Remember that money the State of Illinois won in the robo-signing lawsuit against the nation’s big banks? Well, that money seems to have found a home, and Illinois landlords may not like it.
The Daily Herald is reporting today that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has announced that “the $20 million the state received from a national foreclosure settlement will be used to help homeowners and renters affected by the foreclosure crisis” and that “the money will be given to legal assistance programs that in turn will provide access to the justice system for homeowners and renters”.
The details of the plan are not discussed, but more money to legal assistance groups means more eviction defense and the assertion of more tenant’s rights.
In the story, the Attorney General “says helping families keep their homes will create a “domino effect” that will benefit not only surrounding communities but the entire economy.” That might be right. Then again, if the legal services allow tenants an additional opportunity to stall or delay an eviction, that will create a domino effect that leaves a landlord with a path toward his own foreclosure.
More than ever, Landlords need to be on their toes and need to comply with the laws so that tenant’s don’t get an opportunity to catch them flat-footed. Is it time to review that old lease? Probably.
My landlord is a young white male and I am an elderly black single female. Mr XXXXXX is a slum lord that dont fix up his apartment after a tenent moves in. My apartment is falling apart and the perks that was promise before signing the lease was not fullfill. after 2 years i decided to leave and the man threaten me, yelled and was disrespectful. I had to call my children afterwards to ensure my safety. since I started talking about to move 7 months ago, he been doing things and calling section 8 in attempt to make me lose my section 8. what procedure do I use in reporting his unprofessional ways? the cops says he has not commited a crime. who should I report him to?
I don’t know both sides of the story here and don’t have enough facts to assist. This kind of issue can be quite complex and you need to obtain the assistance of a tenant’s rights attorney to help you enforce and protect any rights you have.
I live in round lake & I lived on XXXXXXXXX Rd. for 4 years & the slum landlord that I was renting from refuse to fix up the house he was charging market rent for didn’t fix anything!!! No heat I had to use my oven & stove to keep my house warm for the winter. Pipes leaking in the basement which made it smell like mold in the whole house & me & my kids were getting sick from the conditions in the house. The electricity in the house on one side didn’t work at & he knew about that as well as other conditions got worker in that house. He’ll continue to want to receive rent every month but don’t repair or take in consideration that I have children & we lived there. The roof leaked every time it rained or snowed badly, then with that the roof that’s by the room were I slept which was a shed, the roof started collapsing & of course he doesn’t see that, he only sees dollar signs. Not only that but he became very rude & trying to force us to move because he didn’t want us to report him because he’s a slum lord fix nothing on his properties only if you have a section 8 voucher. He started to get more & more aggressive then started stalking me sitting outside my house trying to pressure me about more money when the conditions of his rental place wasn’t up to part at all!!! I wouldn’t recommend this place or any other place to no one royal realty are not who u want to deal with at XXXXXXX XXXXXXX is not a good landlord he’s a slum lord, very very unprofessional & thinks he can try up work things out by trying to sleep with his tenants! DO NOT RENT FROM HIM he’s a lair & unprofessional as a landlord. Thank you
Thank you for your comments. I have edited your message to take out the property location and landlord’s name. This website is not intended as a place to make accusations about bad landlords.
Certainly, I urge all tenants reading this blog to retain tenant’s counsel to assist them in enforcing their rights. Your note indicates conditions that sound horrible and I don’t think any tenant should let a landlord abuse the tenant.
That said, it seems like you lived in the horrible, unsafe, terrible place with a landlord who was aggressive and threatening for four years. Tenants need to enforce their rights or at the very least, leave a slum run by a slum lord. Right? (And please, I don’t buy into the fact that there is “no where else to go” – I understand that the situation is not easy, but to endure it for four years makes no sense).