Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Illinois

1. The 5-day notice appears to be INVALID as you were not properly served -- unless you abandoned the place or left someone over 13 years old to receive the notice, it had to be served on YOU.

2. Otherwise, the 5-day notice can be typed or hand-written, but must contain the right words. If it does not, it may be invalid on that basis.

3. If you show up in court and admit receiving a proper 5-day notice, you can be evicted.

4. If the 5-day notice is properly worded, the only way to avoid eviction is to pay in full within the 5 days. Partial payment still gives the landlord the right to evict unless the landlord gives a written ok AFTER receiving the partial payment.

5. There are a lot of tricky little things when it comes to evictions today. You may have some good defenses to the eviction but don't know about it because you are choosing to DIY instead of spending the time with an attorney to go through everything.

6. Written notices usually supersede oral communications which are usually one word against the other.

7. If the court orders you evicted, USUALLY there is a 30-day "stay" meaning the landlord can't ask the Sheriff to come out and carry out the final physical eviction process for 30 days, but you may have to ask the judge for that time, and your comp situation should do the trick.

8. Eventually if the landlord wants you out you will be evicted if grounds exist and the landlord properly proceeds. That should not stop you from asserting your legal rights to be evicted properly or to defeat a lawsuit to evict if proper procedures have NOT been employed.