Here is a recent case regarding landlord/tenant litigation:

Plaintiff landlord had entered into a five-year lease with SSM and that SSM later assigned this lease to defendant with plaintiff’s consent. Defendant acknowledged that, upon assuming the lease and during the remaining term of the lease, defendant paid both the rent and the monthly payment for the HVAC improvements. However, defendant claimed that it was not obligated to pay the remaining cost of the HVAC improvements after the lease ended.

The court said, Plaintiff alleges that defendant’s predecessor agreed that certain improvements to the property would be paid over a 15-year amortization schedule, in addition to the rent payments due during the 5-year term of the lease. Defendant then assumed its predecessor’s obligations when it was assigned the lease. Plaintiff alleges that it fully performed its HVAC obligation under the lease when it improved the HVAC units on the property. If plaintiff fully performed this requirement as it alleges, then the alleged debt to repay for these improvements had matured prior to the sale of the property. Our holding is similar to the holding in Metropolitan Trust, where the tenant’s rent debt had matured because the landlord had fully performed prior to the cancellation of the lease. Since defendant’s debt had allegedly matured, it did not pass on to the subsequent owners of the property.

A.M. Realty Western, LLC. v. MSMC Realty, LLC., 2012 IL App (1st) 121183 (November 30, 2012) Cook Co.,6th Div. (R. GORDON) Reversed and remanded