Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Illinois

You have/had several options depending on where things stand:

1. Illinois Residential Tenants' Right to Repair Act. Under this law, on proper notice and the landlord's failure to repair things it is required to repair under your lease or law, you can have the repairs made, submit the bills and deduct up to 1/2 or $500 (whichever is less). But you had to give proper notice, make the repairs, and submit the bills to do so.

2. Under Illinois law if a landlord sues to evict for non-payment of rent and there are unresolved repair issues that make the rental "uninhabitable" you can defend the eviction on that basis and not be required to move out.

3. Under Illinois law a landlord can not evict you if it is in retaliation for you exercising your legal rights, and you can defend the eviction on that basis.

4. None of these laws or rulings allow you to terminate a lease unless you believe the rental unit is so untenantable that you feel you have been "constructively evicted", but this also requires proper legal planning: communications with the landlord (notice of intent to vacate), actually moving out, etc. If you are later sued for rent you would defend on this basis in particular. One good strategy in planning this type of action is to have the rental unit inspected by the local building department, and if there are code violations that the landlord is responsible for correcting, you can show a court at a later date the violations and why the place was untenantable. In fact calling in the building department can help with all of the strategies.

Since it sounds like you attempted to comply with the legal pre-requisites to assert your rights but may not have done so strictly in accordance with law, it's time to sit down with an attorney who can look at the whole situation, consult with you on your options, and defend you as needed. Among these things would be a review of your lease, to determine what the landlord is responsible for and what you are responsible for, so that you are "complaining" about the right stuff!

Finally, if you community has its own landlord-tenant laws that cover any of these issues, you should check into that. Among those laws are building codes that you can call the building department to inspect as discussed above, but if the building department finds that there are code violations that you are responsible for, beware!