Q-I rented an apartment in Chicago and arranged to move in. A day before the move, the landlord called and told me that the prior tenant hadn`t moved out, so I couldn`t move in. My problem is, I have to move out of my apartment and I have no place else to go. What can I do?
A-Obviously, the first order of business is to find a new place to go, at least on a temporary basis. The tenant who resides in your apartment is subjecting himself to liability for damages caused both to you and to the landlord. You do not want to place yourself in a similar situation with your current landlord. It might be necessary for you to put your furniture into storage on a temporary basis until you can locate a permanent residence.
Your next step is to get more information from your new landlord, to determine the time frame in which you could expect to get possession of the apartment-if you still want to live there. If the landlord says the tenant is moving out soon, you should enter into an agreement with him under which he will pay the additional expenses you incur until the apartment is available. Such expenses could include your storage charges and possibly your rent for staying in a hotel until the apartment is available.
If the landlord is unable to tell you when the current tenant is leaving, you probably should look for another apartment. If the landlord has to evict the current tenant to regain possession, the procedure could easily take two months and I doubt you would want to be in limbo for that long.
Under the City of Chicago Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance, if the landlord fails to give possession of the apartment when promised, you have two alternatives. You can, upon written notice to the landlord, terminate the proposed tenancy, in which case you are entitled to the return of any security deposit or prepaid rent you have submitted. Or, you can demand performance of the rental agreement and file an eviction suit against the current tenant and the landlord. Once again, an eviction case probably is going to take about two months to complete, before the sheriff can actually evict the tenant.
Under the city`s ordinance, if the current tenant willfully fails to move, you can recover from him or her the greater of two months` rent or twice your actual damages. Those damages could include your costs for storage and alternative housing.
You also could sue your new landlord for breach of contract, because the lease is a contract. This suit could hold him responsible for your storage and alternative housing costs and for related out-of-pocket expenses. If you move to a comparable apartment that costs more money, this landlord might be held responsible for paying the difference for the period of your lease agreement with him.
Finally, you probably will want to consider moving to another apartment in any event, because you should have some serious concerns about this landlord. Before an apartment is rerented, a certain amount of rehabbing and refurbishing should be done, including repainting, carpet cleaning and general maintenance work.
Before such work can be done, the former tenant obviously would have to be out of the unit. The landlord, needing the lead time to perform this work before you could move in, must have known several days before your scheduled move that the existing tenant was not moving out. His lack of consideration in not telling you and in leaving you virtually no time in which to make alternative plans raises serious doubts about his concern for tenants and his honesty.
Stubborn subtenant
Q-I had a tenant move out and leave a subtenant in the apartment. The lease has expired and the tenant has been paying the rent directly to me. Now I want to put a new tenant into the apartment, but the existing tenant says I have renewed the lease by keeping him beyond the lease expiration. Can I remove this tenant?
A-Characterizing the type of tenancy here depends, in large part, upon the intentions of both parties. These intentions are reflected in
conversations and actions during the course of your relationship.
Generally, in a subtenancy situation, you do not technically have a contract with the subtenant. Rather, your agreement is with the tenant, who in turn has an agreement with the subtenant. Normally, the subtenant pays the rent to the tenant, who then pays the rent to the landlord. In that situation, the subtenant clearly is no more than a holdover tenant.
However, because you have accepted rent directly from the subtenant, you probably have established some sort of landlord-tenant relation directly with him. Whether or not you implicitly renewed the lease will depend upon the nature of your conversations.
If there have been no negotiations or discussions between you on this issue, a month-to-month tenancy probably has been created. In that event, you can end this tenancy through a 30-day termination notice. Before serving the notice, however, you should carefully review what has been said and done with regard to this tenant, because it sounds likely that he will contest any attempt you make to remove him from the apartment.
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Robert A. Boron, a Chicago attorney who specializes in leasing matters, writes about landlord and tenant issues for the Tribune. Questions to him can be addressed to Rental Q&A, Your Place section, Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611. Sorry, but he cannot make personal replies.
