Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Illinois

i leased a house with option to own i paid $3500 deposit than $390/month that was paid directly to the morgage company after a few months they wanted us to buy the house from them but we no longer wanted the house since it was full of dangerous and expensive problems(it was so bad we called the codes inspector but they said they couldnt do anything)so we declined and told them we planned to move out by winter since their "new exhust"heat ducts ect) did not include any duct to the upstairs(my childrens rooms)vents but nothing connected or anywhere else just 1 big one in the middle of te floor downstairs and many many other issues. soon after they tried to evict us w/ a typed up evict notice i told them they would have to use the proper legal channels as we where current on rent so they did and in the mean time we recieved a letter from the mortage compay that the owners had stopped all payments on the loan and my check for the next months rent so i was to prepared to win since they claimed we owe them all kinds of money and i had multiple statements showing we were currnet in payments up til they stopped accepting our payments but i am disabled and was sick on the day i was to present my case and they won but only for the rent since they stopped payment but they still owe me my deposit is there anything i can do to get my money back from these people(they burnt the house down shortly after we were evicted for the insurance money)


Asked on 6/28/10, 12:00 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Stephen Messutta

Can't say for sure - insufficient facts:

1. Your lease/option controls your rights. If you had no obligation to exercise your option the mortgage company had no right to force you. If you were current in rent you may still have been liable for rent after you left until the house burned down.

2. If the house is in Urbana there is a special landlord-tenant ordinance that may have helped you, but not in Champaign.

3. If you were sued for eviction and the house was burned down your liability should have ceased going forward.

4. Your failure to go to court left you vulnerable; you could have gone after you recovered and possibly gotten the eviction reversed but you apparently lost that option.

5. Arson is a crime; accusing someone of arson could result in liability to you. That goes for the mortgage company too.

Until the lease is fully examined, the court record examined (you may have run out of time to reopen this case), and the complete picture reviewed, these are the only thoughts that come to mind for your situation. Other than that, get a lawyer in your locale to review the situation.

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Answered on 6/29/10, 7:25 am


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