Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Illinois

Back around 9-18-2009 I contracted a storage unit from a company the company lost the business back to the bank,the company did not forward the contracts to the bank the bank did not ask me to sign a new contract. The bank contacted me on 6-23-10 wed. ask me to move my belongings from a portable shipping container which was my existing storage unit on the property to a permanent storage unit on the same property. I met with a bank rep on 6-25-10 fri at 3:30 pm, he designated a new storage unit for me and ask if I could move it by monday 6-28-10 I told him I would try. I did not get it moved by monday 6-28-10, so I was on my way to the bank on 6-28-10 that opened at 9 am to let them know I did not get moved and needed more time, went by the storage yard at 8:30 am on the way to the bank and noticed my storage container with my belongings was gone. After the bank opened I notified them that my container was gone they took my phone number and said they would contact me, they called at 2:30 pm told me where is was located and said the lock was still on it. I arrived at the container, no lock was on it, several items missing and damaged, notified the bank on 7-6-10 of the situation, (waited till then because the person in charge of the storage units from the bank was on vacation till then) they told me to make a police report and go talk to the junk yard who the bank contracted to remove the empty containers which is where I had to go to get all my belonging and trailer them all back to the new storage a couple of miles away, that was assigned to me on 6-25-10. Who is liable for all my missing and damaged stuff comes to about 2500 dollars.


Asked on 7/11/10, 10:48 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Stephen Messutta

Taking the property back can mean a couple of things: foreclosure or deed in lieu. If it's a foreclosure normally a lender that is foreclosing is not directly liable unless it takes possession of the property. What a lender will do is have the court appoint a receiver to run the property during foreclosure. The receiver should be bonded and insured. Given the facts presented, and without knowing more about where the court case is if this is a foreclosure, it may be the receiver and the receiver's insurance at stake. If this is a deed in lieu, where the owner literally gave a deed to the lender, usually lenders don't take title directly, but through some third party affiliate. Until the deed is transferred the old owner would be liable, and upon a transfer the new owner would be liable. Since we don't know where they are in the process, I would suggest putting a claim in through the old owner if that's feasible, and through the lender/bank since you don't know who the new owner actually is and dollars to donuts they do know. But you can ask the bank rep. to get some of this clarified. A police report will help in terms of insurance; you will have to have some kind of way to back up your claim that the insurance value of the missing things is 2500.

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Answered on 7/13/10, 7:52 am


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