Governor J.B. Pritzker extended his executive orders surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic disaster proclamation yesterday afternoon. The eviction moratorium executive order received a slight update when Pritzker re-signed the order yesterday.
The eviction moratorium freezes evictions currently in the court system if the tenant had previously declared that they could not pay their rent due to employment issues surrounding the pandemic. Until now if a tenant did not submit their signed declaration prior to the filing of an eviction case, the case could proceed through the court system through trial and judgment. Everything would be finished except the enforcement of the order. The language of the new order allows submission of the declaration of hardship at any time in the process of an eviction to freeze the case.
The new language also says that the eviction ban is lifted if a tenant causes health and safety issues for other tenants, where a landlord can present a case where a tenant is posing a direct threat to others or an immediate and severe risk to property.
The disaster proclamation and executive orders all together have been extended for another month. The actions have now all been in effect on the state for exactly one year.