Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Illinois

I have been leasing a home to the same renters for 4 years. Every year i give them a new lease to sign. 75 days prior to the expiration of their current lease i sent them a new lease agreement. However upon inspecting the I no longer want to extend their lease. I notified them verbally and in writing that I will not be renewing their lease. I have given them 56 days notice. They are claiming we have a new agreement for another year since I gave them the lease to sign even though I never signed the new lease.

It is my contention that since I have not signed the new lease and because the new lease period has not yet begun that I can ask them to move out at the end of their current lease. Is this correct?


Asked on 5/04/12, 9:55 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Stephen Messutta

Unless your lease created annual renewal opportunities, a lease for a year requires no notice of intent not to renew. What you appear to have done was put out an offer to lease, which you retracted before the tenant accepted it. Some localities have their own requirements, however, and it would be worth your while to have a local attorney look at the lease that is expiring and the one you proposed to just to make sure you created no "year to year" expectations and that no local ordinance requires some specific kind of notice.

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Answered on 5/06/12, 8:29 pm


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