Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Illinois

You do not identify the landlord's relationship to the owners of the condo. That is important. Because if the landlord is an authorized agent (such as a leasing agent) of the owners, then the landlord and the owners need to fix this. If the landlord is NOT the authorized agent of the owners, then there may be a fraud here. If you can contact the owners directly and find out what the situation is, that also would be helpful, because they can fix this if they want to, and need to do so if the landlord was their agent when the lease was signed. What also is not stated is how you found out -- most every condo association has "move-in" rules including some kind of security deposit against damage to the halls and such, so if you were not advised of these things then the landlord was remiss. OR, if there is a scam going on, then there may be some fraud and the owner and/or landlord may be liable to you for the cost of obtaining the lease, moving-in, having to move out if things are not straightened out, the costs to find another place and possibly the REASONABLE cost difference in rent between what you may have to pay some other place and this place if the other place is more expensive (but you can't be unreasonable either....). What also is not stated is whether the owners are rejecting the lease; the condo association can not necessarily do so on their behalf either -- that may depend on the declaration, bylaws and condo rules (some condo associations if they are large enough DO have leasing authority for owners). I hope this is not a scam. Get some more information and in the interim if you can try to work with the real owner and association that would help. But given the written communications from the association and until you know what is going on, I would agree you should NOT pay the landlord another dime.

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