State Specific Question About: ILLINOIS (IL)

So a tenant who signed the lease middle of Feb just emailed me today that she is scared to move in tomorrow due to the Covid-19 situation. She is worried about the movers exposing her and wants the unit but not sure when she can move in. Also she threw in the Governor's Shelter in Place order as another reason. She signed the lease with a 4/1/20 to 3/31/21 term, 1st month's rent is due tomorrow, 4/1.

I believe you can enforce it from a legal standpoint, but not from a practical standpoint. The courts are closed.

The order doesn't allow for necessary travel?

You may want to warn her that she is putting her holding deposit at risk by not agreeing to follow through with her lease agreement (you know, the one she paid in mid-Feb).

I have always collected damage deposit and first months rent at lease signing and if I had held the property(not for that long)the hold deposit at lease signing would apply towards that. If I had held the property and then the tenant backed out then they would loose the hold deposit.

You could remind her that she has already signed the lease and so has to pay you the first months rent for April 1st but she could move in when ever she wants during the lease period. However as WL said you may want to make sure that she still has a job and can pay. You also may not want her to move in if this would make her an angry tenant and would start things off on a bad note. You also have to consider the current COVID-19 situation and laws that could apply during this time so as others have mentioned you may want to consult with an attorney. You maybe better off to just let her out of the lease, if that is what she wants but I would let her know that she would be forfeiting the hold deposit. If you do let her out be sure to get your keys!

You cant just sit back and wait. Since she said she does not know when she can move in.

I would offer to keep the one months deposit/holding fee and allow her out of the lease. Dont think it will be worth a long fight in court to get much more if any.

Or try to talk her into moving in. She can stay outside 6 ft away and have no contact with the movers.

Then wait the recommended time that the virus can survive on surfaces to enter or touch anything.

Not ideal but could work.

Also cleaning company to go in the next day and spray everything.

Hopefully you got a holding fee, or the first month rent when you signed the lease. With that, let her out of the lease and keep that fee or the first month. Or she can move in anytime she wants, but she needs to pay the rent.

People with signed leases CAN move here in PA. Some guys from our church just helped a single lady do that this past weekend. They were very careful about distancing, wearing eye protection, masks,gloves, etc. One guy per vehicle - no meeting up and traveling together. The apartment complex allowed them to use a freight elevator that opened near her apartment entrance, to keep their "footprint" in the building low. It was a "must move" situation for her (she was a 10+-year live-in companion to a man who had to go into Memory Care and whose adult children were selling the house to a flipper), and had been carefully planned more than 6 weeks ahead of time.

Had she not been permitted to move, she would have been homeless, as the short-term stay motel she was in temporarily was ordered to stop renting as of her move-in day.

Normally, the church or any of the men's families with some space would have taken her in for a while (including us). But she wouldn't hear of possibly contaminating their homes.