Bill Text: IL HB5523 | 2009-2010 | 96th General Assembly | Engrossed

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Amends the Code of Civil Procedure. Provides that it is an affirmative defense to a forcible entry action if the demand for possession is based on: the status of the tenant, lessee, or household member as a victim of domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, or sexual violence; an incident of domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, or sexual violence against a tenant, lessee, or household member; or criminal activity engaged in by a member of a tenant's or lessee's household or any guest or other person under the tenant's, lessee's, or household member's control directly relating to domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, or sexual violence and against the tenant, lessee, or household member. Provides that the existence of the affirmative defense does not prevent a landlord from seeking possession solely against a tenant, household member, or lessee who perpetrated the violence. Effective immediately.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 10-0)

Status: (Passed) 2010-07-22 - Public Act . . . . . . . . . 96-1188 [HB5523 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2009-HB5523-Engrossed.html

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AN ACT concerning civil law.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Code of Civil Procedure is amended by adding
Section 9-106.2 as follows:
(735 ILCS 5/9-106.2 new)
Sec. 9-106.2. Affirmative defense for violence; barring
persons from property.
(a) It shall be an affirmative defense to an action
maintained under this Article IX if the court makes one of the
following findings that the demand for possession is:
(1) based solely on the tenant's, lessee's, or
household member's status as a victim of domestic violence
or sexual violence as those terms are defined in Section 10
of the Safe Homes Act, stalking as that term is defined in
the Criminal Code of 1961, or dating violence;
(2) based solely upon an incident of actual or
threatened domestic violence, dating violence, stalking,
or sexual violence against a tenant, lessee, or household
member;
(3) based solely upon criminal activity directly
relating to domestic violence, dating violence, stalking,
or sexual violence engaged in by a member of a tenant's or

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lessee's household or any guest or other person under the
tenant's, lessee's, or household member's control, and
against the tenant, lessee, or household member; or
(4) based upon a demand for possession pursuant to
subsection (f) where the tenant, lessee, or household
member who was the victim of domestic violence, sexual
violence, stalking, or dating violence did not knowingly
consent to the barred person entering the premises or a
valid court order permitted the barred person's entry onto
the premises.
(b) When asserting the affirmative defense, at least one
form of the following types of evidence shall be provided to
support the affirmative defense: medical, court, or police
records documenting the violence or a statement from an
employee of a victim service organization or from a medical
professional from whom the tenant, lessee, or household member
has sought services.
(c) Nothing in subsection (a) shall prevent the landlord
from seeking possession solely against a tenant, household
member, or lessee of the premises who perpetrated the violence
referred to in subsection (a).
(d) Nothing in subsection (a) shall prevent the landlord
from seeking possession against the entire household,
including the tenant, lessee, or household member who is a
victim of domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, or
sexual violence if the tenant, lessee, or household member's

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continued tenancy would pose an actual and imminent threat to
other tenants, lessees, household members, the landlord or
their agents at the property.
(e) Nothing in subsection (a) shall prevent the landlord
from seeking possession against the tenant, lessee, or
household member who is a victim of domestic violence, dating
violence, stalking, or sexual violence if that tenant, lessee,
or household member has committed the criminal activity on
which the demand for possession is based.
(f) A landlord shall have the power to bar the presence of
a person from the premises owned by the landlord who is not a
tenant or lessee or who is not a member of the tenant's or
lessee's household. A landlord bars a person from the premises
by providing written notice to the tenant or lessee that the
person is no longer allowed on the premises. That notice shall
state that if the tenant invites the barred person onto any
portion of the premises, then the landlord may treat this as a
breach of the lease, whether or not this provision is contained
in the lease. Subject to paragraph (4) of subsection (a), the
landlord may evict the tenant.
(g) Further, a landlord may give notice to a person that
the person is barred from the premises owned by the landlord. A
person has received notice from the landlord within the meaning
of this subsection if he has been notified personally, either
orally or in writing including a valid court order as defined
by subsection (7) of Section 112A-3 of the Code of Criminal

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Procedure of 1963 granting remedy (2) of subsection (b) of
Section 112A-14 of that Code, or if a printed or written notice
forbidding such entry has been conspicuously posted or
exhibited at the main entrance to such land or the forbidden
part thereof. Any person entering the landlord's premises after
such notice has been given shall be guilty of criminal trespass
to real property as set forth in Section 21-3 of the Criminal
Code of 1961. After notice has been given, an invitation to the
person to enter the premises shall be void if made by a tenant,
lessee, or member of the tenant's or lessee's household and
shall not constitute a valid invitation to come upon the
premises or a defense to a criminal trespass to real property.
Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon