What can I do about having all of my property thrown out of my rental?

Full question:

We moved to Tuscola in Sept. 2007. We rented a house, signed a lease from Sept., '07 to Aug., '08. My husband was deployed to Afghanistan in Oct., '08. We were never asked to sign a lease for the yrs. '08-'09. We never had a verbal lease either. The new yr. was never brought up, actually. While my husband was deployed, I found a much nicer home. The house had an attached garage, we were parking in the street in old house. It was just a much nicer and newer home. Once I found the new house, I gave my landlord a 30 day notice, plus I pd. the full month's rent as usual. I had pd. for July 1st-July 31st. I picked my daughter up at the airport on the 31st. I had hired a man to come in to finish up little projects, a friend to come in and clean and box up more of our belongings. I got a call from my fix-it guy that the key I'd given him didn't work in the lock. As it turned out, the landlord changed the locks at 1:00 p.m. after I was gone to pick up my daughter. When I got to town, I went home (old house), to find our belongings out on the boulevard, allowing anyone to help themselves to our property. I wasn't allowed in to my house. I wasn't allowed a walk-through, and my landlord kept $1,150.00 of our money from the deposits. I didn't break our lease, since there was no lease to break. I gave him a 30 day notice. I pd. for the whole, last month's rent. I was completely pd. up on all my bills. I did more than was expected for a tenant moving out of a rental. I am at a total loss of what to do. I went to our courthouse to check on small claims court, but was told that small claims wasn't what I needed. Please help me! I did nothing wrong, followed all the rules, and I'm getting more frustrated by the day to know what to do!! Do I have an option? Thank you for any help you can give me! It's very much appreciated.

• Category: Landlord Tenant
• Date: 04/07/2025
• State: Illinois

Answer:

Your landlord really deserves to be sued for that. You have to find an attorney willing to take your case. Your first option would be to try to find some legal services through the military that could help you - the legal office at your husband's base or ? This may not be applicable for you.

Second you should check this website:

http://www.illinoislegalaid.org/

I do not know where your city is located, but you could try these resources as well:

http://www.tenant.net/Other_Areas/Illinois/ill-htm.html

You need to continue to ask for a lead to an attorney who will represent you in this case - there are always attorneys who have a niche suing landlords. Someone at one of these organizations will likely be able to give you a name. The issue is that recoveries are relatively small in cases like yours and this discourages lawyers from spending time on your case.

Pro Bono work is charity work done by lawyers for free, for worthy causes (punishing bad landlords qualifies).

To seek Pro Bono legal service, use this link:

http://www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/about/probono.html

Good luck, and thank you and your family for your service to our country.