Your Guide to Landlord-Tenant Law

Need Legal Help? Legal Information Judicial Information Civics Education

Site Search

Your Guide to Landlord-Tenant Law

Landlord-Tenant Law

Eventually during their lives many people will be involved with the leasing of realty, either as property manager or renter. Laws that impact property owners and occupants can vary significantly from city to city. This handout offers basic information about being a renter in Illinois. You need to consult with a lawyer or your municipality or county as they may provide you with higher defense under the law.

Tenancy Agreement

The relationship between property owner and tenant emerges from an arrangement, written or oral, by which one party inhabits the real estate of another with the owner's consent in return for the payment of particular quantity as lease.

Written Agreement: Most tenancies remain in writing and are called a lease. No particular words are needed to produce a lease, however generally the terms of a lease include a description of the realty, the length of the contract, the quantity of the rent, and the time of payment. TIP: You should put your agreement in composing to prevent future misconceptions.

Provisions in a lease agreement that protect a proprietor from liability for damages to individuals or residential or commercial property triggered by the carelessness of the property owner are considered as protesting public policy and are therefore unenforceable. Certain municipalities and counties have other limitations and prohibition on certain lease terms, so you ought to speak with a lawyer or your town or county.

Oral Agreement: If a tenancy arrangement is not in composing, the term of the agreement will, normally, be considered a month-to-month occupancy. The duration is typically figured out by the frequency of the rental payments. For example: week to week, month to month, or year to year. Although the regards to an oral lease might be to determine, a celebration may be bound to the regards to an oral contract just as much as a composed one.

Termination of the Lease or Tenancy Agreement

If a lease is not for a specific term, it may be terminated by either party with appropriate notification.

- For year-to-year occupancies, aside from a lease of farmland, either party might terminate the lease by providing 60 days of written notification at any time within the 4 months preceding the last 60 days of the lease.
A week-to-week occupancy may be ended by either party by giving seven days of composed notification to the other celebration.
Farm leases usually run for one year. Customarily, they start and end in March of each year. Notice to end must be given at least four months before the end of the term.
In all other lease arrangements for a period of less than one year, a celebration must give 30 days of written notification. Any notification provided ought to require termination on the last day of that rental duration.
The lease might also have stated requirements and timeframe for termination of the lease.
In specific towns and counties, property managers are required to give more than the above stated notification duration for termination. You need to speak with an attorney or your town or county.

If the lease does specify a particular expiration or termination date, no termination notification is needed. Be conscious that your lease might also need notification of termination in a particular type or a higher notice duration than the minimum required by law, if any. Landlords need to note that no matter what the lease requires or specifies, you may be needed to give more than the notice period specified in the lease for termination and in composing. You ought to talk to a lawyer or your town or county.

Termination of a month-to-month occupancy usually just requires 1 month of notice by occupant and a property owner is required to serve a composed notice of termination of tenancy on the occupant (see Service as needed area below). In certain municipalities and counties, proprietors are required to give more than 1 month of notice, so you should seek advice from seek advice from a lawyer or your municipality or county.

Renewal of the Lease or Tenancy Agreement, Rental Increases

Generally, a lease might be renewed at any time by oral or written contract of the celebrations. If a lease term expires and the property manager accepts lease following the expiration of the term, the lease term immediately ends up being month-to-month based on the same terms set forth in the lease.

The lease may need a specific notice and timeframe for renewing the lease. You must evaluate your lease to verify such requirements. Landlords and occupants must note that no matter what the lease needs or states, landlords might likewise have limitations on how early they can need renewal of a lease by a tenant and are required to put such in writing. You must talk to a lawyer or your municipality or county.

Month-to-month tenancies instantly restore from month to month till terminated by either property manager or occupant.

