Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Illinois

Re: breaking a rental lease

You may be able to sublet depending on the terms of your lease; but it's doubtful without the landlord's consent.

If you have to leave, you should give your landlord as much notice as possible (60 days would be great; 30 days would be good). That way, if he tries to take you to court, you could show the judge the letter(s) and say he had a chance to find a new tenant. If he just sat on his hands and didn't look for a new tenant after your notice, the judge would ask him why he didn't "mitigate" his damages. In other words, the party suffering the breach is supposed to not let damages worsen without doing anything about it; they're supposed to minimize the damages if they can (e.g., by trying to find a new tenant).

In my experience, most judges will give a landlord about 2 months of rent when a lease is breached. So if you can either find a responsible new tenant or give about 2 months' notice, you should be OK. Good luck!