I am in a rental situation and my lease ends on August 31st 2010. On February 3rd at the landlords request I signed a renewal of my rental lease agreement for an additional year to begin on September 1st 2010. Before renewing the lease I had met and expressed my concerns about the noise level in the apartment and the landlord assured me that steps would be taken to remedy the situation. The noise temporarily abated but it has resumed causing me lack of sleep and mental anguish which have negative effects on my work.
I have decided that I can no longer continue to live here. I wish to rescind the agreement for the lease renewal on September 1st 2010. The landlord is not willing to cancel the renewal agreement. What recourse does the law provide me in this case?
Thank you
You don’t identify where the noise is coming from. That’s important. If it’s something that the landlord can’t control and you knew about, you may be stuck. If it instead is coming from the next door apartment in the same building and there’s a rule making excessive noise prohibited, then your landlord may have a legal obligation to enforce the rule consistently so if you’re subject to it so should the neighbor, and if not you may have the right either to sue the landlord for breach of lease, compel compliance, or even possibly move out under a theory of “constructive eviction”. So you need to take your lease to an attorney and explain potentially a lot more about the situation. By your zip code I note you appear to live in Evanston, IL. If so, Evanston has a landlord-tenant ordinance that may help you depending on the facts, and their Department of Human Services administers the ordinance. You can also ask them if they can intercede. Finally the Illinois Tenants’ Union has offices in Evanston and they may also be of some help. GOOD LUCK (sorry for shouting!!!).
Stephen Messutta
Stephen Messutta
7458 N. Harlem Avenue
Chicago, IL 60631