The CRLTO Protects You from Bad Landlords

August: a Regrettable Introduction

So, I had just moved into an apartment in Uptown. After lugging all my belongings up three flights of stairs in the back of the building, I sat down on the back porch stairs to have a cigarette. It had taken all day to move into this unit, and by now it was around 2:00 in the morning. As I smoked, I could hear my neighbors talking very loudly below me through their open window.

I work at night a lot. Sometimes overnight, other times just until really late. I frequently forget that other people do not adhere to a nocturnal schedule. My neighbors below me clearly didn’t have any regard for people who may be sleeping at such an hour. Without thinking I walk down the stairs and figure I’d introduce myself to the neighbors. My main goal was to ask them if they could hear me much upstairs, because if so I’d buy some rugs or other ways to keep it quiet for them. So, I stood on the back deck and said “Hey!”

They were too busy talking that they didn’t hear me. So, I tried again a little louder “excuse me!” One of the two women that lived there recoiled in horror, while the other one dropped to the floor. The one that recoiled leapt from her seat and slammed the window shut.

Embarrassed, I went back to my unit and wrote a brief note apologizing for scaring them. I explained what I was trying to do with my introduction. I posted the note on their front door, then went back into my unit. When I went back out the front door to smoke, I saw one of the neighbors.

“Uhh, hi. I think I just scared y’all, and I’m terribly sorry about that.”

“Oh, yeah, we called the police before i saw your note. I’ll go tell them it’s alright.”

Not the smoothest introduction I’ve ever made, but probably not the worst one either. The next morning, when I went down the back steps to go grab a package, I noticed a new ring camera had gone up on my downstairs neighbors door. It audibly clicked each time I passed it. Seemed like overkill, but whatever.

October 29th: Scare Tactics by the Landlord

Apparently, things were not “alright”. The women below me took the liberty of complaining to the landlord about me everyday. Every day. I found out about this when the landlord attempted to contact my cosigner. She wrote that she had an “urgent” matter she wanted to discuss with the cosigner. I was unaware of any urgent matters, so I called the landlord myself.

“So, we’ve received a lot of complaints about you ever since you moved in. It’s been constant. We see how many guests you have over, at all times of night, and we know what this is. We can either do this the easy way or through law enforcement. But either way you need to get out of here.”

I had no idea what this was. I think she thought I was a drug dealer or something. However, I figured this landlord-tenant relationship is shot. From this point, there was no real coming back from that. So, I figured I’d just move all my things back out somewhere new.

“Uhh, okay, well can you give me ‘til December 1st?”

“Fine.”

And so, I began searching for apartments. I found one and signed a lease for November 15th, half a month earlier than needed. After calling the landlord and informing her of the lease, she sent me an agreement to terminate the lease that only I would have to sign.

November 7th: Game On

I woke up to the phone ringing. It was the landlord again.

“You’re still having people come in and out of the apartment. I’m pissed. People are still complaining about you. You’re putting my building at risk, and that’s unacceptable. If you have a single additional visitor over without approval, I’m going to have a police officer stationed outside the gate of the building. I won’t let you put my building at risk. We’ll change the locks on you if we have to!”

“Ma’am you just violated the CRLTO,” I interjected.

“Try me.”

I hung up and immediately began searching for an attorney. I contacted Melvin Sims III of Chicago Tenants Rights Group, and left him a voicemail. My friend Monica arrived shortly after leaving the voicemail, and informed me that my name was no longer on the buzzer to the building. Perplexed, I came downstairs and investigated. My name was in fact no longer one of the options on the call box. More importantly though, my key-less access code no longer functioned.

That meant that I would need my physical keys to open the gate to enter the building’s courtyard and the front door to the building itself. The callbox functioned as an electronic lock for the building. By removing my name from the callbox, my landlord had taken functionally changed the locks on me. I called back Mel and informed him that about the change. Upon hearing that, he took my case and began drafting a cease & desist.

About three hours after “try me”, the landlord received the cease & desist.

