Breaking a Lease Question (Chicago, Time: condominium, eviction, attorney)

[bbolo84]

Hello All,

My roommate and I recently returned to our condominium after three weeks due to evacuation because of flooding in Chicago..Upon our return, the landlord asked us to send payment for the month, despite the fact we were not living there due to the evacuation. We were evacuated on July 24th, and returned August 14th of this year.

We have requested that he accept payment for the remaining two weeks in August, and pro-rate us for the last week of July in which we were evacuated, but still paid for in the beginning of July. However, our landlord insists we pay for days in which we were not there, or face eviction.

Do we have a right to break the lease? We do not want to stay in the condo past September 1st, seeing that by then we would owe him for that month. He is basically trying to bully us into paying for the month of August. I have posted the part of our lease that states we do not have to pay for the time we were not in the unit due to evacuation:

[SIZE=2]"If Premises of the Building become untentable due to fire or other casualty, Lessor may elect to (a) terminate this Lease as of the date of the fire or casualty by notice to Lessee within 30 days or (b) repair, restore or rehabilitate the Premise at Lessor's expense within 120 days... in which latter event this lease shall not terminate, but rent shall be abated on a per diem basis while the Premises are untentable."[/SIZE]

Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks

[trickygal]

Sorry your landlord in such a jerk! Call the Metropolitan Tenants Rights hotline for the City of Chicago. It is free and they can provide you with great info.(Including the paperwork you need to give your landlord to inform him that you are not required to pay for flooded days.) I am assuming that you live in River City and I am sure that they received several call like yours. Metropolitan Tenants Organization » Tenants Rights Help (http://www.tenants-rights.org/tenants-rights-help/ - broken link) Here is the number too 773 292 4988. Their hours are M-F 1-5 and they are really busy at 1:00 so count on having to call repeatedly, but they are really helpful.

Good luck!

[eevee]

take my advice w/ a huge grain of salt since I have little legal knowledge (your best bet really would be to cal the tenants org), but if your apt was flooded to the point you couldn't live there, then you shouldn't have to pay. it wasn't your fault the condo was flooded. don't let the LL bully you and seek consul.

[soulful]

Your situation, in terms of wanting to break your lease, is possibly complicated by the fact that the condo was uninhabitable, but is now habitable and you have returned and are living in the unit.

If you simply want to stay, I would suggest you point out to the landlord the paragraph you mentioned in your original post (especially the last sentence). Perhaps he/she will come around and grasp the verbiage in the lease.

If you remain, don't pay, and he starts eviction proceedings, I would gander that the judge, once you get to court, might very well rule in your favor.

I am not an attorney. Just giving my two cents

[Drover]

I suspect another complicating factor is the OP perhaps lives in a large complex such as River City, and the habitability issues were building-wide and nothing the individual unit owner had any control over, including the pace at which the building was restored to habitability. In that case it may be the condo association rather than the unit owner who would be the liable party.

Disclaimer: I'm not intimately familiar enough with landlord/tenant law to give a solid answer; this is just another angle to consider when weighing your chances of success in court. To get a more definitive answer, you should of course contact an attorney who specializes in this field.