Evicting Without a Lease or Rent

My question involves an eviction in the state of: Illinois

A while back we allowed a couple of people to live in our old house as a favor, there was no lease or contract...However, the only rule was that they pay the utilities on time which is a sum of ~200$ a month.
They have been slacking really hard on the payments of the utilities and we have had to pay out of pocket until they decided to pay.

We have been verbally warning them for about a month now that they need to leave the premise immediately, however they never pulled through on it. The house is still under our name, they have no lease, and they were only staying for about ~4 months.

The only written proof we have is text messages that were saved that are about a month old. Could we legally enter the premise without any permission of the tenants, remove their belongings, and change the locks?

Or how might we go about this process?

Quote:

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Could we legally enter the premise without any permission of the tenants, remove their belongings, and change the locks?

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Nope. "Self-help" evictions are illegal in all 50 states.

What you have is a tenant at will situation, also known as month to month tenants. To terminate the arrangement, you'll need to give them 30 days WRITTEN notice to get out. If they hold over after that, you'll need to initiate formal eviction proceedings through your local court.

Read the guide to landlord tenant law here, especially the materials on eviction, then download the forms package.