How to handle security deposits, evictions, lease termination, and habitability issues — for renters and landlords.
How Illinois treats squatters: why they hold no possessory right, the 20-year and 7-year color-of-title adverse possession rules under 735 ILCS 5/13-101 and 13-109, and how an owner removes an occupant through the courts rather than self-help.
Illinois requires a written eviction notice before a landlord can file: 5 days for unpaid rent, 10 days for a lease violation, and 30 days to end a month-to-month tenancy. Here is what each notice type covers and how it must be served.
How the court phase of an Illinois eviction works, from filing the complaint through the summons, hearing, eviction order, and sheriff enforcement under the Eviction Article, 735 ILCS 5/9-101 et seq.
What a Texas residential lease must contain, the copy-of-lease deadline, and the deposit, repair, and late-fee rules that apply no matter what the lease says.
Texas sets no maximum security deposit amount. The rule that matters is the 30-day return deadline under Tex. Prop. Code § 92.103, plus the itemized-deduction and bad-faith penalty rules that go with it.
The situations under Texas law that let a tenant end a lease early without owing a penalty, the notice each one requires, and what a tenant owes when no statutory ground fits.
What the Illinois implied warranty of habitability covers, where it comes from (Jack Spring v. Little rather than a statute), how local ordinances add to it, and the remedies a tenant has when a rental is not habitable.
Removing a family member, guest, or other occupant who has no lease still requires a court eviction in Texas. This article explains the notice to vacate, the forcible detainer suit in justice court, and the writ of possession.
A step-by-step timeline of the Texas eviction process, from the written notice to vacate through the justice court suit, judgment, appeal window, and the writ of possession that a constable executes.
A plain-language reference to Texas tenant rights under the Property Code: security deposits, late fees, repairs and habitability, lockouts, retaliation, and how an eviction works.
A plain-language overview of Illinois landlord-tenant law: how security deposits, interest, retaliation, utilities, and eviction work under 765 ILCS, and where local ordinances change the rules.
A plain-language reference to New York landlord-tenant law: leases, rent and fee limits, the warranty of habitability, notice periods, eviction, and security deposits, with links to the governing statutes and state agencies.