News agencies across the City of Chicago are reporting that Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart is calling for a local property management company to stop serving illegal eviction notices. (This story has a copy of the purported notice which is obviously not a notice from the Sheriff) A number of Chicago aldermen and the Chicago Anti-Eviction campaign are also protesting the company along with Sheriff Dart. The reports indicate that Dart alleges that the property management company is serving notices informing tenants that foreclosure proceedings are underway, that the tenants must vacate immediately, and that the Sheriff will be out soon to evict the tenants.
Unlawful Eviction
After the Illinois eviction trial
Hypothetical: A Chicago landlord pays an attorney to draft a 5 day notice. The landlord pays a process server to serve the notice. The tenant does not pay, so the landlord pays an attorney to draft a complaint, pays a filing fee to the Circuit Court, and pays service fees to the Cook County Sheriff. The Sheriff is unsuccessful in delivering the summons, so the landlord pays the attorney to go to court to have a process server appointed and pays a process server to serve a summons on the tenant. The tenant is served and the landlord pays an attorney to go to court for an eviction trial. The landlord prevails at the eviction trial and is granted an order for possession. The landlord tells the attorney “I’m going home to change the locks on the place”.