Q-I have lived in an apartment for a couple of years. I get a new lease every year and every year I have the same fight. I ask for my lease early and ask for certain repairs to be made to my apartment. But the landlord always gives me the lease one day before expiration of the old one. Because of such a tight timeframe, the repair issues never get discussed and I never get the repairs. What can I do to break this circle?
A-Probably the best thing you can do is to move to another apartment where the landlord will be more responsive. There are three possible reasons why the landlord has delayed providing a new lease.
First, he might have been preoccupied and it might be an oversight that he didn`t send you a new lease earlier. But this is the least likely of the three possibilities because you have been contacting him about wanting the lease and that should have been a sufficient reminder.
Another possibility is that he is testing the waters to see whether to seek another tenant in your place, someone who would pay a higher rent or, perhaps, someone the landlord considers more desirable. You might want to check local ads to see whether he is advertising your apartment for rent. If so, you probably should move out because if he finds that ”better tenant,”
he is unlikely to give you much lead time in which to find a new apartment. If he were to lose the new tenant because you remained beyond the expiration of your lease, you might be held liable for his losses.
The third possibility is that he purposely delays giving you a new lease in order to avoid the repair issue. In that event, you should plan on moving. It is clear that this landlord is not predisposed to provide you with the services or repairs you feel you need to remain in the apartment. His avoidance of the repairs issue and failure to make an early commitment on the lease renewal show bad faith and lack of concern in his dealings with you.
In this situation, you should remember that he cannot have you evicted immediately upon expiration of your lease. If he offers you a new lease, he obviously has not arranged for a replacement tenant, which reduces your exposure to a suit for damages.
To evict you, he must file suit, and the process can take more than a month before the actual eviction could be performed.
If you still want to remain in the apartment, despite the landlord`s malfeasance in the past, you should not allow yourself to be stampeded into a new lease. When the landlord asks you to renew the lease, calmly discuss your needs for repairs in the apartment. Whatever agreement you reach on specific work should be written into the lease, setting deadlines for when the repairs must be completed.
If you can`t reach an agreement on the repairs, try to agree on when you will move out. Because the landlord obviously does not have a replacement tenant lined up, he should be willing to grant you a reasonable amount of time in which to find a new apartment and move.
Because time may elapse before you reach agreement on the new lease, and because you continue to occupy the apartment, you should pay rent during the negotiation period. This rent should be paid by check or money order, and on the front of the check you should write that the rent is for a month-to-month tenancy. In that way, neither party should be confused into believing that the payment of rent constitutes renewal of the old lease for another yearly term. Summons dodger
Q-I filed an eviction action against a tenant who has failed to pay his rent. The problem is that the sheriff can`t serve the summons on him because, according to the sheriff, the tenant is evading it. Meanwhile, the tenant remains in the apartment and he isn`t paying rent. There has to be some way to get him served. Please help.
A-If the tenant is avoiding service of the summons, the law allows you to serve him by a ”posting notice.” In this procedure, the sheriff sends certain forms to the tenant by mail and also posts them in public places. By following this procedure, the court has the jurisdiction to enter a judgment for possession against the tenant.
To begin this procedure, you must sign an affidavit stating that the tenant cannot be served because he is concealing himself in order to avoid service of a summons. That affidavit and the posting notice are available from the clerk of the court and must be filed with the clerk and sheriff. The sheriff then processes the papers.
This process does not allow you to obtain a monetary judgment against the tenant for the unpaid rent, because the court only has jurisdiction to deal with the possession issue and not the personal property of the tenant. However, by using this process, you should be able to get judgment for possession of the apartment and eviction of the tenant. Your most important consideration must be rerenting the apartment, to make it income productive again.
———-
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.
