Chicago Vacant Building Violations with Fines and Geospatial Data, 2011-Present

Chicago's dataset of violations issued for vacant and abandoned buildings owned by financial institutions since January 1, 2011. It includes over 20 columns such as violation details, financial penalties, hearing dispositions, and geographic boundaries. The data is owned by the city's Administrative Hearings and Finance departments and is updated daily.

Use Cases

• Analyzing spatial patterns of violations using Latitude, Longitude, and Community Areas.
• Modeling the relationship between Violation Type, Issuing Department, and Total Fines or Current Amount Due.
• Tracking case outcomes and financial status over time using Docket Number, Last Hearing Date, Disposition Description, and Total Paid.
• Assessing financial liabilities per property or entity using Original Total Amount Due, Collection Costs or Attorney Fees, and Interest Amount.

Strengths

• Daily update frequency ensures current data.
• Includes geographic coordinates (Latitude, Longitude) and multiple boundary layers (Wards, Census Tracts, ZIP Codes).
• Covers a time range from January 1, 2011 to the present.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• A story link indicates corrections were made on 6/28/2021; users should review this for potential data quality issues.

Provenance

Source

City of Chicago (data.cityofchicago.org), via the Socrata platform.

Collection Method

Likely collected through city administrative and finance departments as part of violation issuance and hearing processes.

Time Range

January 1, 2011 to present.

Freshness

Data is updated daily. Last metadata update was 2026-03-20 21:03:50.

Geography

City of Chicago, Illinois, USA.