Landlord isn't responding to mutual lease break
landlord tenant attorney Illinois Jul 27, 2026
Location: Illinois My boyfriend is currently living in an apartment that leaves much to be desired, to say the least. The most recent issue was a loss of hot water for 13-14 days, they were notified of the issue in writing multiple ways, including maintenance requests on the official tenant portal. My boyfriend has recently reached out, letting them know he wants to have a meeting for a mutual lease break agreement, notably different from a buyout or early termination. The landlord has not responded as of yet, though it is the weekend. If they end up not responding, which they have a tendency of doing, what can we do? Is there a law that we can leave the apartment and not have to worry about collections if we keep a trail of the lack of response? At this point we aren't worried about getting any kind of compensation, he just wants out of the lease so we can live somewhere actually habitable.
