Sure, tenants and landlords get into disagreements all the time.
But when a tenant makes his landlord fight an $800,000 legal battle, tries to take his job -- and then the landlord becomes the mayor of the third-largest city in America -- it might be time to consider moving out.
Rob Halpin is doing just that: the man who rents the Emanuel family home in Chicago's Ravenswood neighborhood will be looking for a new place to live when his lease is up at the end of June, according to an Associated Press report.
Halpin threw gas on the fire of the Emanuel residency debate back in September, by refusing to move out of the Emanuels' house when Emanuel decided to run for mayor of Chicago. That forced the candidate to live out of a rented condo, and prompted opponents to ask if he qualified to run for mayor without a place to live in the city.
The dispute over Emanuel's residency would last for months, and ultimately be decided in the state Supreme Court just weeks before the election. According to campaign finance reports, Emanuel spent around $800,000 in legal fees fighting off the challenge.
Meanwhile, as if he hadn't needled his landlord enough, Halpin made the surprising decision that he too would run for Chicago mayor. He dropped the notion after only a few days, but it was enough to draw more media attention to the residency debate.
When Emanuel won the mayor's race, Halpin seemed to think he might be renewing his lease at the Emanuel house. "If they wanted us to stay on we would consider it," he told the Chicago Sun-Times at the time. "There aren't any hard feelings on our part."
That "if" appears to have fallen through, however. "We're looking at some places to move," he said to the Chicago Tribune on Monday. "We will be moving."
When asked why he was leaving, he said the lease prohibited him from giving any more information to the media -- an odd final turn for a case that's been so glaringly public.