Illinois condominium associations have an extremely effective tool for collecting assessments from delinquent condominium unit owners. In Illinois, a condominium association can actually evict a unit owner from his or her unit and then lease the unit out and collect the rents from the unit to pay for past due assessments, the legal expenses of pursuing the eviction as well as currently accruing assessments. The association does not have to pay the mortgage payments or real estate taxes which accrue while the rents are being applied against assessments and expenses of collection.

The condominium eviction process takes four months or more, so associations need to be diligent in asserting their rights. This is especially true in that unit owners who are delinquent in paying their assessments often are also delinquent in making their mortgage payments, eventually resulting in mortgage foreclosure.

To move forward with a condominium eviction, the association must first prepare and serve a 30 day notice and demand for possession. This notice must be mailed to the unit owner by certified mail. When thirty days have passed without the assessments having been paid, the eviction suit may then be filed. The suit is filed as what is called a “joint action”, which seeks a personal judgment against the unit owner as well as an order of possession (eviction order). When the matter reaches trial, the eviction statute requires the court to stay the enforcement of the eviction order for at least sixty days. Only then may the association employ the Sheriff to secure possession of the unit.

Feel free to contact a Logan Law, LLC condominium attorney, if you have any questions regarding the rights and responsibilities of delinquent Illinois condominium association unit owners, regarding collection of delinquent condominium assessments or if you need assistance or advice regarding other areas of condominium law.

An August, 2015 Illinois Appellate Court decision has confirmed that a Chicago tenant who successfully prosecutes a counterclaim in an eviction action for damages under Chicago’s Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance (RLTO) is entitled to an award for the tenant’s attorney fees. The First District Appellate court in Shadid v Sims rejected the landlord’s argument that RLTO only provides for an award of attorney fees where a tenant prevails in a separate action initiated by the plaintiff.

In the Shadid case, the plaintiff landlord had filed what the court characterized as a “garden-variety eviction lawsuit” for non-payment of rent. The tenants counterclaimed alleging various violations of RLTO. After a bench trial, the lower court ruled that the tenant had met their burden of proving a RLTO violation and that they were entitled to a full offset of the rent then owed. The Court then granted the tenants the right to file a Petition for Attorney Fees, which they did, seeking $9,878. The landlord argued that the tenants were not entitled to attorney fees because they were not the plaintiffs; rather they were defendants and counter plaintiffs. The trial court agreed and dismissed the Petition for Attorney Fees. The appellate court reversed the trial court decision and remanded the case to the trial court with instructions to grant the Petition and award the tenants reasonable attorney fees under RLTO.

Feel free to contact an experienced Illinois landlord eviction law attorney at Logan Law, LLC if you have questions about how to properly serve eviction notices or any other area of the laws governing landlords and tenants.

As has been done in prior years, it is expected that the Cook County Sheriff will soon announce a moratorium on evictions during the last couple of weeks in December. In fact, the Sheriff’s Office is presently stepping up the pace of the evictions it is completing, with the moratorium in mind.

Landlords should note that the present eviction backlog is approximately five weeks. This backlog is likely to increase substantially as a result of the holiday moratorium as well as the Sheriff’s refusal to conduct evictions on unusually cold or snowy days.

Feel free to contact an experienced Illinois landlord eviction law attorney at Logan Law, LLC if you have questions about how to properly serve eviction notices or any other area of the laws governing landlords and tenants.

When a real estate seller is willing to finance his buyer’s purchase of the property being sold with a relatively small down payment, it is common for the transaction to proceed by what is called a contract sale or an installment contract for deed. Under that form of transaction, the seller does not execute and record a deed when the transaction closes and possession of the property is transferred to the buyer. Instead, the parties execute a document under which the buyer agrees to make payments and to insure and maintain the property and the seller agrees when the seller has been paid as agreed, a deed will eventually be delivered.

When a buyer defaults under the contract, the seller is faced with the problem of how to terminate the contract and get his property back. The contract sale document will provide that after default and upon notice, the contract may be terminated and all prior payments forfeited. However, that does not put the contract seller back into possession of the property.

Restoration of possession requires the use of the Illinois Forcible Entry and Detainer Act, which is contained in the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure (“CCP”). Section 5/9-104.1 of the CCP requires that a demand be served on the buyer giving at least 30 days to satisfy the demand before suit may be filed. The case then proceeds like any other eviction, except that in entry of the eviction judgment, the court may stay the enforcement of the judgment for up to 60 days where more than 75% of the original purchase price remains unpaid but in cases where less than 75% remains unpaid, the Court is required to stay enforcement of the order for 180 days. The court may grant a shorter stay even where than 75% of the original purchase price remains unpaid, if the plaintiff can show that plaintiff had granted previous extensions of the time to pay or for other good cause shown.

Feel free to contact an Illinois attorney experienced in handling all aspects of real estate transactions and litigation at Logan Law, LLC if you have questions about sale of your Chicago area real estate or any other area of the laws governing real estate.

