CHICAGO, Ill. — When a long-time Chicago renter came to CTM Legal Group in distress, she was facing what felt like an impossible situation. After nearly 30 years in the same apartment, her landlord had turned hostile. He wanted to sell the property, and he began sending her a series of demands to vacate — leaving this woman, who lived alone, with no realistic path to pack up and move three decades of her life on his timetable.

"She was overwhelmed," said William M. Tasch, Managing Partner of CTM Legal Group. "She had done nothing wrong. She had been a tenant in good standing for almost 30 years, and suddenly she was being pressured out of her home."

CTM's attorneys quickly recognized that the landlord's demands were legally defective and moved swiftly to challenge them, to buy the client critical time. But even as that strategy played out, Tasch and his team understood the clock was running. Eventually, the landlord would find his footing, serve proper notice, and the client would need to move.

That's when the case took an unexpected turn.

Rather than simply managing the timeline of an inevitable eviction, Tasch took a broader look at the client's situation — and saw an opportunity. The client had never owned a home. The prospect of purchasing property felt foreign and intimidating to her. But after a careful review of her finances, CTM's team determined not only that she could afford to buy the very property she had lived in for nearly three decades — but that she might actually save money every month compared to what she had been paying in rent.

"We are always looking for the best solutions for our clients," said Tasch. "Creativity can go a long way. The parties were fighting, threatening lawsuits against one another, and arguing about when she was going to move out. Nobody was talking about what was, in hindsight, the best answer for everyone involved: simply sell the property to the person who had been living there. That was truly a win-win."

CTM's real estate team got to work. They coached the client through the mortgage process, helped her understand what to expect, and formulated a purchase offer on her behalf. The negotiation that had once centered on eviction deadlines shifted to closing terms.

She closed on her home.

For the first time in her life, she is a homeowner — in the same place she has called home for nearly 30 years. Her monthly housing costs are lower than they were as a tenant. And for the first time, she is building equity.

"CTM covers many practice areas, and this case shows how we can put that to work for our clients," said Tasch. "This client came to us with an urgent landlord-tenant matter. We were able to solve her problem with a real estate transaction. If those two practice areas weren't under one roof, we might not have been able to get to this outcome."

CTM Legal Group handles matters across commercial litigation, consumer law, real estate, landlord-tenant disputes, and numerous other practice areas, serving individuals and businesses throughout the Chicago area and beyond.