East Lake Management & Development Corp. v. Irvin

551 N.E.2d 272, 195 Ill. App. 3d 196, 141 Ill. Dec. 279, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 174
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedFebruary 9, 1990
DocketNo. 1—88—0398
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 551 N.E.2d 272 (East Lake Management & Development Corp. v. Irvin) 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
East Lake Management & Development Corp. v. Irvin, 551 N.E.2d 272, 195 Ill. App. 3d 196, 141 Ill. Dec. 279, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 174 (Ill. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

PRESIDING JUSTICE LaPORTA

delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiff filed suit for possession of the apartment occupied by defendant under a written lease. Plaintiff alleged defendant’s breach of certain lease provisions. On defendant’s motion, the trial court entered summary judgment in favor of defendant, and plaintiff appealed.

Plaintiff on appeal argues the trial court committed error in granting summary judgment and in finding that plaintiff had waived defendant’s breach of the lease by its acceptance of housing subsidy payments from HUD subsequent to serving a termination notice on defendant.

Plaintiff, as lessor, and defendant, as lessee, entered into a written lease on August 4, 1983, for apartment unit 2B at 4048 South Lake Park Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, for the period beginning September 1, 1983, and ending August 31, 1984, for a monthly rental of $33 with the lights and electric to be paid by the tenant. The lease provided that after the expiration of the initial lease period, the lease would continue on a month-to-month basis unless terminated according to the provisions of the lease.

The record discloses two written amendments to the lease. On November 19, 1985, the parties executed an amendment to the lease which referred to a lease agreement for the period from November 1, 1985, to July 1, 1986, with tenant’s rental payment obligation to be $44 per month. On or about August 1, 1986, the lease was extended by written agreement from that date until July 31, 1987, with tenant’s rental obligation to be $36 per month.

Plaintiff operated the building in which the apartment was located as a subsidized housing complex pursuant to a contract with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), under a section 8 program of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. §1437f (1985)) whereby a housing assistance subsidy is paid to the landlord in addition to the tenant’s rental payment specified in the lease for a given unit to more closely compete with rentals available in the non-subsidized-housing market. The defendant qualified for subsidized housing and executed the lease for apartment 2B in plaintiff’s building.

The lease agreement included the defendant’s obligations “not to destroy, damage or remove any part of the unit, common areas, or project grounds” and “not to *** make or permit noises or acts that will disturb the rights or comfort of neighbors.” The tenant agreed “to keep the volume of any radio, phonograph, television or musical instrument at a level which will not disturb the neighbors.”

On August 13, 1987, the plaintiff served a notice of termination of tenancy on the defendant with a final date of occupancy on August 23, 1987, citing damage to property, loud noise, fighting, loitering in the common areas and generally disturbing other building residents as the grounds for termination of the lease. The record discloses the defendant was served personally and by mail. The defendant did not vacate the apartment, and the plaintiff filed a forcible detainer suit for possession on September 14, 1987.

The defendant moved for summary judgment. The defendant argued there, as here, that the plaintiff in its answer to interrogatories acknowledged its receipt of HUD housing subsidy payments for defendant’s apartment for the months of September and October 1987, following the service of the termination notice on defendant, and therefore this action constituted acceptance of rent, a waiver of the alleged breach and plaintiff’s election to reinstate the tenancy. The defendant does not challenge the violations of the lease recited in the termination notice nor are the validity and service of the notice contested. The parties agree that plaintiff accepted no rental payments from defendant subsequent to service of the termination notice.

On January 6, 1988, the trial judge entered summary judgment in favor of defendant and dismissed the case. The court found that “the plaintiff has waived its notice by accepting H.A.P. payments from the Department of Housing” and found that “the acceptance of the HUD payment constitutes rent.” This appeal followed.

We first consider plaintiff’s argument that HUD’s housing assistance payments are not the equivalent of rent, as that term is generally understood.

The landlord’s acceptance of rent from a tenant following a notice of termination of the tenancy for violation of the lease provisions is generally considered to be a waiver of the breach which operates to reinstate the lease. (Vintaloro v. Pappas (1923), 310 Ill. 115, 117, 141 N.E. 377, 378.) The landlord who accepts rent payments after terminating a lease waives the right to terminate based upon circumstances of which he had knowledge at the time of acceptance. Okey, Inc. v. American National Bank & Trust Co. (1981), 96 Ill. App. 3d 987, 991-92, 422 N.E.2d 221, 225; American National Bank & Trust Co. v. Dominick (1987), 154 Ill. App. 3d 275, 281, 507 N.E.2d 512, 516.

The lease between plaintiff and defendant here includes the following pertinent language:

“3. *** Tenant agrees to pay the monthly rent *** on the date the rent is due. *** The Tenant understands that this monthly rent is less than the market (unsubsidized) rent due on this unit. This lower rent is available *** because HUD makes monthly payments to the Owner on behalf of the Tenant. The amount, if any, that HUD makes available monthly on behalf of the Tenant is called the tenant assistance payment * * * n

Because the housing assistance payments (HAP) contract is not part of the record, we look to the language of the statute by which subsidized housing under HUD’s section 8 programs is administered. The United States Housing Act of 1937, section 8, as amended (42 U.S.C. §1437f(a) (Supp. 1985)), was enacted “[flor the purpose of aiding lower-income families in obtaining a decent place to live and of promoting economically mixed housing” and, in furtherance of its purpose, the Act provided that “assistance payments may be made with respect to existing housing in accordance with” the statute (42 U.S.C. §1437f(a) (Supp. 1985)). The Act provided a formula to determine the value of a subsidized apartment based on a fair market rental value amount in a non-subsidized-housing market, which value is required to be adjusted annually. (42 U.S.C. §1437f(c)(1) (1982).) Thereafter, based on the apartment’s rental value, the qualified tenant pays a monthly rent amount based on his income and HUD pays the balance to the landlord in the form of a subsidy referred to as a housing assistance payment. 42 U.S.C. §1437f(c)(1) (1982).

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E. LAKE MGMT. & DEV. CORP. v. Irvin
551 N.E.2d 272 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1990)

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Bluebook (online)
551 N.E.2d 272, 195 Ill. App. 3d 196, 141 Ill. Dec. 279, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 174, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/east-lake-management-development-corp-v-irvin-illappct-1990.