Illinois evictions are governed by the Forcible Entry and Detainer Act (the “Act”).  That Act is designed to deal with the termination of the relationship of landlord and tenant and must balance the rights of both landlords, who generally are relying upon the rental income of their properties to pay their mortgages, and tenants, who are using the landlord’s property for their home or business.

In balancing the interests of landlords and tenants, the Illinois legislature created an expedited proceeding, focused upon who has the right to possession of the apartment or commercial space.  Because of this, the Act specifically limits issues which may be raised in defense of an eviction proceeding.  Section 106 of the Act specifically provides that “no matters not germane to the distinctive purpose of the proceeding shall be introduced” in defense of the proceeding.

The bottom line of the limitation to matters “germane” to the issue of possession is that the Courts have prohibited eviction defendants from raising such issues as a claim that the landlord owes the tenant money for a contract dispute between the parties or that the landlord has violated anti-trust laws.  On the other hand, the Courts have specifically permitted defenses based upon the  habitable condition of residential premises, violation of Chicago’s Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance and racial or other discrimination having motivated initiation of the eviction proceeding.

Feel free to contact an experienced Illinois landlord eviction law attorney at Logan Law, LLC if you have questions about how to properly serve eviction notices or any other area of the laws governing landlords and tenants.

Effective April, 2015, the Presiding Judge of the First Municipal District of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois announced a new procedure for eviction cases where the defendant files a demand for a jury trial.

Eviction cases which are assigned to the Daley Center are initially assigned at random to one of five courtrooms which hear only non-jury cases. Under the new procedure, when a defendant files a demand for trial by jury, the case is then transferred to room 1301 on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday within ten (10) days after the transfer order is entered. On the appointed day, the case is then assigned to a jury trial judge and courtroom.

All further matters in the case, including motions for discovery and for use and occupancy, are then heard by the assigned jury trial judge.

This replaces the current procedure under which jury cases were re-assigned to a single courtroom (Courtroom 1501) and all motions or other proceedings before trial were handled in Courtroom 1501. Under current practice, the case was only transferred to a jury trial judge on the date of trial

Feel free to contact an experienced Illinois landlord eviction law attorney at Logan Law, LLC if you have questions about the new procedure or any other area of the laws governing landlords and tenants

Several legislative changes have been made in the Illinois Condominium Property Act, effective with the beginning of 2015.

In one important change, an Illinois condominium association’s rights with respect to a unit obtained in an eviction proceeding have been both improved as well as clarified.  Under the new rules, an association which obtains possession of a unit in an assessment eviction proceeding has eight months after the month in which the end of the stay of enforcement of the eviction order occurs to lease the unit.  The lease of the unit may be as long as 13 months.  If the association fails to enter into a lease commencing within the eight month period or if the rents received within the lease period are not sufficient to make the association whole, the association must obtain approval from the eviction court to enter into a new lease or extend an old lease.

The association may, with interim court approvals as noted above, continue to lease the unit until it has collected 100% of past due assessments, statutory interest (at 9% per annum) under the unpaid judgment amount, attorney’s fees and court costs incurred in the eviction action, reasonable expenses necessary to make the unit rentable and finally all new assessments and other proper charges which accrue during the period after the eviction judgment was obtained.  The eviction court retains jurisdiction to determine the reasonableness of expenses of re-renting the unit.

If you have any questions about condominium association assessment collection or other aspects of Illinois condominium law, Logan Law, LLC can give you the answer.  Feel free to contact Logan Law, LLC at any time.

Many Illinois landlords have been surprised to learn for the first time when they appear in eviction court that the words of the Illinois Forcible Entry and Detainer Act (the Illinois Eviction Statute) and the Proof of Service sections of common printed forms of tenancy termination forms regarding Service Posting do not, in fact, have their common sense meaning.  Section 5/9-104 of the Illinois Eviction Statute and common published forms provide that notices may be served by “posting the same on the premises” under the situation where “no one is in actual possession of the premises.”

Using the common meaning of the terms, many Illinois landlords have concluded that if when they go to serve a Five Day or other notice on the tenant and no one is home, then they can serve the notice by simply tacking it up or “posting” the notice on the front door or entry of the premises.  They proceed to sit out the notice period and then file suit for eviction.  Only when they finally appear before the judge at trial (often five weeks or more after visiting the tenant to serve the notice) do they find out that the Eviction Statute simply does not mean what it appears to say.  Instead, they are informed by the eviction judge that the Illinois Appellate Court has held the real meaning of the Statute in that a Five Day or other termination notice may be served by posting it, only if the tenant has actually moved out.  Service by posting is not good service where the tenant has not actually moved out of the premises, but is avoiding service or is simply not home when the landlord comes to call.

Unfortunately, the consequence to the landlord is severe.  His suit for eviction is dismissed, and he must start again from square one, with the service of a new Notice to Terminate the Tenancy.  The only consolation to Cook County landlords is that many of the Cook County eviction judges are willing to provide, in the dismissal order, that the filing fees of a new action, based upon a newly served Termination Notice, are waived.

Feel free to contact an experienced Illinois landlord eviction law attorney at Logan Law, LLC, if you have questions about how to properly serve eviction notices or any other area of the laws governing landlords and tenants.