BURNHAM MANAGEMENT CO. v. Davis

704 N.E.2d 974, 302 Ill. App. 3d 263, 235 Ill. Dec. 401, 1998 Ill. App. LEXIS 926
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedDecember 31, 1998
Docket2-98-0082
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 704 N.E.2d 974 (BURNHAM MANAGEMENT CO. v. Davis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
BURNHAM MANAGEMENT CO. v. Davis, 704 N.E.2d 974, 302 Ill. App. 3d 263, 235 Ill. Dec. 401, 1998 Ill. App. LEXIS 926 (Ill. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

JUSTICE THOMAS

delivered the opinion of the court:

The plaintiff, Burnham Management Company, filed this forcible entry and detainer action against the defendant, Yolanda Davis, to recover possession of the premises that the defendant leased at the Mill Apartments in Elgin, Illinois. The defendant’s tenancy was federally subsidized. The plaintiff manages the Mill Apartments. The plaintiffs complaint also claimed rent of $1,321 from April 1, 1997, through August 31, 1997. After a bench trial, judgment was entered for the plaintiff on December 11, 1997, for possession of the premises. The court continued the cause to December 17, 1997, and on that date, it entered judgment in favor of the plaintiff for $2,270, which represented unpaid rent from February 1, 1997, through December 31, 1997, less a setoff for some rent paid by the defendant during that period. On January 16, 1998, the defendant filed her notice of appeal from the orders entered on December 11, 1997, and December 17, 1997.

On appeal, the defendant argues that (1) the plaintiffs retroactive interim and annual recertifications of the defendant’s rental obligation were improper and resulted in an incorrect amount being demanded in the owner’s 10-day notice; (2) the plaintiff waived its right to possession when the plaintiff agreed, to accept a lesser amount than that demanded in the 10-day notice and then later refused to accept the lesser amount; and (3) the plaintiffs 10-day notice was defective, precluding the trial court from exercising jurisdiction to enter an order on behalf of the plaintiff.

The record on appeal contains no report of proceedings. However, the parties have filed an agreed statement of facts pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 323(d) (166 Ill. 2d R. 323(d)). The parties’ agreed statement of facts reveals in relevant part that the defendant’s tenancy was subsidized by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and was controlled, in part, by the HUD handbook. Under the HUD program, the defendant was to pay 30% of her adjusted annual income toward her monthly rent and the balance was to be paid by HUD. The plaintiff was required to annually verify tenants’ incomes and compute tenants’ rents and assistance payments (annual recertification). The defendant was required to report changes in income and household composition that occurred between annual recertifications, at which time rent was to be recalculated (interim recertification).

The defendant testified that the plaintiff brought a previous eviction action against her in 1996 (the 1996 eviction case), which concluded on March 13, 1997. On January 7, 1997, while the 1996 eviction action was still pending, the defendant found employment. Prior to that time, she had not been employed since August 1996. Accordingly, her rental obligation after August 1996 and prior to an interim recertification was set at $0 per month. The defendant admitted that she did not report her employment to the plaintiff until March 13, 1997, the date judgment was entered in her favor in the 1996 eviction action. On March 17, 1997, the defendant met with Simona Rhodes, the assistant manager at the Mill Apartments. At that time, the defendant filled out paperwork so her rent could be recalculated. An interim recertification covered the period from February 1, 1997, through March 30, 1997. An annual recertification covered the period from April 1, 1997, through March 30, 1998.

The defendant further testified that on April 17, 1997, the plaintiff sent the defendant a letter informing her that her monthly rental obligation was $259, effective February 1, 1997. On that same day, the plaintiff sent the defendant another letter informing her that her monthly rental obligation was $259, effective April 1, 1997. According to the defendant, she was told on May 7, 1997, that she owed $835 in past-due rent and then signed a repayment agreement for that amount.

The defendant also testified that on August 19, 1997, she received a 10-day notice from the plaintiff. At that point, she talked with Betty Cooke and Simona Rhodes. She stated that Cooke told her that if she could pay $700 by the end of the 10-day period in the notice, she could enter into a repayment agreement for the remaining money. The defendant stated that she contacted three agencies for rental assistance and had commitments of $700. A few days after receiving the 10-day notice, she was at one of the agencies, the Community Crisis Center. When a person from that agency called the Mill Apartments, the defendant talked with Rhodes. According to the defendant, Rhodes said that she had to pay the entire amount of rent owed by the end of the 10-day period or she could not stay in the apartment.

The defendant further stated that she informed the plaintiff on July 31, 1997, that she had reduced income from her job. She also gave the plaintiff a statement from her employer outlining the days she had been unable to work in June and July 1997 because of illness and that she had been reduced to part-time status. On August 11, 1997, she signed a verification of employment form at the Mill Apartments. This document indicated that the defendant’s employment had been reduced to part-time status effective August 1, 1997. The defendant acknowledged that she made only three payments toward her rent between May 27 and August 19, 1997, totaling $579.

According to the defendant, when she received notice of the termination of her tenancy in the 1996 eviction case in October 1996, Rhodes told her that the plaintiff would not accept any rental payments from her because of the eviction case and that she should not come to the office. She stated that she did not report her employment in January 1997 because she had been told not to come to the office.

Simona Rhodes testified that as of the date of trial in December 1997, the' defendant owed $2,377 in past-due rent. She noted that she performed the recertifications to calculate the defendant’s rent.

Betty Cooke, the residential manager at the Mill Apartments, testified that the defendant did not advise the plaintiff that she began working iri January 1997 until she testified on March 13, 1997, in the 1996 eviction case that she was employed. Cooke noted that if a tenant advises of a change in income, an interim recertification is done. Once recertification is done, if there is an increase in rent, a notice is sent out, and the increase becomes effective the first of the month after a 30-day notice period. If a tenant does not advise the landlord about a change of income initially and the landlord later discovers the change, any increase in rent becomes effective retroactive to the first of the month after the date of the increase in income.

Cooke further testified that, even if the defendant had informed the plaintiff of her employment immediately after obtaining her job in January 1997, the plaintiff would not have recertified her or recalculated her rent while the eviction action was pending. She noted that the plaintiff’s policy was to refuse to accept rent during the pendency of such an action. She also stated that performing an interim recertification for the defendant while the 1996 eviction action was pending would have resulted in a waiver of the plaintiff’s rights in that case.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
704 N.E.2d 974, 302 Ill. App. 3d 263, 235 Ill. Dec. 401, 1998 Ill. App. LEXIS 926, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/burnham-management-co-v-davis-illappct-1998.