A group of landlords have accused Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker of overstepping his authority by extending his hold on evictions statewide amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The landlords say Pritzker has illegally interfered with their private contracts, unconstitutionally seized their property, and forced them to subsidize housing for tenants – including some who simply have refused to pay.
On June 24, the property owners filed suit in Will County Circuit Court. Named plaintiffs in the action include JL Properties Group; Mark Dauenbaugh; and Steven Cole. According to the complaint, JL Properties owns a single family home it leases in Bolingbrook; Dauenbaugh owns an apartment complex in Rockford; and Cole serves as trustee and landlord for a leased residential property in University Park.
They are represented by attorneys James V. Noonan and Solomon Maman, of the firm of Noonan & Lieberman Ltd., of Chicago, and attorney Jeffrey Grant Brown, of Chicago.
The landlords have become the latest in a growing number of Illinois business owners, churches and others who are taking aim in court at Pritzker’s use of emergency powers.
Many of the lawsuits have centered on the question of whether Pritzker has the power at all under state law or the state and U.S. constitutions to shut down a large portion of the state’s economy and forbid assemblies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pritzker has wielded emergency powers since March, when he first declared the state a disaster area upon the outbreak of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Most notably, Pritzker in mid-March issued his so-called stay at home order. The order directed Illinois residents to stay home, except to pursue activities the governor deemed “essential.”
To date, the courts have largely upheld Pritzker’s use of emergency powers in responding to COVID-19.
As part of those orders, Pritzker slapped a moratorium on all evictions, including for failure to pay rent. At the time, Pritzker’s orders justified the moratorium by asserting evictions must be stopped to allow as many Illinoisans as possible to shelter in place, free of fear of being thrown out on the street. The governor has said the moratoriums are also needed to protect Illinois residents who may have been among the millions of Illinoisans who lost a job or whose business closed in large part because of the economic effects of the statewide stay at home order.
In late May, Pritzker at last largely lifted the stay at home order, as Illinois entered a new phase of Pritzker’s five-phase so-called Restore Illinois plan to reopen the state’s economy.
The state is poised to enter Phase Four of the plan at the end of June.
However, while lifting the stay at home order, Pritzker reimposed the eviction bans, even continuing to forbid landlords from beginning eviction proceedings against tenants who may have not paid their rent since February, or longer.
The governor indicated the extended moratorium is needed to help financially struggling tenants remain in place until the state can roll out a new rent assistance program in July.
The lawsuit, however, said the continued eviction moratorium can’t be justified under the law or the state constitution any longer. The landlords noted Pritzker has indicated there is no longer a need for Illinois residents to shelter in place or to stay at home.
In short, the landlords said, the public health emergency that was used to justify the eviction moratorium no longer exists, or at least has abated to the point that the moratorium should now be considered illegal.
Pritzker’s orders, “as well-intentioned as they may be, have had an unlawful and disproportionate impact on landlords … the point of jeopardizing their businesses and livelihoods,” the lawsuit said.
“Protecting economically needy citizens such as tenants … is sound and proper policy. But compelled subsidization by landlords is an improper and unconstitutional method of solving that problem.”
The landlords accused Pritzker of assuming powers he never received from Illinois lawmakers and of trampling on their rights to their day in court to take action against people who owed them money and violated their leases.
They said Pritzker’s actions amount to a state order seizing control of their property, but not paying them for it.
The landlords are asking the court to issue an injunction blocking Pritzker from enforcing his eviction moratoriums.
While they did not join the individual landlords in the court action, the Illinois Rental Property Owners Association publicly threw their support behind the lawsuit. In a prepared statement, they called on other Illinois landlords to join the challenge by financially contributing to pay the the court costs.
The Association asserted the governor’s orders are wrongly protecting people who have simply chosen to stop paying rent, or who have violated behavior terms in their leases.
“The Governor’s moratorium on evictions essentially ties the hands of housing providers to enforce our lease agreements,” the IRPOA said in its statement.
“Small mom-and-pop landlords, who make up the majority of IRPOA members, have had their interests marginalized by the state of Illinois for too long. Corporate landlords may be able to absorb the losses that the Governor’s eviction moratorium imposes, but the majority of rental housing in Illinois is provided by average working class people who own a handful of rentals and rely on the monthly rent to meet their own obligations.
“Mom-and-pop landlords cannot go without income for over 5 months when sole proprietors have not been receiving assistance from COVID-19 programs to compensate for the lost income.”