Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Illinois

My wife and I signed a lease in 2009 on our current residence. While we were signing the papers, I told the agent that my work might require me to leave before the end of the lease. The agent said that it wouldn't be a problem since there is a military base nearby and people had to break leases all the time so we would fall into the military clause. When we gave our 30 day notice that we were leaving, we told them that my company was transferring me. The agent asked who I worked for and when she heard the company name, she indicated that we would fall under the "company name" clause. Then she looked at the lease and said the clause isn't in our lease since that clause was added to leases after we moved in. We have signed a total of four leases now, and they never informed us that they have added a new clause for people in my company. Was there any obligation on their part to inform us of this new clause or to honor the "military clause" that the agent indicated we would fall under?�


Asked on 10/17/11, 7:10 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Stephen Messutta

Unless you signed a brokerage agreement that this broker represented you, most likely this was the owner/landlord broker. There may be some liability for the broker's representations including seemingly giving you what amounts to legal advice. No broker should ever tell anyone that "breaking" leases is standard by any means. Anyhow, once a lease is signed and unless there was an obligation in the lease to "update" it for military personnel, it was your responsibility to make sure the lease gave you the "outs" you needed. Take the lease, along with anything that could possibly document the broker's representations (emails, notes....) to an attorney for a full review of the situation, including the possibility of registering a complaint with the broker licensing people.

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Answered on 10/18/11, 10:37 am


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