I live in a 4 bedroom apartment with two other roommates. One roommate's rent check bounced in mid July, and has been AWOL since then and we have no way to reach him. He has not paid rent for the months of July and August (today is August 11). We know he is alive and well, but he will not return our voicemail messages and we do not know where he is living.

He has left all his stuff behind and still has keys to the apartment. We want to get his belongings out of the apartment but he will not come get them. I am wondering what laws pertain to this kind of issue: Can we legally sell his belongings and use that money towards paying the rent? Can he sue us or the landlord? Is there a time frame we need to pass before we can sell his things/throw it out?

Also, because he still has keys, does the landlord have to legally change the locks to our apartment?

Any information with links to legal documents would be very helpful. If it helps, I reside in Chicago, IL.

Chicago the landlord would have to give him a written 5 day eviction notice. Chicago Tenant Evictions
Then since he is not there physically the landlord would then still be responsible to hold/store his stuff for the legally required amount of days before anything could be done with it.

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Originally Posted by Amymd729

I live in a 4 bedroom apartment with two other roommates. One roommate's rent check bounced in mid July, and has been AWOL since then and we have no way to reach him. He has not paid rent for the months of July and August (today is August 11). We know he is alive and well, but he will not return our voicemail messages and we do not know where he is living.

He has left all his stuff behind and still has keys to the apartment. We want to get his belongings out of the apartment but he will not come get them. I am wondering what laws pertain to this kind of issue: Can we legally sell his belongings and use that money towards paying the rent? Can he sue us or the landlord? Is there a time frame we need to pass before we can sell his things/throw it out?

Also, because he still has keys, does the landlord have to legally change the locks to our apartment?

Any information with links to legal documents would be very helpful. If it helps, I reside in Chicago, IL.

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Assuming that the lease is between the landlord and the 3 of you equally (and was signed by everyone) then it would be up to the landlord to handle any dealings with him.

It's a very weird situation since the other two of you are still living there and are not in violation of the lease. The landlord can't really evict only one of the roomates - it's all or nothing. (Again, unless you have separate leases or something.)

Are the two of you paying his share? The two of you could take him to small claims court for his portion of the rent and any other expenses and/or damages. I'm not sure, you may be able to get a judge to rule that he's abandoned the property (does your lease define abandonment?)

Is your landlord aware of the situation? If so, what do they say?

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Originally Posted by Amymd729

Also, because he still has keys, does the landlord have to legally change the locks to our apartment?

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Sorry, forgot this part. Yes, have the landlord change the locks - don't do it yourselves. You'll probably be charged for it. And since the MIA roommate is still technically on the lease he can't be locked out. (Unless your lease and/or local laws allow for lockouts.) The landlord will have to make the new key available to him. If he's not taking calls or returning messages chances are he'll never come retrieve the new key.

It does depend if he is actually on the lease as a lease holder or just an occupant.. and if the other roommates are on the lease. A landlord does not care which person on the lease pays the rent and is not going to enforce that equal shares have to be paid by the lease holders. Any person who is on that lease as a lease holder is responsible for that rent every single month, regardless if the other roommates dog out on you.

You will have to talk to the landlord about this in detail, but go in there understanding other lease holders are still responsible for the rent. I believe the landlord has to hold those belongings for 60 days after a certified receipt letter has been sent to him explaining that his belongings are there for pick up. After that, the landlord tosses the items. You would also want to speak to him about rewriting the lease.

Sorry, forgot, if he is on the lease as only an occupant he isn't obligated to pay a dime