STEVEN IVY P.C. Lease Law and Lease Agreements

Leasing Agreements

...Commercial & Residential Lease Agreements

Commercial Leasing

STEVEN IVY P.C. represents local, regional and national commercial landlords. Our clients include both large and small real estate development firms and individual investors. We work with various property management companies and real estate brokers. We counsel our clients on the applicable rules and regulations, both state and municipal. The firm has developed an expertise in commercial leasing with focus on office, retail, warehousing and manufacturing facilities. We help clients formulate and negotiate complex commercial leases, and any residual legal matters.

Residential Leasing

STEVEN IVY P.C. assists both landlords and tenants with a variety of leasing issues. The law firm reviews and drafts leases for landlords and tenants alike. We create leases that are easy to understand, but most importantly, protect the best interests of our clients.

Personal Service

The hallmark of our practice is personal service. We work closely with our clients to ensure that their interests are properly protected. STEVEN IVY P.C. is servicing clients in several Illinois counties, including: Cook County, Lake County, DuPage County, Kane County, DeKalb County, Will County, McHenry County and Kendall County. Our clients can meet with us in eight Illinois locations, including: Chicago, Lisle, Northbrook, Oak Brook, Rosemont, Saint Charles, Schaumburg, and Warrenville.

Real Estate

Lease To Purchase Agreements

STEVEN IVY P.C. also creates lease to purchase contracts. A lease to purchase agreement is a formal lease for rental of any given premises, in which a specified portion of the rent payment is applied towards the purchase of the leased premises. This type of agreement is applicable to any form of real estate property, however, is it most popular with strip malls and condominium/apartment building developers.

Illinois Standardized Lease Agreements

Illinois law does not recognize the standardized lease agreement. Although, the local office supply stores sell the generic versions of lease agreements, they can only be used as a foundation of a property drafted lease agreement. The main problem is the ever changing local law and tenant ordinances. These ordinances can make certain common lease provisions void or can require that special disclosures or other provisions be included in a lease. It is not uncommon, that a local ordinances will prohibit inclusion of some specific provisions in a lease. Since the law changes so frequently, we recommend that our clients periodically review and revise their existing lease agreements.

Illinois Required Lease Terms

In Illinois a lease is treated like a contract, because it represents an agreement between two or more parties. Therefore, a lease must contain all the provisions of a basic contact, which include: formation of contract between the landlord and the tenant (meeting of the minds), name of the landlord, name of the tenant, description of the premises, starting and ending date of the lease, the amount of rent, and mutual obligations between the landlord and the tenant.

Additional Lease Terms

Each lease agreement should be custom made to accommodate the uniqueness of the leased property, and the local ordinances. In addition to the required lease provisions (standard contract provisions), a lease may contain the additional terms addressing: security deposit, maintenance clause, limited use of the property, number of occupancy, assignment and subletting clause, duties directed to landlord and tenant, late fees, conflict resolution and attorney fees, pet rules, parking space clause, payment of utilities, landlord's access to leased premises, allowed alterations, required repairs and improvements, safety devices such as smoke detectors and carbon dioxides and many others.

Illinois Verbal Lease Agreements

In Illinois an oral lease (which is the same as written lease without signatures) is valid, however, the term of the lease must be for less than a year. This provision comes from the Statute of Frauds. The specific nuances of such agreement, if required, will be uncovered by the court reviewing available evidence (notes, emails, witness testimony). The court will also examine the parties behavior. If the tenant was allowed to move in, and remained on the premises while the landlord accepted several payments, the court may find an oral agreement valid because it was partially performed.

Lease and Implied Terms

Implied terms, are items that a court will assume are intended to be included in a contract, even though they are not expressly stated. The contract terms may be implied where the intent of a contract obviously necessitates the inclusion of certain items. Even expressly stated terms to the contrary may not be sufficient to negate certain terms implied by the law. For example, in an Illinois residential lease the following terms are implied and cannot be negated by contrary language, they include: performance of the lease in good faith, the warranty of habitability and a covenant of quiet enjoyment.

Lease Withdraw

It is important to remember that in Illinois, once a lease agreement is executed (signed by both parties), it cannot be revoked. This means, that in Illinois the law does not provide for a lease rescission period. However, in some circumstances the lease may be deemed unenforceable, allowing you to back out of it. A lease will be considered unenforceable, if it was created by the use of unfair and deceptive acts, such as: false pretences, deception, fraud , misrepresentation or concealment of a material fact.