I am a seller in an agreement for deed in Illinois. The buyer had breached the agreement by not paying for over 4 months and failed to up keep the property to code, which is the buyer's responsibility as clearly stated in the agreement. According to the contract I do have to right to re-enter the property. My question is do I need to go to court to do so?

You shouldn't. Why have you waited so long to enforce the contract?

As soon as they missed the first payment,you should have sent a notice that they were in breach, giving them some time to pay up. If they missed that deadline, you should have sent them a letter that, since they were in breach, the contract has been voided ans they are now month to month renters.

Then give them a pay or quit notice. You should have had them evicted by now.

You shouldn't. Why have you waited so long to enforce the contract?

As soon as they missed the first payment,you should have sent a notice that they were in breach, giving them some time to pay up. If they missed that deadline, you should have sent them a letter that, since they were in breach, the contract has been voided ans they are now month to month renters.

Then give them a pay or quit notice. You should have had them evicted by now.

Thanks ScottGem. The buyer seemed to be a good person with bad luck, so I wanted to help him and his wife. But now I realized that people create their own bad luck. I really gave the buyer and his wife a deal of a life time (5% annually with out balloon). I should haven't mixed charity with business.