Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Illinois

Hello my name is Cecelia Holloway and I currently has a tenant who have violated her leases twice by 1. not paying any rent for the last 3 months and 2. moving in someone who is not on the lease and I believe is selling drugs. My question is what do I need to do to evict her?

Also the lights in the apartment is in my previous tenant name. I've spoke with her and she said she called the light company to have them shut off the electricity in the apartment but they have failed to do so. I wanted to know would I get in trouble legally if I shut the lights in the apartment since the light company failed to do so?


Asked on 6/13/12, 10:03 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Stephen Messutta

Like any other landlord, if this tenant has not paid rent or has otherwise violated the lease you have to give notice and sue to evict if the tenant will not move voluntarily. Because of the electrical issue, I highly recommend you have an attorney get involved because if you try to evict for non-payment of rent the tenant can defend on the basis of their being no lights and then it becomes tricky proving who was supposed to do what with the electric billing account. If you try to evict because of the drug trafficking, you would have to prove that too, and that will be tricky. One way you could deal with the situation is to get the police involved, but I would not recommend that without having an attorney as backup to protect your own rights.

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Answered on 6/14/12, 1:40 pm


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