Location: Illinois
I’m a student who was renting a room out of a lady’s house in Illinois for the summer. She had an aggressive dog, whom I had a few close calls with because she left him in shared spaces at some points. When I returned from home last week, the dog was in the kitchen and attacked me when I entered the house. I barely escaped and had to go to urgent care immediately after.
The landlord essentially implied that it was my fault for not alerting her that I was returning home (which is not something we regularly do, plus she told me she lost track of time…). I moved out immediately after the attack because I no longer felt safe, especially since this was not the first time it tried to get me. However, I am still technically signed until next month, and there is no clause in the lease that mentions early termination.
Would my best course of action be to send an official lease termination letter, stating that I had to leave because she is not providing a safe/habitable living environment (constructive eviction)? Should I even ask for my security deposit and pro-rated rent back (even if I know she won’t give it to me)? I want to make sure that I am legally protected and that she can’t sue me for not paying the full amount on the lease.
Edit: Just wanted to clarify that animal control informed me that this dog was classified as “dangerous” and I was its 4th bite victim. Of course, she concealed all of that from me and insisted he had never attacked anyone 🙂