First off, I'm not a lawyer nor do I play one on TV. The following item arose at a recent school board meeting and, as a taxpayer, I'm independently looking for a tidbit of information.
Approx 13 years ago, a farmer sold his land to the local school district. For sake of argument, lets say he was paid $1M. However, only a portion of his land was used for a new school; his primary residence remained intact and he was allowed to live on the land and farmer the remaining farmland. From what I understand the contract required him to effectively pay rent for continuing to live on the premisis. I do not know the exact verbage of the contract, but the rate depended on tillable acreage (in the event the school district converted more of the land into schools). In any event, past school boards did not enforce the rent portion of the contract, nor did the farmer pay his rent since the inception of the contract. Today's school board wishes to collect all or a portion of the back rent and I'm curious just how far back they can go. One school board member mentioned that the amount due totals approx $80K.
To add an additional wrinkle, the farmer permits his daughter and her family of four to live on the property and use it as their primary residence in the original home. This hasn't made alot of waves in the community yet, but you can imagine how it looks for people to be living on property for 13 years rent-free and property-tax-free (because the school district owns the land) - and have the farmer's grandkids attend schools in the district.
Anyway, the questions are:
(1) is there a such thing as statute of limitations for rent in Illinois as this was part of the original contract (or does this situation fall under "contract law")?
(2) can this be interpreted as a breach of rental contract?
(3) how far back can the school district seek payment for back rent per the contract?
Thanks.

