Village Escrow for Property Repairs

[hopsngrains]

I bought a house to rehab in Illinois, in order to get the transfer stamps from the village I had to give them $5,000 to put in an escrow I would get back after all repairs were made.
Its now been 11 weeks and I still don't have my money back, I'm sure it's normal for a village to take time to process paperwork but throughout the renovation there have been multiple issues of disorganization and carelessness and I have been lied to about the status of my money and hoping there is legal action I can take even just a letter from a lawyer to help get things going. A couple weeks ago I was told the check was going to go in the mail in a few days, but then From the last runaround I got they didn't know when they would have it, it sounds like my money was never in a third party escrow account, and two of the reasons why I don't have the money yet is because they just haven't gotten to it yet and haven't paid the inspection company yet for the inspection almost 3 months ago. Also they have yet to provide proof that I used the whole $1300 plan review and inspection deposit, which I highly doubt I used up but they say I maybe did they don't know yet. Actually another thing that delayed the escrow release is they lost part of that deposit and thought I owed them $800 for inspections. This is from the same department that delayed the renovation when they lost my permit application under a pile of papers then after I got my permit found a copy of one of the pages and called me saying I had an incomplete application lol. It should be illegal for a village to handle peoples money like this. What can I do?

 

[STEPHAN]

I bought a house to rehab in Illinois, in order to get the transfer stamps from the village I had to give them $5,000 to put in an escrow I would get back after all repairs were made.
Its now been 11 weeks and I still don't have my money back, I'm sure it's normal for a village to take time to process paperwork but throughout the renovation there have been multiple issues of disorganization and carelessness and I have been lied to about the status of my money and hoping there is legal action I can take even just a letter from a lawyer to help get things going. A couple weeks ago I was told the check was going to go in the mail in a few days, but then From the last runaround I got they didn't know when they would have it, it sounds like my money was never in a third party escrow account, and two of the reasons why I don't have the money yet is because they just haven't gotten to it yet and haven't paid the inspection company yet for the inspection almost 3 months ago. Also they have yet to provide proof that I used the whole $1300 plan review and inspection deposit, which I highly doubt I used up but they say I maybe did they don't know yet. Actually another thing that delayed the escrow release is they lost part of that deposit and thought I owed them $800 for inspections. This is from the same department that delayed the renovation when they lost my permit application under a pile of papers then after I got my permit found a copy of one of the pages and called me saying I had an incomplete application lol. It should be illegal for a village to handle peoples money like this. What can I do?

11 weeks does not sound unreasonable when dealing with such an administration.

 

[hopsngrains]

Do they are allowed to lie about the whereabouts of my check and not return a deposit without any proof of using it?

 

[Zigner]

Keep contacting them...both on the phone and in person. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

 

[LdiJ]

Keep contacting them...both on the phone and in person. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

The "in person" part is particularly important, as long as you can keep a very calm and civil demeanor. Also, if you know anybody at all in the village government you might reach out to them.