My landlord tried to evict me over a window screen in Logan Square last month.

I was at the Cook County courthouse waiting for my hearing and this old guy next to me, he's been a tenant lawyer for like 40 years, he just looks at my papers and says 'they probably forgot to attach the right notice.' I thought he was nuts. But sure enough, the landlord's paperwork had a 5-day notice instead of a 10-day one for the city code violation. Judge tossed the whole thing out. Now I check every single piece of mail from my landlord with a calendar in my hand. Has anyone else had a case thrown out over a technicality like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

wader716d ago

Man, that lawyer was spot on. I had a similar thing happen with a garage I was renting out a few years back in Lincoln Park. Tenant tried to say I didn't give proper notice for a repair issue, and I honestly thought I had everything right. But the judge pointed out I used a 3 day notice for a city ordinance violation and it needed to be a 5 day one. Case got tossed. It's crazy how one little date or number on that paper can make all the difference. You're smart to double check everything now, because they definitely count on you not noticing.

ivan_harris5d ago

Yeah that 3 day vs 5 day thing gets people all the time. In Chicago if it's a city code violation you gotta use a 5 day notice period, but for nonpayment or lease breaking it's 5 days too actually. The trick is you gotta check the specific ordinance number on the violation and match it exactly to the notice form. I keep a laminated cheat sheet in my filing cabinet with all the different notice types and their required days. Saves me from looking like an idiot in front of a judge.

brooke_jones6d ago

3 days vs 5 days for a garage. That's wild. I guess the law really is all about the paper trail, not who's right or wrong. Makes you wonder how many cases get tossed over stuff like that every day.