Know Your Rights in the Eviction Process

By Shayla Maatuka and Juanmanuel Garcia-Sanchez

If you rent your home or apartment, you need to know your rights if your landlord wants you out. This is an eviction. First, you can only be evicted for:

• failure to pay rent,
• violation of the lease agreement, or
• the lease term has ended.

Before a Landlord can force you out of the rental property, the Landlord is required to give you written notice and reasonable time to cure the default. In Illinois, a Landlord is required to give you:

• 5-day Notice of Termination of Tenancy for failure to pay rent;

• 10-day Notice of Termination of Tenancy for a lease violation;
• 30-day Notice of Termination of Tenancy for end of lease termination; and
• 30-day Notice of Termination of Tenancy if a month-to-month verbal lease exists.

If you dispute the Notice of Termination, you can fight for your rights! The Landlord must wait the complete number of days required by the Notice of Termination for you to cure the default. If you do not cure the default and do not leave the property, the Landlord must then file for eviction in court. The Landlord cannot change your locks, move your belongings out, or threaten you in any way in order to force you to leave the property. A Landlord who does may be liable for damages.

Once you are served with Summons and Complaint, you must appear in court to fight for your rights. If you fail to appear in court for the scheduled court hearing, you will lose and a default judgment will be entered against you, and the Landlord can move ahead with the eviction process. (See below –if you admit to complaint)

At court, you can admit or deny the Complaint. If you admit, the Landlord may be given a monetary judgment {such as the amount of money owed for rent, plus attorney fees (if the written leases calls for them), and costs} and will be able to evict you by having the local sheriff remove you from the premises (usually takes about a week). If you deny, a trial will be set within one week.

At trial, the Landlord must prove

• that you did not pay, you violated the lease agreement, or that the lease term has terminated;

• Landlord served you the required Notice of Termination; and
• Landlord allowed the complete amount of time required by the Notice of Termination to elapse prior to filing for eviction. For example, where the notice is for failure to pay rent, the Landlord has to allow you the complete 5 days to pay. If you pay within 5 days, the Landlord cannot evict you! If the Landlord does not wait the complete 5 days, the eviction case will be thrown out and the Landlord will have to begin again.

The laws apply to all people equally; your status as an immigrant DOES NOT MATTER. Know your rights!

Call the Maatuka Law Office for more information or if you believe you are involved an illegal eviction.

If you have legal questions that you would like to have addressed in future columns, please send them to our office at 306 W. Green St., Urbana, IL 61801.

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