Landlord and Tenant Lawyers in Rockford

Find the right Tenant attorney in Rockford, IL

Tenant Law in Illinois

Relations between tenants and landlords in Rockford, Illinois can occasionally be touchy. The fact is that it's not easy to be a landlord or a tenant, particularly because landlords and tenants often don't understand the legal rights and responsibilities that apply to them.

Landlords and tenants have many rights and responsibilities. What follows is a partial list of the rights that landlords and tenants have, and the corresponding duties of the other party.

Landlord's Rights in Rockford, IL

The most basic right that landlords have is the right to be paid the agreed-upon rent by their tenant. Obviously, renting apartments is how landlords acquire a living, so they are entitled to collect the rent that the tenant agreed to pay.

Furthermore, landlords have a right to be compensated for damage a tenant causes to a rented unit, either intentionally or negligently. Landlords have a right to deduct repair costs from tenants' security deposits, unless the damage was caused by usual wear and tear, for which tenants are not accountable.

Tenant's Rights in Rockford, IL

Tenants, most essentially, have a right to a habitable apartment. After all, this is what they're paying for. Rockford, Illinois landlords are obligated to see that the units they rent to tenants are fit to be lived in by people. Many various defects might render an apartment uninhabitable, such as serious infestations and other problems with sanitation, lack of running water or electricity, or failure to provide adequate protection from the outside elements.

Additionally, tenants are entitled to common areas that are reasonable safe and sanitary. The common areas of an apartment building would contain lobbies, laundry rooms, stairwells, hallways, and fire escapes (essentially, any part of the building which all of the tenants can access). In Rockford, Illinois, these areas must be kept reasonably clean and safe.

Tenants also have rights, under federal and Illinois law, to not be victims of racial, ethnic, or gender discrimination in housing, whether they are renting or buying. Additionally, landlords are not allowed to discriminate against tenants based on physical disabilities. They must also allow physically-disabled tenants to make reasonable modifications to the apartment to make it more accessible. Nonetheless, the landlord can require tenants to remove those modifications and restore the property to its original condition once the tenant moves out.

Lastly, tenants in most states have a right to be free from unfair eviction. Typically, lease agreements last for a set period of time, and both parties are bound by that contract. Landlords cannot arbitrarily evict clients while the lease is still in effect.

Can a Rockford, Illinois Landlord/Tenant Lawyer Help?

Tenants and landlords always want to avoid getting into any serious disputes - these disputes interfere with the tenant's living arrangement, and the landlord's business. In short, they help nobody. While a good Rockford, Illinois attorney can definately help his or her client prevail in such a dispute, they may be more essential for their ability to help prevent such disputes from escalating in the first place.

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Life in Rockford

Rockford, Illinois is a city on both banks of the Rock River, in Northern Illinois. It is the county seat of Winnebago County, and the third-larges city in Illinois, with a population of over 150,000 people.

Rockford, IL experienced a major economic boom in the first half of the 20th Century, largely due to the massive industrialization of the entire country that was necessary to the war effort in WWII. However, like many industrial cities, Rockford, IL went into a steep economic decline in subsequent decades.

However, with the manufacturing industry in the U.S. bouncing back faster than the rest of the economy in the wake of the recession of the late 2000s, Rockford, IL has reaped some of these benefits. One of the biggest employers in the city is a major Chrysler manufacturing plant. Part of this recovery has been due to government investment in the area, and was made possible, in part, by the government bailout of the two largest auto companies in the U.S. Several Rockford, IL lawyers were probably involved in coming up with this deal.

The lawyers of Rockford, IL are skilled in handling a wide range of cases. If you live in the Rockford area, and need a lawyer, you can't do much better than hiring a Rockford, IL attorney.

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