Section 5-16-160

“It is unlawful for any landlord or any person acting at his direction knowingly to oust or dispossess or threaten or attempt to oust or dispossess any tenant from a dwelling unit without authority of law, by plugging, changing, adding or removing any lock or latching device; or by blocking any entrance into said unit; or by removing any door or window from said unit; or by interfering with the services to said unit; including but not limited to electricity, gas, hot or cold water, plumbing, heat or telephone service; or by removing a tenant’s personal property from said unit; or by the removal or incapacitating of appliances or fixtures, except for the purpose of making necessary repairs; or by the use or threat of force, violence or injury to a tenant’s person or property; or by any act rendering a dwelling unit or any part thereof or any personal property located therein inaccessible or uninhabitable… Whenever a complaint of violation of this provision is received by the Chicago Police Department, the department shall investigate and determine whether a violation has occurred. Any person found guilty of violating this section shall be fined not less than $200.00 nor more than $500.00, and each day that such violation shall occur or continue shall constitute a separate and distinct offense for which a fine as herein provided shall be imposed. If a tenant in a civil legal proceeding against his landlord establishes that a violation of this section has occurred he shall be entitled to recover possession of his dwelling unit or personal property and shall recover an amount equal to not more than two months’ rent or twice the actual damages sustained by him, whichever is greater. A tenant may pursue any civil remedy for violation of this section regardless of whether a fine has been entered against the landlord pursuant to this section. Sec. 5-12-160.”

November 8-15: Landlord Gets the Neighbors in on It

I did not move out on the 15th. The Lease Termination Agreement I signed earlier was not valid because my cosigner never signed it. So, I stayed put and waited patiently for the landlord to release the funds. In the meantime, I continued to live my life and look for alternative housing.

Then, one day, Monica calls and asks if I’m alright. She saw that my unit had been mentioned on the Citizen’s App about squatting. Squatting? I was not squatting. I was in rightful possession of the dwelling unit. About a minute after our phone call, the police bang on the front door. I step outside of my front door.

“Hello, Officers.”

“Hi, we received a call about a squatter or something? Just so you know you’re on camera,” the officers replied. I explained that I was in a legal dispute my landlord, and that I had no intention to squat. They replied that my neighbor had called.

“Well, could you knock on the door, and we can get this all squared away?”

The neighbor came out of his apartment guns blazing. “You’re not supposed to be here!” he yelled upon seeing me. I tried to explain my position, but he wasn’t having any of it and continued to holler. “You smoke cigarettes here when that’s not allowed in the lease! You’re selling coke!”

The police looked at him then looked at me. He was correct in that I smoked cigarettes on the back porch outside. So, he got me on that one I guess, but that’s still no reason to call the police. Further, I tried cocaine once in my early twenties. It wasn’t for me. I certainly was not selling coke. I looked at the officers bewildered. They shrugged it off and said this was a civil matter. They then showed themselves out. My neighbor slammed his door after going back into his apartment.

Apparently, the landlord must’ve told the neighbors that I was supposed to be out of there, and they were displeased that I wasn’t. Later that evening, I receive another knock on the door. It’s the police again. This time for a noise complaint. I was programming at my computer and didn’t have music playing. I explained again that I was in a legal tiff with the landlord, and that he neighbors had decided to start calling the police I guess.

The next day, there was another knock on the backdoor this time. It was the police again. My friend had left a sweatshirt and a Marshall’s shopping bag, next to my backdoor, while he came inside. The neighbors called 911 concerning a “suspicious package”. It was a sweater. Finally, I asked for the police sergeant. Enough was enough.

Forty-five minutes later the police sergeant arrived and I loudly explained in the hallway that this was becoming ridiculous. I asked if it was a crime to make bogus 911 calls in Illinois (it is), and if I had any recourse to deal with this harassment. The sergeant said they had to investigate every 911 call, and it’s never illegal to call 911.

Capitulation

Five minutes after the sergeant left the building, the landlord texted me with an offer of a few thousand dollars in exchange for being out by midnight. I made a counteroffer for additional time and funds. She accepted.

I moved out by midnight the following day. I stood in the empty apartment with the landlords worker until the funds were deposited into my account via Zelle. This was important because if I had just handed him the keys and walked out, then the landlord could’ve claimed I abandoned the property of my own volition.