Unless there is a written lease, a proprietor can raise the rent by any quantity by providing the tenant notice: Seven days of notification for a week-to-week occupancy, 1 month of notice for a month-to-month tenancy, and 90 days of notification for mobile home parks. In specific towns and counties, property managers are required to give more than seven or 30 days of notice of a rental boost, so you should consult with speak with a lawyer or your town or county.
homeshiftteam.com
Eviction, Termination of Tenants Right to Possession

In Illinois, a landlord does not have a right to self-help and should submit an expulsion to remove an occupant or resident from the premises.

Five-Day Notice. The most common breach of a lease is for non-payment of lease. In this case the landlord should serve a five-day notification upon the delinquent tenant unless the lease needs more than 5 days of notification. Five days after such notice is served, the property manager may commence expulsion procedures against the renter. If, however, the renter pays the complete amount of rent demanded in the five-day notice within those 5 days, the landlord may not proceed with an expulsion. The proprietor is not required, nevertheless, to accept lease that is less than the specific quantity due. If the property manager accepts a tender of a lower quantity of lease, it may impact the rights to continue under the notification.

10-Day Notice. If a property owner wants to terminate a lease because of an infraction of the lease arrangement by the occupant, other than for non-payment of lease, she or he must serve 10 days of composed notice upon the renter before eviction procedures can start, unless the lease requires more than 10 days of notice. Acceptance of rent after such notification is a waiver by the property manager of the right to end the lease unless the breach grumbled of is a continuing breach.

Holdover. If a renter remains beyond the lease expiration date, normally, a property owner may file an eviction without having to very first serve a notice on the occupant. However, the regards to the lease or in particular towns or counties, a proprietor is required to supply a notification of non-renewal to the tenant, so you ought to consult with an attorney or your town or county.

Service on Demand Notice

The five-day, 10-day, or termination of month-to-month occupancy notices might be served upon tenant by delivering a written or printed copy to the renter, leaving the very same with some individual above the age of 13 years who lives at the party's residence, or sending a copy of the notification to the celebration by accredited or registered mail with a return invoice from the addressee. If nobody remains in the real belongings of the facilities, then publishing notice on the properties is adequate.

Subletting or Assigning the Lease

Often, written leases forbid the occupant from subletting the premises without the composed approval of the property manager. Such permission can not be unreasonably kept, however the prohibition is enforceable under the law. If there is no such prohibition, then a renter may sublease or appoint their lease to another. In such cases, however, the occupant will remain accountable to the property owner unless the property owner releases the original tenant. A breach of the sublease will not change the preliminary relationship between the proprietor and occupant.

Breach by Landlord, Tenant Remedies

If the landlord has actually breached the lease by stopping working to meet their responsibilities under the lease, certain remedies arise in favor of the tenant:

- The renter might sue the property manager for damages sustained as an outcome of the breach.
If a landlord stops working to preserve a rented house in a livable condition, the renter might be able to leave the facilities and end the lease under the theory of "constructive expulsion."
The failure of a proprietor to preserve a rented house in a habitable condition or comply considerably with local housing codes may be a breach of the proprietor's "suggested guarantee of habitability" (independent of any written lease arrangements or oral guarantees), which the occupant might assert as a defense to an eviction based on the non-payment of lease or a claim for reduction in the rental worth of the premises. However, breach by property owner does not automatically entitle a tenant to withhold rent or a reduction in the rental value. The commitment to pay lease continues as long as the renter stays in the leased premises and to assert this defense effectively, the renter will have to reveal that their damages resulting from property manager's breach of this "implied service warranty" equal or exceed the lease declared due.

A proprietor's breach and renter's damages might be hard to prove. Because of the restricted and technical nature of these guidelines, tenants ought to be incredibly mindful in keeping rent and should most likely do so only after speaking with a lawyer.

Please note that certain towns or counties offer particular commitments and requirements that the property manager should carry out. If a proprietor fails to abide by such commitments or requirements, the occupant might have additional solutions for such failure. You need to speak with a lawyer or your municipality or county.

