Location: Chicago,Illinois
Context: Urgent Advice! Apartment Demands $12k Buyout Before Moving in+ Unseen Contract.
TL;DR: International student outside US trapped by a Chicago apartment’s predatory lease. Landlord hid a contract change, demands $12k despite me never seeing their signed agreement. Need help fighting this.
Hello，I’m an international student, never been to US before. I am facing a problem with a Chicago apartment.
Here’s the timeline:
May 2025: Paid a $400 fee (including application fee and administration fee in advance)to secure a downtown apartment near my university.
June 9: After rounds of negotiations, I e-signed a lease via DocuSign.
June 13: Received a “document completed” email from DocuSign, but the link didn’t work. I never saw the countersigned contract from the apartment.
Pre-Lease Obligations:
Provided passport/visa copies.
Purchased rental insurance.
Paid a month rent of about $4,000 to an agency.The agent fee was contractually covered by the apartment management. However, they required me to prepay one month’s rent upfront and—since they owed that exact amount to the agent as commission—instructed me to pay it directly to the agent. Acting on their direction, I transferred the one month’s rent ($4,000) to the agent.
The Crisis:
My U.S. visa hit unexpected problems, probably forcing me to defer my studies. I informed the apartment immediately.
The apartment demands a $12,000 buyout fee (3 months’ rent at ~$4,000/mo).
They claim the lease is binding despite me never receiving their signed copy.
Shady Contract Changes:
The initial lease end date was July 31. During negotiations, they secretly changed it to August 31 (buried in 47 pages of legal jargon).
I was rushed to sign within 48 hours as a non-native English speaker. I didn’t catch the change when it is an English version without my language on it.
My Questions:
Is the lease even valid? I never received their countersigned contract. DocuSign’s broken link means I have zero proof they signed.
The $12,000 demand: I can’t afford this. Are there legal loopholes? Can I fight this given the visa issue and their sneaky edit?
The $4,000 agency fee: Since I’m not moving in, can I recover this? The landlord claims it’s forfeited.
Sublease/replacement attempts: I’ve tried for weeks—no takers because most of them consider it as overpriced for the downtown.
Desperately Seeking:
Legal strategies to challenge the lease’s validity.
Resources for tenant rights in Chicago (especially for internationals).
Any similar experiences? Did you win?
Can I report this to a city agency or where I can find a lawyer?(I would like to pay the intial fee as long as I can afford it)
Why I’m Terrified:
$12000 is at a stake. I’m just a student without SSN/credit history and without entering US before. The apartment ignored my visa crisis and won’t negotiate.
Edit1: I counted the document pages again. It has 47 pages in total, including some appendix document. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Edit2: To avoid overcomplicating my original post, I stated the ‘application fee’ was $400. This amount actually comprised both an application fee and an admin fee, both non-refundable and paid upfront when applying for the unit. They sent me the unsigned contract afterward. I sincerely apologize if my wording misled you—I’m truly sorry.
Edit3:The agent fee was contractually covered by the apartment management. However, they required me to prepay one month’s rent upfront and—since they owed that exact amount to the agent as commission—instructed me to pay it directly to the agent. Acting on their direction, I transferred the one month’s rent ($4,000) to the agent.
Edit 4: Having never visited the U.S., I did not physically inspect the leased unit. During negotiations, I explicitly requested a current video of the actual unit condition, but the landlord refused, providing only promotional materials. As a first-time renter unfamiliar with U.S. practices, I mistakenly assumed this was standard procedure—though in my home country, physical inspections are mandatory before leasing.
Comments
You write that you signed the lease on June 9. The lease is binding because you signed it.
The landlord does have a duty to mitigate damages by making a reasonable effort to secure a new tenant.
What does your agency say?
Your visa problems and/or not receiving a countersignature don’t invalidate a lease.
I have no idea what the $4,000 agency fee is for, but other than that, I don’t see you having any leg to stand on. It’s a horrible situation, but you did sign a contract. Your best hope is that the LL doesn’t bother trying to recover from an international student who has never set foot in the US.
Just because you did not receive a copy doesnt mean it wasn’t signed. And if the break lease fee is in the contract then you should have known what you are signing and agreeing to. Just because you are having issues with your visa doesn’t mean they have to give you leniency.
Also the lease contract is all that matters, if there was not a correct date then you reading the lease would have given you the opportunity to contact them to correct it.
Your going to lose your deposit. Most likely they will not go through all the hoops of trying to sue an international student for the remainder.
Your visa crisis belongs to you. You can’t visit that upon a company. You’re bound by the terms of your lease regardless if you read it or not. If you can afford to move to a new country and pay 4,000 dollars a month for an apartment, you can pay the 12,000 to break the lease. You wanna call agencies and tenet right organizations to get out of paying what you agreed to when you signed? GTFOH, those organizations exist to help with people in predatory and slumlord situations. They’ve got real work to do, not help you weasel your way outta living up to your obligations.
You probably lost the deposit because they have the money already. I seriously doubt they have any legal means to collect the rest because they would have to chase you into another country. They can’t take what you don’t have.
You will not receive any refund of the $4,000 agency fee that you paid, this is non negotiable.
The lease that you signed is completely valid OP. I’m assuming you signed the lease without reading it, correct?
The $12,000 fee is legally binding that you owe per the lease that you signed. The only question here is if they will pursue you for outstanding balance, based on your circumstances of being an international student. I don’t think so tbh, it’s more hassle than it’s worth, but that’s just my opinion.
While your visa issues suck and I feel for you (having been in a similar bind before), that doesn’t have any bearing from a contract law perspective on your lease.
That said, I’m not based in Chicago and don’t know about Chicago tenant protections, but I know certain angles of this would be blatantly illegal in NYC — I’m mentioning this because nobody in this thread has brought up anything but “you’re SOL” so far and perhaps there are a few things in here worth investigating.
Were this in NYC, the $400 application fee would be outright illegal (they’re capped at $20 here), and the landlord would have a duty to mitigate damages (in this case, by making a bona fide effort to find a replacement tenant). Not sure if Illinois (or Chicago) have similar protections, but it may be worth looking into. I’d also want to look into the lease agreement itself; a 60-page agreement seems wild for a standard-issue lease and I wonder if there’s anything in there that’s unenforceable.
That said, I have to point out that any civil judgment against you for an unpaid $12,000 would likely be unenforceable if you’re not in the U.S. to begin with.