Inherited tenant from hell

[Samantha P.]

Hi all! I purchased a duplex in Chicago and inherited the tenant from hell. She is running a daycare out of the unit, she has a cat and a dog, her girlfriend clearly lives there with her, she puts her garbage on the back porch instead of taking it out, her girlfriend smokes so much that you can smell the weed in the common area, and she NEVER pays her rent on time. These are all breaches of her lease. The first rent payment that was due to me after purchase was paid over a month late, the second was a month late, the third was 6 days late, and this month's is 10 days late now.

I was waiting until I got a tenant in the other unit before I tried to evict her. My new tenant just moved into the other unit yesterday but unfortunately we can't evict in Chicago right now due to Corona.

What advice do you have for me? What should I do and in what steps? Will me waiting so long to try to evict for anything other than rent make it harder for me to evict her? I was waiting until I could afford to do so. I didn't want the building to be completely empty and have to pay the mortgage out of my pocket.

Also, I spoke with the previous owner who sold the building to me and he said that she never paid her rent to him on time either and she also put holes in walls twice. She has no security deposit left because she used it up on her rent before he sold the building to me. Her lease isn't up until September 2021. The previous owner had given her a 3 year lease because she was his daughter's friend.