Anyone ever sue a landlord, preferably [i]pro se[/i]?

In My Humble Opinion
1

My landlord has recently crossed the schmuck line, as detailed in this thread:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=145729&highlight=landlord

The place is cheap and convenient, but I really don’t need this kind of headache anymore, and as I’m now earning rather more than I did when I moved in 6+ years ago, I think it’s time to move on to greener pastures, apartment-wise. (But I’m doing it in the spring, when my lease is up; I’m not going to break my lease and move in the middle of a Chicago winter, no matter how much of a pain my landlord is! He will not win!)

However, in the course of researching whether my landlord can legally have me evicted for refusing to hire an exterminator, at my own expense, to kill bugs which have been a problem throughout the whole building during the entire time I’ve lived there (he can’t, BTW), I had to do some legal research. I knew that he was supposed to be paying me interest on my security deposit (which he never has, but at 2% or whatever a year, I didn’t make a big deal of it).

But in reading the entire text of the Chicago Landlord-Tenant Ordinance during the course of my research, I discovered that the penalty for nonpayment of interest on a security deposit is DOUBLE the security deposit. (For the curious, you can find the entire ordinance text online at www.tenants-rights.org.) I don’t know whether I could claim penalties for each year of nonpayment (6 years @ $1,000/year), or just for the statute of limitations (apparently 2 years? but I’ll have to check that one). Apparently his moronic lawyer is either ignorant, or never considered the possibility that I might actually read the piece of legislation they were trying to apply to me, or both.

But in any case, it seems he owes me a rather large chunk of change, and I’m inclined to go after it as soon as I move out, considering how he’s behaved. Has anyone gone to housing court, pro se? If so, what are the pitfalls? Is it the kind of thing that a person with a brain can do pro se, or should I seriously consider hiring a lawyer?

2

One thing I would make sure of is that you document everything you HAVE done in regards to pest control.

My family and I were forced this last summer out of an apartment because of the roach problem. To call it horrid does not do justice the level of disgust we felt living there. Our landlord gave us nearly all the same stories yours gave to you. Finally, we began documenting everything the landlord told us, and whatever “preventative” steps they had taken, as well as the steps we took to control the infestation.

Still, the landlord did nothing, so I took it a step further. I wrote up a petition, in which I made it clear that the landlord stated that none of my neighbors had a problem, and I took it door to door. Hmmmm…seems that ALL of my neighbors had a problem, and they all signed the petition stating that the landlord had told them the EXACT same thing!

Then I called the health department.

Shortly thereafter, the landlord contacted me, released me from my lease, paid me my deposit and interest, and gave me back the prorated amount of rent since the time of my last complaint, then gave me till the end of the month (even though that time was no longer paid for) in which to move.

Funny how much nicer they became after that…

3

My dance partner recently sued his landlady (pro se) for recovery of his security deposit. He still doesn’t have a decision - it has been about nine weeks since the case was heard. I attended the hearing, which was held in the Boston Housing Court by a court clerk (there was no regular judge in the small claims division). I don’t know how it will come out - he didn’t do the best job of presenting his case, even though he had a very strong case to present. I do think, after having watched him present, that he would have been better off hiring a lawyer.

OTOH, you’re fortunate enough to have friendly lawyers at work to consult with, so you’re probably in the best possible position to do it yourself, as long as you don’t get stage fright. That said, your odds are almost always better with a lawyer - you just have to decide whether they’re so much better that it justifies the extra cost of hiring one.

I would strongly suggest that you ask some of the lawyers in your office whether they think you could handle it pro se. They know how you present yourself and how fast you think on your feet better than we do, and they also should know the local court system, so they could give you more competent advice.

FWIW, Massachusetts has pretty draconian laws about the interest on security deposits, but I think you can only get the multiple damages once per deposit, not once per year that the landlord fails to pay up. I’d be somewhat surprised if Illinois actually lets you collect that much damages every year, but you’ve read the statute and I haven’t.

Once you’ve filed a nice, well-written complaint, you may want to consider sharing it with all the other tenants in the building, who are probably getting the same treatment. ::evil grin::

4

IANAL and YMMV but my feeling is that failure to pay interest on the deposit over x years constitutes one continuous bad act rather than x separate actionable bad acts. In other words, one round of damages regardless of how long you lived there. The interest is, I assume, payable at the time you vacate rather than on an annual basis? That’s how it works where I live. The landlord holds the deposit in an interest-bearing escrow account and turns over the deposit plus interest at the end of the lease. I know this because I did sue my landlord and a former roommate pro se for failure to return a deposit. I lost the first round and hired a lawyer for the second, which I won, and got the deposit back with no damages. My case was complicated by the fact that I did not deliver my deposit directly into the hands of the landlord, but gave it instead to the roommate to deliver. Since the roommate was not my landlord, the judge made him return the deposit but didn’t hold him accountable for damages. Bastard judge.

5

When I was in college my roommates and I sued our old landlord in small claims court. Basically, he kept our security deposit and renovated the house with it so he could sell it. We won 3X the security deposit. He had a lawyer with him, and was a lawyer as well.

IIRC there were four of us who did it, one guy took the lead, and we each had our little job to do preparing for the case, but most of our preparations were for naught since the judge quickly determined the landlord was full of BS. Whatever damage we did do to the house was not beyond what would be considered normal wear and tear. I don’t remember how long it took for the whole thing to wind up in the courtroom, but I think the landlord was counting on us at first not even bothering since we were all split up (but were still friends), then counting on us eventually giving up because it was taking so long, which is what almost happened.

If you’re not entirely sure of what’s owed to you, exactly how the law works, or how the statute of limitations applies, I think you should talk to an attorney (and make sure it’s one who specializes in landlord-tenant disputes) just so you don’t waste your time.

6

Actually, the interest is payable yearly, within 30 days after the end of each year of the lease. So to me, it feels like each year is a separate contract, and therefore each failure a separate violation. Of course, IANAL, and I’ll probably at least talk to one if I decide to go through with this.

7

No, but mine is due for a rewgular ass-whuppin’.