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In this Illinois REALTORS® podcast, Legal Hotline Attorney Anneliese Fierstos discusses the options that property owners have under the current Executive Order regarding the eviction moratorium.

The Governor’s latest Executive Order extended the eviction moratorium until September 18, 2021, and there are indications that the moratorium may be further extended into October due to the rise in Covid-19 delta variant cases.

What can property owners do if they want to file an eviction proceeding under the current moratorium order?

• Understand that under the current Executive Order, if an eviction is entered it cannot be enforced by local, state law enforcement.
• Currently if a defendant does not appear on the first appearance course date, an order will not be entered and the case will be set over again.
• Eviction proceeding cannot proceed against any “covered person” as defined by prior executive orders. Covered persons include individuals who expect to earn no more than $99,000 in annual income for 2020 or no more than $198,000 if filing a joint tax return; individuals who were not required to report any income in 2019 to the IRS; individuals who received an Economic Impact Payment pursuant to Section 2001 of the Cares Act and were unable to make full rent or housing payment due to a Covid-19 related hardship that would include loss of income, loss of compensable hours of work or wages or an increase in out-of-pocket expenses related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Tenants must be using their best efforts to make timely payments that are as close to the full payment as their circumstances might permit, however most cases will not move forward under the current Executive Order.
• In order for an eviction case to proceed under the current Executive Order, the landlord must attach a certification form (available from the Illinois Housing Development Authority website) that has been completed by the tenant. If a court gets a complaint for eviction and it’s not accompanied by a certification showing that they have given the tenant the opportunity to fill out a certification form that would allow them to attest that they are a covered person, the case will not proceed.
• Obtaining legal counsel would be helpful to navigate the eviction process during this time, because the procedures can be very complex.
• If a tenant refuses to complete or participate in that process, the Supreme Court order that is currently in effect does carve out an exemption from the stay on covered persons if that tenant is not cooperating.

To hear the full conversation and other podcast content, visit the Illinois REALTORS® Podcast page.