Post-Expiration Tenancy Is Month-to-Month, Not a Holdover

What Happened: A medical tenant remained in possession and paid the landlord normal rent after its one-year lease term expired. The landlord accepted the rent payments and didn’t demand that the tenant leave. Six months later, the property suffered flood damage. The tenant asked the landlord to make repairs. The landlord refused. So, the tenant notified the landlord that it was terminating the lease.

The landlord responded by offering the tenant $4,000 that it could use to make the repairs, provided that it sign a new lease. The tenant refused and the landlord sued the tenant for six months’ rent for the remainder of the year. The trial court ruled that the post-expiration tenancy was month-to-month rather than a holdover and that the tenant wasn’t liable for any unpaid rent.

Ruling: The Illinois appeal court affirmed the lower court’s judgment. 

Reasoning: Under Illinois law, a tenant who remains in possession after the lease expires is a tenant at sufferance that the landlord can either choose to evict or treat as a holdover subject to the original lease terms and up to double rent. The landlord also has the option of treating the tenant as a month-to-month. That’s what the landlord in this situation had done by accepting the normal rent and not demanding double rent or possession of the premises. It even offered the tenant a financial concession to sign a new lease. And since the tenancy was month-to-month, the tenant was free to walk away at the end of any month without owing the landlord a dime in additional rent.

• Fam. Props. of Chi., LLC v. Ring, 2024 Ill. App. Unpub. LEXIS 1853, 2024 IL App (1st) 231861-U