Determine Ownership of a Vacant Lot

So you've found the perfect vacant lot to start your community garden—here's the first step in making it your own.

Find the address of the property. If you can’t find the lot's address, check the houses on each side and across the street and estimate the address. If you can't read those numbers, count the number of lots (generally, each one is about twenty-five feet wide) from the corner to the lot.

Contact the city. Call the Department of Planning and Development at 312-744-4190, and ask for Land Sale Programs. Tell them you are trying to determine if a lot is city-owned. If it is, request the forms enabling you to apply for the Adjacent Neighbors Land Acquisition Program (ANLAP), which entitles you to purchase the land for a nominal amount of money, or any other programs for purchasing city-owned land. Be prepared to say what you'd like to do with the lot. They will want your name and address.

If the lot is privately owned, you will need to obtain the property identification number (PIN) from the Cook County Treasurer's Office. Look up the address in the thick blue books in the office, and write down the PIN. You will then have to ask for a Legal Description (necessary to get Tract information) of the property and pay a nominal fee.

Enter the PIN into the computer (if the property was sold after 1985) or look in the books (if sold before 1985) in the Tract Section to discover facts about the property. Next, you will be given a microfilm number that enables you to review sales, liens, incorporation, and foreclosure documents. You can get clues here on previous owners' names and foreclosure status, which you can then pursue. Contact the owner or ask for the final disposition of foreclosure so the land can be put up for tax sale. The Cook County Clerk's Office will be able to tell you the tax delinquent status.

City News Chicago and Chicago Prospector can also help you find PINs (but not ownership contact information).

For more information, please contact Openlands Education Coordinator Jaime Zaplatosch via e-mail or by phone at 312-863-6270.