2026-09-10 · Illinois · Courts

What happened. On June 18, 2025 the Illinois Appellate Court, Fifth District, affirmed an eviction judgment in Lake Suzanne MHP, LLC v. Gavins, 2025 IL App (5th) 240848-U. It is a Rule 23 order and is not precedential, and it is the only Illinois manufactured-home-community decision in this period.¹

The facts

The tenant admittedly stopped paying rent in September 2023 on a $400/month Lot 91 lease that had auto-renewed. Her defence was that the park owner had obstructed the sale of her mobile home.

The holding

The judgment was not against the manifest weight of the evidence. The action was brought under the Eviction Article, 735 ILCS 5/9-101 et seq., with the burden of proof at 735 ILCS 5/9-109.5. Her defence did not fall within any of the four recognised categories of defence to a forcible action, citing Subway Restaurants, Inc. v. Riggs, 297 Ill. App. 3d 284, 287 (1998).

Section 24, and why it did not help her

The court analysed Section 24 of the Mobile Home Landlord and Tenant Rights Act, 765 ILCS 745/24(a), which enjoins a park owner from “prohibiting, limiting, restricting, obstructing, or in any manner interfering with” a home owner's freedom to sell to a purchaser of her choice — while preserving the park owner's right to “promulgate any general qualifications or lawful restrictions on park residents.”

But she never filed a claim under Section 24. She used it only as a defence to non-payment. Also cited: 765 ILCS 745/6(d) and 745/9.

The rule

1. Lake Suzanne MHP, LLC v. Gavins, 2025 IL App (5th) 240848-U (Rule 23 order, June 18, 2025) ↩