Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Illinois

"Reletting" is the accepted jargon for the process of finding someone to take your place under the lease. "Reletting" charges are usually in the section of the lease that talks about defaults, termination and damages. If that's where your clause is, it means that if you the landlord can charge you with a bunch of things if you bolt and try to break the lease -- such as ads, leasing commission, cost of repairs and redecorating, attorney fees, all in reasonable amounts of course, but since the landlord expected a cash flow for the term and didn't want to have to deal with finding a new tenant while you were on the hook, it's shorthand for your being obligated to make up for the costs of getting someone to take your place, and may be part of the damages you would owe the landlord. Again, the words in the section and where the section is, are critical. Because it may, and I do mean may possibly, be the provision that says if you want to assign or sublet, the landlord will still want to control the process and there would be a fee involved, and it may or may not let you off the hook for the balance of the term.