sheriff

Polar Vortex Deja Vous and Eviction

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casbahEvictions and the Weather Forecast 2015

Although the eviction moratorium is set to end today, I have my doubts that the Sheriff will be working tomorrow.  The weather forecast for tomorrow (1/6/15) predicts a high of 14 degrees and a low of -4 degrees.  This feels eerily like 2014.  As most Chicago landlords know, the Cook County Sheriff is prohibited by the Clerk of the Circuit Court general order from enforcing evictions (1) whenever the outside temperature is 15 degrees Fahrenheit or colder on the actual day of the eviction or (2) whenever regardless of outside temperature, extreme weather conditions endanger the health and welfare of those to be evicted.  As of 10:45am today (1/5/15), the Sheriff’s eviction schedule website looks like this:

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Update on extreme cold in Cook County as it relates to tenant evictions

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brrCook evictions called off because of cold weather.

For those of you landlords who have been following the Cook County Sheriff’s eviction schedule web page, you will have noticed that evictions are once again this week canceled for the 24th of January.  The Sheriff’s web page says “Evictions Will Be Cancelled Due To Weather / Rescheduled At A Later Date”.  There have not been many evictions so far in this new year.

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Cook County Holiday / December / Winter Eviction Moratorium Starts Soon

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mora2Update: look here for information on the 2014-2015 winter moratorium

It is that time of year when Christmas is in the air and tenants across Cook County get a respite from eviction in the form of an eviction moratorium.  On December 12, 2013, the Circuit Court of Cook County entered general order 2013-07 effectively stopping the Cook County Sheriff from enforcing eviction possession orders.  The Sheriff of Cook County has been ordered to cease the execution of orders for possession beginning on December 16, 2013 (they don’t evict on weekends, so really, tenants who are not evicted by December 13 will be unaffected until the moratorium ends) and to resume evictions effective January 3, 2014 (a Friday, so, again, there really are no evictions until January 6, 2014). 

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How not to evict tenants in Chicago

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badappleNews 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.

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After the Illinois eviction trial

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oldschoolHypothetical: 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”.

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What happens after getting an order for possession?

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moving day for evicted tenantsSo, the landlord has served a notice, waited the notice period, filed a lawsuit, went to court, and had a trial.  At the end of the trial, the court awarded the plaintiff-landlord an “order for possession”.  The order for possession is a court order granting possession of the real estate that is the subject of the forcible entry and detainer lawsuit back to the landlord.  It means the landlord “won” the case and is entitled to recover possession of his real property.

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Sovereign citizen defense fails in McHenry County criminal trespass after eviction case

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An article in the Daily Herald describes a McHenry County man who now faces jail time for moving back into the real estate he occupied before being evicted.  According to the article, a jury found the man guilty of criminal trespass.  He will be sentenced soon and faces “up to 364 days in jail, up to two years probation, and a maximum $2,500 fine.”

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