Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Illinois

Our condo association entered into a lease agreement with a coin operated laundry service in 1994. At then end of the initial 7 year contract in 2001, our association attempted to serve notice of termination by certified mail w/receipt to the company and the letter was returned unclaimed. Because the original contract included an automatic renewal clause, after the expiration of the first 7 years the company asserted that we had not given them notice and extended our contract for another 10 years. The current extension ends in 2011 and the association took special care to deliver, via certified mail with receipt, the notice of termination during the dates provided in the contract. The first attempt was mailed and the letter was returned after 3 separate attempts as unclaimed. A second attempt was mailed and was not received, however we never received the "green card" receipt with a signature. Shortly after the second attempt, we received a phone call from the company asking if we were interested in negotiating new machines, lower costs, etc. in order to retain their services. At this time we declined and again stated our intent to terminate. It is now 1 week from the date of the end of the contract and the company claims that they were never served with the notice of termination. They have threatened legal action if we disconnect their machines and consider the contract extended and in effect. They are clearly avoiding service as a dubious practice to extend the contract. We have the original certified mail receipt from 2001 (just the payment receipt from the USPS showing the letter was sent certified, not the "green card"), as well as the same USPS receipts of payment for both attempts made in 2010. We also have the original returned letter sent in 2010 showing that the letter went unclaimed after 3 attempts. All correspondence was mailed to the listed company mailing address. If the company attempts legal action, are the receipts and evidence we have enough to show that we made every reasonable effort to notify the company of termination, or will we be held liable because they avoided service and we do not have an actual signed "green card" showing acceptance of the letter? Can a company really avoid service to force a customer into extending a contract?

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