Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Illinois

Sure sounds like it, and if it causes any problems for you at work, it's called slander. But it sounds like this is just the kind of landlord who will make trouble for you if you try to make something of it, like trying to evict you even if you are "good pay". So it's a question of choosing your battle: as long as your supervisor realizes the landlord is just a jerk, then the answer may be to find another place to live where the landlord is not a jerk, because no matter what you do this one sounds like he won't give you a good reference. Your zip code indicates you live in the Monee area, which is under 10,000 people and where, sometimes luckily for a smaller community, people know people, and maybe enough people know your landlord is a jerk. And if enough people know you're a decent person, then the landlord will lose and you should be able to find a place where you can put this jerk behind you. But, if you want to teach the landlord a lesson, do consider consulting with a local attorney who might be able to shut down this landlord enough to give you breathing room until you move. Coming from a smaller town myself, that's the way things often worked. Use your friends and resources first, because if you start a war you know never know who might win and everyone can get hurt.