Tenant may have left town

[Carolina E.]

My tenant is late on his rent. We gave him a set date to pay what he owes. I did send a certified letter stating what he owes and that further action will be taken if payment is not made. It looks to me that in Illinois I have to give him 5 days from when he recieves the letter (when dealing with late rent). That would be tomorrow. The thing is, he has not picked up the letter. We had made a verbal agreement he would pay me by the 10th. I sent the letter to cover myself, both certified mail and regular mail.

We have tried calling his phone and it is out of minutes. He had already mentioned that he was possibly going to leave town in a few months, this was last month. This is why I'm thinking he ended up leaving and just asked to pay a little late because he knew he was leaving. My question is if I can still leave 24 hour notice saying I will be entering the unit. And if I find it empty, I assume I still have to file an eviction with the courts.

[Jon Holdman]

This is the sort of situation where you MUST have a discussion with your landlord tenant lawyer. If you don't have one, you need one now.

This is a discussion I did have with my attorney here. I don't know if this applies in your case or not. I was told to post the three day pay or quit. I also posted a notice saying I would inspect the property in 24 hours, which my lease allows. I was told that if keys were left behind, the tenant could be considered to have left. If not (and they weren't), I should wait the three days, then walk through the property and video what was left. And to take someone with me. What I found was that almost everything was gone. A few cleaning supplies, some trash, and some mini blinds were still there. So, I stored all that stuff, cleaned up the place, and re-rented it.

Had there been a bunch of stuff there I would have had to proceed with an eviction. Had the tenant not responded, or if they did but I won, I would have had to wait for the set out to take possession of the property.

So, you really must have a discussion with an attorney in your area who understands local procedures and customs. They can give you advise that will stand up in court.