any relief?

[Brett]

my family has been renting the same residence in illinois for two years the first summer the basement, which is finished and living space we needed,flooded. we continued to pay our rent up until 6 months ago because there is so much mold and we havent been able to use the basement. now we are being evicted for not paying our rent.also in our original lease which we never renued,it stated a $20.00 a day late fee so we are being sued for 10 thousand dollars 4000. is the late fees. i have called the health department and got nowhere.the health department was out here by my request to test the mold but they never sent a letter to the landlord to fix the property.the mold is severe. isnt there some type of code being broken by our landlady for renting a uninhabital home? i have 5 children also and when i tried to move she gave me a bad referral so i have nowhere to go. who do i call? what can i do? i go to court 2/27/01
the one lawyer i called said it wouldnt be worth my money to fight this in court but i just dont understand that.
i read somewhere we should be entitled to a reductionin our rent or some payment for the inconvenience.does that happen in reality?














[Edited by Brett on 02-18-2001 at 11:21 PM]

 

[nomadchik]

I'm no attorney nor am I from Il but...if the place flooded then there's a remote chance that the building was in violation of the code for that city and was previously cited. Contact the building inspector for your city to see if this landlord/lady has been in violation on your property or on others. Then get any letters of correspondance the inspector might have and make copies for court. The chances are slim that the above scenario occurred but it's worth one phone call to find out. I rented a place once a decade back where it was condemned for electrical violations but the landlord never posted it as such (a violation of the city code to not post publically). When I vamoosed the place having not yet inhabited it, the landlord threatened to sue...that's when I called the building inspector and sure enough, got the letters. I got out of my contract and the landlord skipped town. I wish you success.

 

[Brett]

any relief? reply

thank-you i will check on that. i do know the last tenants moved out because of the basement flooding i dont know that they reported it but i will check.