If you are a resident of public or subsidized housing or Low Income Housing Tax Credit properties, we recommend you immediately contact your local legal aid for the best advice on your specific situation.

The information below applies to most tenants who already have a court judgment against them for an eviction case that was filed due only to unpaid rent. To speed up intake with the Helpline, should gather all related documents (notices from the landlord, from the Rent Relief Program, court papers, etc.) so you can send those to us after we have done intake with you.

1. The Appeal Period

Once the judge gives the landlord a judgment for possession, the tenant has 10 days to appeal the decision to the circuit court. Because of that, no sheriff’s eviction can take place until at least 11 days after the judgment.

To appeal the case, the tenant must file the paperwork and pay money to the court within those 10 days. The money a tenant has to pay to the court includes an appeal fee and everything the judge decided the tenant owes the landlord. Because of this, it is very difficult for a tenant who has fallen behind on rent to appeal a judgment, since it can require a lot of money.

2. The Writ of Eviction

After the judge gives the landlord a judgment for possession, the landlord can ask the court clerk to issue instructions to the sheriff to schedule and carry out the eviction. Those instructions are called a “writ of eviction.” But until the landlord files the request for the writ of eviction and pays the court the filing fee, no eviction can be scheduled.

The landlord can choose not to request the writ of eviction and to let the tenant stay, even though the landlord won a judgment for possession. Sometimes a tenant can negotiate with the landlord to stay and not be evicted. But if the landlord does things the right way, even if they let the tenant stay for a while after getting the judgment, they can get the court to issue a writ of eviction anytime in the following six months (180 days). They do not need to take the tenant back to court. (See the Right of Redemption, below, for an exception.)

Once a writ of eviction is issued, the sheriff’s office has 30 days to carry out the actual eviction. If that doesn’t happen within 30 days, the writ automatically becomes void and the landlord must ask the court for a new writ.

3. The Sheriff’s Eviction

After the landlord gets the court to issue the writ of eviction, the sheriff’s office will deliver the writ and an eviction notice to the tenant. That notice will state the date and time when the sheriff’s office will return for the eviction. The eviction must be scheduled at least 72 hours after the sheriff’s notice was delivered. They usually deliver the notice within a few days after the court issues the writ.

When the sheriff’s office returns on the scheduled date for the actual eviction, the tenant and their household are removed from the property and the locks are changed. The landlord can either place the tenant’s property on the street or can keep it locked in the property, but they must give the evicted tenant reasonable access to their property for 24 hours after the sheriff’s eviction. After 24 hours, the landlord can do what they want with the remaining property.

4. The Tenant’s Right of Redemption

If the court gave the landlord a judgment based only on unpaid rent, not other lease violations, the tenant has the right to pay everything they owe the landlord avoid being evicted. This is referred to as the “right of redemption.” Except for some landlords with only a few rental units, a tenant can use their right of redemption as often as necessary.

To use the right of redemption, the tenant must pay the landlord for everything they owe them:

  • overdue rent and late fees, including rent that has become due after the case was filed and decided,
  • the court costs the landlord paid to file the lawsuit,
  • attorney fees if the court awarded them as part of the judgment, and
  • any other damages the court awarded in the case.

Tenants can find out exactly how much they owe their landlord by giving the landlord or their attorney a written request for a statement of all they owe. Payment must be made with a money order, cashier’s check, or certified check.

To make the landlord cancel a sheriff’s eviction that is already scheduled, the law states that the tenant must pay the landlord at least 48 hours before the scheduled eviction.

5. New Lease

If a landlord enters into a new lease with a tenant after getting a judgment for possession in an eviction case, they can no longer use that earlier judgment to evict the tenant. They must file a new eviction case in court for a new lease violation. 

For more legal information about landlord-tenant issues, try these resources.