An important announcement – High Court Proposes New Forms

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Illinois Supreme Court Proposed FormsAnswers, Counterclaims, and Defenses

As my readers know from my posting infrequency over the last few months, things are super busy in our landlord-tenant practice.  However, this morning, a fellow attorney alerted me to an issue that I want to take time out to share.  The Supreme Court Commission on Access to Justice has promulgated a set of new Answer, Defenses, and Counterclaim forms for tenants’ use in eviction cases.  The forms can be found here on the Illinois Courts webpage.

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What is old is new as HB 2775 is signed into law by Illinois Governor

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Section 8 protections expanded House Bill 2775 was signed into law on May 23, 2022.  The law, introduced by Representative La Shawn K. Ford, amends the Illinois Human Rights Act by prohibiting source of income discrimination in real estate transaction under the State’s fair housing laws.  This change brings the entire State of Illinois into … Read more

The Current State of Evictions in Cook County

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Can we evict?

I get the phonecalls from landlords every day.  “I hear we can evict tenants again – is that true?”  Hmm… that’s a simple question that requires a nuanced answer.  It is true that on October 4, 2021, the eviction moratorium was lifted, but what replaced it is a system that pre-covid landlords (and their attorneys) might not recognize.  A system that was flawed could arguably be said to be purposefully broken.  We couldn’t evict (except in rare circumstances) before the moratorium ended.   Now, with the moratorium lifted, we face a system that seems almost designed to slow the process and is already in need of significant reform.  Here’s a “state of the union” for evictions in Cook County’s 1st district:

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Where is the bilingual 2022 security deposit interest rate summary?

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UPDATE: Shortly after publication of this article, the Interest Rate Summary was made available by the City of Chicago and it can be found here.  The point about the City’s tardy delivery remains valid.

Why does this happen every year?  It is now January 4, 2022 and we still do not have a bilingual interest rate summary from the City of Chicago as required by Section 5-12-170 of the Chicago Residential Landlord Tenant Ordinance.  Why?

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COVID 19 Eviction Protection Ordinance Set to Expire

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Ordinance Protection Expired?

Will it happen?  Has it happened?  Will it stick?  Who knows? I would not put it past the powers that be.  What am I talking about?  The Chicago Covid 19 eviction protection ordinance is set to expire by its own terms.  Could the Governor do something this weekend to somehow extend the executive order providing eviction protections?  Probably not.  The protections in that last order were extended on August 20, 2021 and expired October 3, 2021.  The Chicago COVID 19 Eviction Protection Ordinance extended its provisions for 60 days beyond that date.

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Illinois’ Covid Eviction Moratorium Ends

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Illinois Governor Pritzker’s 19 month moratorium on evictions expired this past weekend.  Beginning today, October 4, 2021, evictions can be filed and processed as before the moratorium was put into place.  A nightmare for landlords seems to be at an end.  What will the playing field look like now that the ban on evictions has been lifted?

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Governor goes back on his word and extends moratorium

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Well, I for one never believed the moratorium would expire as promised at the end of August.  Never.  And, very quietly, after subtle signals at the Illinois State Fair, the Governor went ahead and extended.  Why?  Pick your reason.  Delta variant (hmmmm…. there were less than 3000 cases yesterday and the pandemic seems to be more of an endemic and less of an emergency now that Illinois has been “restored”); emergency rental assistance money (why isn’t that making its way into the hands of landlords sooner?  We’ve heard this excuse before); maybe it is to coincide with the likely improper but somehow in force Center for Disease Control eviction moratorium; or maybe “just because”…  The reason really doesn’t matter.  By way of executive order 2021-19, the moratorium is now extended to

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