Landlord/Leasing Agents Entering Without Notice (Chicago: flat fee, real estate, broker)

[BigCityLittleMan]

Hello,

I'm in need of some advice. I'm currently leasing with a major property management company here in Chicago and I'm having a problem where leasing agents from that company are entering the unit without any notice.

They usually send a text message to my number 20 minutes before the showing asking if it's okay to show the unit and then they enter the unit even if I haven't responded to the message. I know this because I have been in a situation once where I was at home and a leasing agent knocked at the door asking if anyone was home and they proceeded to unlock the door while I was still inside.

There has been several instances of this happening now and I'm not sure how to stop it.

We have a front desk and I was told to contact the property manager. I sent an email to the property manager but that email was ignored. When the property manager is at the office, I'm usually at work so I haven't been able to talk to him physically. The phone number on his business card is the front desk of my building.

I only have a month left in the lease and I really would like to stop this from happening. Is this a matter for small claims court? Has anyone else run into this or have experience with this issue?

[Chicago_Josh]

Maybe you will get an answer here but my advice would be to contact a real estate attorney and tell them your situation. They can either help you or point you in the direction of where to get help

Maybe you can broker a flat fee of a few hundred dollars.

PM me if you want recommendations

[emathias]

Technically they're probably in violation of the lease, which means you would legally have the right to terminate the lease.

But from a practical standpoint, it's really just something that you'll almost certainly find is easier to put up with than to fight. If you really want to do something to drive the point home that they're violating your lease, you may have more success attempting to press charges of home invasion against the leasing agent personally than any sort of business suit against the landlord. If you have more than a month left in your lease, you could stop paying rent, as getting you evicted would likely take longer than the length of your lease, and if they sued you you'd have a defense, but with only a month or so left, you'd just end up turning your deposit into the last month's rent anyway. You really have no real leverage unless you want to try and sue for treble damages, which seems like a highly unlikely suit to win.

If you want to be obnoxious to the leasing agent, hang out at home in the nude, leave grotesque porn playing on the TV when you leave and hide the remote, pile things near the front door and only use the back door, etc, etc. Put a vase near the front door that will be knocked over by the leasing agent when they enter and send a "receipt" to your landlord and leasing agent for the cost of the "$4,000" vase explaining that if they'd given you the proper, lease-required notice you'd have moved it ...