A landlord has served a tenant with a five day notice. The tenant failed to pay and the landlord is ready to take the “next step” in the eviction process. So, where should a landlord file a Cook County forcible entry and detainer case?
Eviction
Single Action Eviction versus Joint Action Eviction
Sometimes, landlords can be confused by the terminology they may hear in the eviction courts in Illinois. When an attorney steps up before a judge in the eviction court, he or she will recite a sort of preamble to the case. After introductions, the plaintiff’s attorney might hand up an eviction notice, a 5 day notice for nonpayment of rent, for example, and will say “your honor, this is a joint action proceeding on a landlord’s five day notice”. Other plaintiff’s attorneys hand up a notice, say a 30 day notice in this case, and say “your honor, this is a single action proceeding on a landlord’s thirty day notice”.
NATO Conference interrupts Cook County eviction filings
Because of the NATO Conference in downtown Chicago, the Clerk of the Circuit Court is not currently accepting new eviction filings for the week of May 14, 2012 to May 18, 2012. Right now, the soonest return date available for Cook County forcible entry and detainer cases is currently May 21, 2012.
Stick to the basics when it comes to evictions for nonpayment of rent
By now, my readers should know that the Illinois forcible entry and detainer statute is hyper-technical. It is easy to get “off track” in an eviction. Landlords can get easily distracted from the essentials of an eviction case. When that happens, they focus on “side-issues” that don’t really impact the eviction case. These side-issues only serve to distract from the case and sometimes even allow a defendant to stumble onto an issue that will cause a delay or may even prove fatal to the landlord’s case.
How we bill for an eviction case
We get calls every day from landlords asking how we bill our eviction work. While we are always happy to spend five minutes on the phone free of charge with landlords to see if we are a match for an engagement, landlords can use that time more wisely learning about their case rather than our billing procedures by taking a look at our informational pamphlet on how we bill. Here is our pamphlet on the price of our eviction services for Cook County evictions (after the break).
Quick note: Cook County Sheriff speed
Right now, based on anecdotal experience, the Cook County Sheriff seems to be taking around four to six weeks to come out to enforce an order to evict a tenant. Frankly, for January and compared to previous years, that’s pretty spectacular.
Winter eviction moratorium set
As expected, the Cook County Sheriff will not be enforcing orders for possession to evict any tenants from December 19, 2011 to January 2, 2012. After this coming Friday, tenants will have a 17 day reprieve from being evicted. However, this does NOT mean that the courts or closed or that eviction cases are not … Read more
But there is no lease!
I was recently contacted by a property owner who inquired about removing a tenant who is renting a room in the property owner’s house. I explained to the property owner that the procedures of the Forcible Entry and Detainer Act must be satisfied to remove the tenant.
The property owner then informed me that ‘there is no lease’ and that the tenant has to leave as ‘it is my house’. Many landlords feel this way.
Sometimes what happens in eviction court doesn’t make sense
One of my associates appeared in court in one of our forcible entry cases. Our client, being well based in reality, understood that the tenant was unlikely to ever have the resources to repay the landlord and really just wanted to regain possession of the property. The tenant was genuinely sorry to be behind in rent and was willing to leave but needed some extra time to do so. What could be done?
First District Cook County Illinois eviction “worse case scenario” timeline
In August, I wrote about the “best case scenario” timeline for a first district Cook County eviction. This post is about the opposite side of the process or what I call the “worse case scenario”. That’s not a typo. I mean “worse”, not “worst”. I don’t think I have seen the system at its worst yet. The eviction practice has taught me that I have not seen close to everything.