Eviction. It’s the one word that no landlord or tenant wants to hear. Being a landlord or property manager can be very rewarding. You provide a person or a family with a place to call home. However, unfortunately, it does not always work out. When that time comes, you may need to evict your tenant. Evictions in Cook County are a complicated legal process though, and it is important to know how to evict a tenant in Chicago properly within the confines of the law.
When you enter into a contract with a tenant, it’s because you feel that you can trust them to pay the rent and look after your property. Tenant turnover is one of the biggest pain points for landlords and property managers and everyone wants to avoid it. Sadly, even with proper vetting, you can’t always guarantee that your tenants will live up to their end of the bargain.
When can you evict?
Chicago property law is very strict on landlords. There are lots of protections for tenants and failing to properly follow the law can end badly for landlords. With that in mind, it is important to know when you are legally within your rights to issue an eviction notice to your tenants. There are several reasons for which you can evict a tenant in Chicago, each with its own procedures.
- Firstly, you can evict a tenant at any point if they have not paid their rent by the due date. That date should be stated in a rental agreement and should allow for any documented grace period.
- Secondly, you can evict a tenant for violating the terms of their lease in any way. This is why it is important to have a strong lease in place that protects against anti-social or illegal behavior in the property.
- Finally, you can evict a tenant if you wish to terminate a month-to-month rental agreement and they refuse to vacate the property
What is the first step?
Evicting a tenant is not as simple as turning up at their door and telling them to pack their things and be out by the end of the day. There are very strict timelines and procedures that must be followed to avoid litigation. While this may seem unfair when you have a nightmare tenant who refuses to pay rent, it is in place to protect both landlords and tenants from unscrupulous behavior.
The first step to evict a tenant in Chicago is to serve them with a notice of termination. This essentially tells them that you are terminating their rental agreement for a valid reason and want them to vacate the premises by a specific date. The duration and type of notice will vary depending on the reason for eviction. There are two broad categories of notice. Notices with a cause, and notices without.
Notices With a Cause
- If they have not paid rent by the agreed-upon date, then you can serve them a Five-Day Notice to Pay Rent, meaning that they have five days to either pay the missing rent (if you want to receive it) or vacate the premises.
- If they have violated the terms of their lease, you can serve them with a Ten-Day Notice to Quit. The cited behavior or infraction must be clearly in violation of a specific restriction in the lease (i.e. keeping a pet in the house without permission)
- If the tenant has used, possessed, or sold illegal narcotics on the premises then you can serve them with an Unconditional Notice to Quit. This will give them five days to vacate the premises before you can begin formal eviction proceedings.
Notices Without a Cause
- If you are terminating a month-to-month rental agreement, you must serve them with a 30-day Notice to Quit. After the 30-day period is up, if the tenant has not vacated the premises, you can begin formal eviction proceedings.
- You cannot terminate a fixed-term lease before the end date of the rental agreement. The tenant is entitled to live in the property for as long as the remaining lease term, as long as they do not violate any clauses or fail to pay rent on time.
Formal Chicago Eviction Proceedings
If you want to evict a tenant in Chicago, after serving them with a notice you need to begin formal eviction proceedings. Once the appropriate number of days have passed since you served your tenant with the correct notice, you can file a Forcible Entry and Detainer Action with the courts.
This action will set the formal eviction proceedings in motion. You will then be provided with a court date to return and state your case for eviction. You can either just file for possession, to get your property back, or you can file a Joint Action that will allow you to sue for any unpaid rent, if applicable.
Once the court date is set, your tenant will be served with a summons. In Cook County, the first summons has to be served by the sheriff. If they are unsuccessful and your tenant has not been served by the first court date, you can request an Alias Summons. This will allow you to appoint a process server to serve the summons. However, it will also mean setting a new court date.
Arguing Your Eviction Case
Once the tenant has been successfully served with the summons, they will be expected to attend court and argue their case against the eviction. If they do not attend the court date, the eviction order will be enforced by default. If they do attend, you and the tenant will be allowed to state your case for and against eviction. It is important to bring all relevant evidence of any violations of rental terms with you to court.
Assuming your case for eviction is valid, and the proper procedures have been followed, the judge will issue an Order for Possession. In most cases, tenants will vacate the premises at this point. However, if they do not vacate the premises by the appointed date you can submit the order to the Sheriff. At that point, the Sheriff’s office will handle the physical eviction.
Physical Eviction
To begin the process to physically evict a tenant in Chicago, you will need to submit two physical copies of the Order for Possession to the Sheriff’s Office along with a filing fee. You will also need to fill out an Eviction Disclosure form, which you can get at the Sheriff’s Office. Once you’ve done this, the Sheriff will set a date for eviction. This can be anywhere from four to six weeks after filing the order.
Once the eviction is scheduled, the Sheriff’s Office will notify you the day before the eviction. It is important that you (or an appointed representative) be there physically to witness the eviction. If there is no one there to witness the eviction, it will not be able to proceed. Then you will need to reschedule and wait for a new eviction date to be set.
Summary
As you can see, if you want to evict a tenant in Chicago it is not a simple process. The processing time to evict a tenant can be as long as three months or more, depending on the circumstances. It is essential that you follow the correct steps though. Failure to do so can end up with even longer delays or, in the worst cases, a tenant suing you.
Every landlord hopes that they will never have to go through the eviction process. Of course, the best prevention against eviction is to find and keep good tenants. However, it’s important to be prepared with good rental agreements and knowledge of the eviction process for when the worst happens.
The post How to Evict a Tenant in Chicago – A Simple Guide appeared first on ChoreRelief.
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