Seeking legal advice for my housing situation
landlord tenant attorney Illinois Aug 27, 2026
Location: suburbs of Chicago, Illinois I'm looking for advice regarding a problem with my rental apartment. I have been living in the same one bedroom with my partner for over 5 years. We had a child together and she is turning 4 next month. We informed the leasing office when she was born, and they said nothing more than "congratulations" so we carried on and thought nothing more of it. In that time we have signed 3 lease renewals, no problems. This week, they delivered a letter to my door that states they will not renew our lease in our current unit due to their "occupancy policy" - which is NOT detailed anywhere on the lease. They say we can either transfer to a 2 bedroom unit for $300 more per month, or vacate at the end of our lease. When I looked up occupancy laws in our city and state, there are none that say 2 parents cannot share a 1 bedroom apartment with their child. Our lease does briefly mention fair housing and states that I have the right to rent any unit they have available that meets my budgetary requirements. Again, absolutely no mention of occupancy rules. As much as we would love to have 2 bedrooms for our family, we simply cannot afford it at this time. It may not be ideal but it is the best we can do under our circumstances. We actually would not even meet the income requirements for the 2 bedroom unit, and the letter states that if we don't, we have no choice but to vacate. If we are forced out, we will be homeless indefinitely and likely have to stay with my partner's parents until we can get back on our feet. We don't have the resources to come up with the several thousands we would need to move when we are barely getting by as it is. There are application fees, security deposit, first and possibly last months rent, and I will need to hire movers as I am soon having surgery to repair a massive ventral hernia. I'm unable to do any heavy lifting pre or post surgery. In no way did we expect this as we were never informed of any occupancy policy, even when we told them we just had baby and therefore increased the number of occupants in our unit. Is it illegal for them to do this? Should I get an attorney? Can I get an attorney if I do not have money to afford one? Can I even stop this from happening or do I just need to plan on vacating? I've never been in a situation like this and have never been in a courtroom before or even spoken to a lawyer, so I'm incredibly overwhelmed and honestly terrified of losing our home. I have no idea where to begin.