Breach by the Tenant, Landlord Remedies

In addition to termination for certain breaches by renter, a property owner also has the following solutions:

If rent is not paid, the property owner might: (1) sue for the rent due or to end up being due in the future and (2) end the lease and collect any past lease due. Under specific circumstances in the occasion of non-payment of rent the property manager might hold the furniture and personal residential or commercial property of the occupant up until past lease is paid by the occupant.

If an occupant stops working to abandon the leased premise at the end of the lease term, the occupant may become responsible for double lease for the period of holdover if the holdover is deemed to be willful. The renter can also be evicted.

If the occupant harms the properties, the property manager may sue for the repair work of such damages.

Please note that certain towns or counties offer particular commitments and requirements that the tenant need to meet. If an occupant stops working to abide by such commitments or requirements, the property owner may have extra solutions for such failure. You must talk to an attorney or your municipality or county.

Discrimination

Under the federal Fair Housing Act and Illinois law, it is illegal for a property manager to discriminate in the leasing of a residence house, flat, or apartment against potential tenants who have kids under the age of 14. It is also illegal for a property manager to victimize an occupant on the basis of race, religion, sex, nationwide origin, source of earnings, sexual origination, gender identity, or disability.

Security Deposits, Move-in Fee

Security Deposit. An occupant can be required to deposit with the landlord a sum of cash prior to inhabiting the residential or commercial property. This is usually referred to as a security deposit. This money is considered to be security for any damage to the facilities or non-payment of rent. The down payment does not ease the occupant of the responsibility to pay the last month's rent or for damage triggered to the facilities. It needs to be gone back to the tenant upon vacating the properties if no damage has been done beyond regular wear and tear and the lease is fully paid.

If a landlord fails to return the down payment without delay, the tenant can take legal action against to recuperate the part of the down payment to which the renter is entitled. In some municipalities or counties and specific scenarios under state law, when a proprietor wrongfully keeps a renter's security deposit the tenant might be able to recuperate additional damages and attorneys' costs. You must consult with an attorney.

Generally, a property manager who receives a down payment may not withhold any part of that deposit as settlement for residential or commercial property damage unless he provides to the renter, within thirty days of the date the renter leaves, a statement of damage apparently triggered by the renter and the estimated or real cost of repairing or changing each item on that statement. If no such statement is provided within 30 days, the proprietor must return the security deposit in complete within 45 days of the date the occupant left.

If a building consists of 25 or more domestic units, the landlord needs to also pay interest on the deposit from the date it was paid, if held more than 67 months. Interest is determined at the rate paid by the biggest bank in Illinois, as figured out by total possessions, on a passbook security account.

The above statements regarding security deposits are based on state law. However, some towns or counties might impose extra responsibilities. For instance, Cook County, Evanston, Chicago, and Oak Park all have additional requirements that a property owner should comply with when taking security deposits and provide steep charges when a property manager stops working to comply.

Move-in Fee. In addition to or as an option to a security deposit, a proprietor might charge a move-in charge. Generally, there are no specific limitations on the amount of a move-in fee, however, particular municipalities or counties do supply limitations. TIP: A move-in charge should be nonrefundable, otherwise it could be considered to be a security deposit.

Landlord and tenant matters can become complex. Both property manager and occupant ought to seek advice from a lawyer for help with specific problems. For more info about your rights and responsibilities as a renter, consisting of specific landlord-tenant laws in your municipality or county, call your local bar association, or check out the Illinois Tenants Union at www.tenant.org.

Additional Resources

- Illinois Lawyer Finder: isba.org/public/illinoislawyerfinder
Illinois Legal Aid Online (ILAO): illinoislegalaid.org
Illinois Standardized Court Forms: illinoiscourts.gov/ approved-forms.
Illinois Court Help: ilcourthelp.gov.
Illinois Free Legal Answers: il.freelegalanswers.org
architecturelab.net
Prepared by the Illinois State Bar Association's Real Estate Law Section (2024 )

This handout is prepared and published by the Illinois State Bar Association as a civil service. Every effort has been made to offer accurate details at the time of publication.