Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Illinois

Ok.. so here is the problem. My boyfriend and I moved into an older home last September, the landlord was asking $450 for rent, but we noticed that the house needed to be painted so we offered to paint it for her for $50 off the rent. It was starting to get cold outside at the time, so we decided to wait til after the winter to paint it. In March of the next year, we found a newer and nicer place we wanted to move into (we only had a month to month lease, since the house was for sale), and we notified our landlord. She said to make sure the house was painted before we left, or we were not going to get our $400 deposit back. The garage was made out of really old wood and when my boyfriend tried to pressure wash the old paint off, it kind of imprinted the wood. We still painted the house, garage, and fascia as stated in the lease. It was not the best job, but it was not horrible either, and we did the best we could with what we had. She lived a couple hours away, so never came and looked at the job before transferring our money back into my boyfriends checking account. A month later, she called my boyfriend saying the job was not as good as she had hoped and told him she wanted some money back because she had to buy more paint and supplies to fix it. Now... in the lease, under "security deposit", it says that once the landlord agrees that the property is in good standing and that the "tenants have fulfilled all of their obligations" the landlord will return the security deposit and the lease will be terminated. Can she really come back a month later and ask for it back?


Asked on 8/08/11, 3:53 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Stephen Messutta

She can ask for anything, of course, but whether she'll try to come after you for $400 is really whether it's worth her time and trouble. She certainly had the right to come out before sending you the $ and look see if the job was passable, and if the only language about returning the security deposit is what you included, theoretically at least on paper she blew her chance and shouldn't be entitled to ask for her money back. As to whether the work is what she should have expected, it has to do with what the lease said, and if there were no specifics as to the quality of your painting work and it was understood you two would actually be doing the painting but were not professional painters, then all she could have expected was a "reasonable" job for two non-professionals who chose their own paint. One other thing in the lease you should check too is whether the lease has a provision (which most do) about your having to pay her attorney fees and costs if she has to sue you and wins. She might think that it won't cost her much to sue you, and if she does you may wind up having to make a choice of compromising the situation or taking your risks with a judge. If you don't have picture of the paint job she could claim it was horrible.... Best thing is to have an attorney review the entire lease and any pictures of the paint job.

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Answered on 8/09/11, 10:07 am


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