and none of us know what a class B or a class A misdemeanor are, but they don't sound nice.  If you're not exempt, you'd better shell out the $20 - $50 (per detector) and get them installed.  Of course, I doubt the governor has a special task force of CO detector police going house to house, so I'm sure the most likely legal targets are owners of rented homes and apartments.

(Thanks to Madlantern for the burning house clipart.)