Chicago 5 Day Notice

[Sylwester Olszewski]

What is the proper way to give a 5 day notice to a tenant. When rent is due on the 1st of the month and rent is not received by the 5th. Can I give the 5 day notice on the 5th or do I wait till the 6th? 

Then after the 5 day notice is given do I wait 5 days or business days? Can I start the eviction process on the 5th day or do I have to wait till the 6th?

Thank you for any clarification.

[Mike H.]

Wait. What did you mean by "everything immediately on the 6th day"?

Your timing depends entirely on your lease. When is the rent due and when is it considered late? Those dates should be explicitly spelled out in your lease. The reason there's a difference is that many landlords have a due date of the 1st of the month and then give a 2 or 3 day grace period. So technically the rent is not considered late until the 3rd or the 4th.

If you have no grace period and your rent is due on the 1st, then on the 2nd (assuming no payment is made obivously), you would give them the 5 day notice. You would then need to wait 5 days before you start the eviction process.

But if you're pretty sure they aren't paying, then contact the attorney sooner to get the ball rolling. They can prep all the paperwork and have it filed first thing.

Be sure to deliver the 5 day notice to the tenant in person. 

And good luck. I've had one eviction in cook county (not chicago though). Took me 5 months to get them out. Seems real easy for a tenant to get delays in that county. Change attorney, change attorney, file for bankruptcy, and then the judge still gives them 2 weeks to get out after all that.

What kills you is that every single person in the court room knows the tenant is just using the system for delays and just accepts it.