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  Your Guide to Landlord-Tenant Law
  
  Landlord-Tenant Law
  
  At some point during their lives the majority of individuals will be involved with the rental of realty, either as proprietor or occupant. Laws that affect proprietors and renters can vary substantially from city to city. This handout provides basic details about being an occupant in Illinois. You must seek advice from an attorney or your municipality or county as they might offer you with greater security under the law.
  
  Tenancy Agreement
  
  The relationship in between proprietor and tenant develops from an arrangement, composed or oral, by which one celebration occupies the real estate of another with the owner's permission in return for the payment of specific amount as rent.
  
  Written Agreement: Most tenancies remain in writing and are called a lease. No particular words are essential to create a lease, however normally the regards to a lease include a description of the genuine estate, the length of the arrangement, the quantity of the rent, and the time of payment. TIP: You need to put your arrangement in composing to avoid future misconceptions.
  
  Provisions in a lease contract that protect a proprietor from liability for damages to individuals or residential or commercial property brought on by the carelessness of the property manager are considered as being against public policy and are for that reason unenforceable. Certain towns and counties have other constraints and restriction on certain lease terms, so you should consult with a lawyer or your town or county.
  
  Oral Agreement: If a tenancy contract is not in composing, the regard to the contract will, typically, be thought about a month-to-month occupancy. The duration is normally identified by the frequency of the rental payments. For instance: week to week, month to month, or year to year. Although the terms of an oral lease may be hard to figure out, a party might be bound to the regards to an oral arrangement simply as much as a written one.
  
  Termination of the Lease or Tenancy Agreement
  
  If a lease is not for a specific term, it may be ended by either celebration with proper notice.
  
  - For year-to-year occupancies, other than a lease of farmland, either party may terminate the lease by giving 60 days of written notice at any time within the 4 months preceding the last 60 days of the lease.
• A week-to-week tenancy may be terminated by either celebration by providing 7 days of written notification to the other party.
• Farm leases typically run for one year. Customarily, they begin and end in March of each year. Notice to end should be offered at least four months before the end of the term.
• In all other lease arrangements for a duration of less than one year, a celebration must give one month of written notification. Any notice offered need to require termination on the last day of that rental period.
• The lease may likewise have stated requirements and timeframe for termination of the lease.
• In specific municipalities and counties, landlords are needed to offer more than the above mentioned notice duration for termination. You should speak with an attorney or your municipality or county.
  
  If the lease does mention a specific expiration or termination date, no termination notification is required. Understand that your lease may likewise need notice of termination in a particular type or a greater notice period than the minimum needed by law, if any. Landlords need to note that no matter what the lease requires or specifies, you may be required to offer more than the notice period specified in the lease for termination and in composing. You must speak with an attorney or your municipality or county.
  
  Termination of a month-to-month tenancy typically just needs one month of notification by tenant and a property owner is required to serve a composed notice of termination of occupancy on the occupant (see Service on Demand section listed below). In certain towns and counties, landlords are needed to provide more than 1 month of notification, so you must seek advice from speak with a lawyer or your town or county.
  
  Renewal of the Lease or Tenancy Agreement, Rental Increases
  
  Generally, a lease may be restored at any time by oral or written arrangement of the celebrations. If a lease term ends and the proprietor accepts lease following the expiration of the term, the lease term instantly ends up being month-to-month based on the exact same terms stated in the lease.
  
  The lease might require a specific notification and timeframe for restoring the lease. You should examine your lease to confirm such requirements. Landlords and tenants must note that no matter what the lease requires or specifies, proprietors might likewise have restrictions on how early they can require renewal of a lease by a tenant and are needed to put such in writing. You ought to seek advice from an attorney or your municipality or county.
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  Month-to-month tenancies immediately renew from month to month till ended by either landlord or tenant.
  
  Unless there is a composed lease, a proprietor can raise the lease by any quantity by providing the occupant notice: Seven days of notification for a week-to-week tenancy, thirty days of notice for a month-to-month tenancy, and 90 days of notice for mobile home parks. In specific towns and counties, property managers are required to provide more than seven or thirty days of notice of a rental increase, so you need to speak with speak with a lawyer or your town or county.
  
  Eviction, Termination of Tenants Right to Possession
  
  In Illinois, a landlord does not have a right to self-help and need to submit an eviction to remove a renter or occupant from the premises.
  
  Five-Day Notice. The most common breach of a lease is for non-payment of rent. In this case the property owner must serve a five-day notification upon the overdue occupant unless the lease requires more than 5 days of notification. Five days after such notice is served, the property manager might start expulsion proceedings against the renter. If, nevertheless, the renter pays the complete quantity of rent required in the five-day notification within those five days, the proprietor may not continue with an eviction. The landlord is not required, however, to accept rent that is less than the exact quantity due. If the property owner accepts a tender of a lower quantity of lease, it may affect the rights to proceed under the notice.
  
  10-Day Notice. If a property owner wants to terminate a lease since of an infraction of the lease agreement by the occupant, besides for non-payment of rent, he or she need to serve 10 days of composed notification upon the occupant before expulsion proceedings can start, unless the lease requires more than 10 days of notification. Acceptance of rent after such notice is a waiver by the landlord of the right to terminate the lease unless the breach experienced is a continuing breach.
  
  Holdover. If an occupant remains beyond the lease expiration date, typically, a property manager might submit an expulsion without having to very first serve a notification on the renter. However, the regards to the lease or in certain municipalities or counties, a property manager is required to offer a notification of non-renewal to the tenant, so you ought to seek advice from an attorney or your municipality or county.
  
  Service as needed Notice
  
  The five-day, 10-day, or termination of month-to-month occupancy notices might be served upon occupant by providing a composed or printed copy to the tenant, leaving the very same with some person above the age of 13 years who lives at the celebration's house, or sending a copy of the notification to the party by licensed or signed up mail with a return receipt from the addressee. If nobody remains in the real ownership of the facilities, then posting notice on the facilities is enough.
  
  Subletting or Assigning the Lease
  
  Often, composed leases forbid the occupant from subletting the properties without the written consent of the landlord. Such permission can not be unreasonably withheld, but the restriction is enforceable under the law. If there is no such restriction, then an occupant might sublease or designate their lease to another. In such cases, nevertheless, the tenant will stay responsible to the property owner unless the property manager launches the original occupant. A breach of the sublease will not alter the initial relationship in between the property owner and renter.
  
  Breach by Landlord, Tenant Remedies
  
  If the proprietor has actually breached the lease by failing to satisfy their duties under the lease, certain remedies emerge in favor of the tenant:
  
  - The occupant might take legal action against the proprietor for damages sustained as an outcome of the breach.
• If a property owner fails to maintain a rented house in a habitable condition, the renter might be able to leave the facilities and terminate the lease under the theory of "constructive expulsion."
• The failure of a proprietor to keep a rented house in a livable condition or comply considerably with regional housing codes may be a breach of the property owner's "implied service warranty of habitability" (independent of any written lease arrangements or oral guarantees), which the occupant may assert as a defense to an expulsion based on the non-payment of lease or a claim for reduction in the rental value of the properties. However, breach by landlord does not immediately entitle an occupant to keep rent or a reduction in the rental worth. The responsibility to pay lease continues as long as the tenant stays in the leased premises and to assert this defense successfully, the renter will need to reveal that their damages arising from proprietor's breach of this "implied guarantee" equivalent or go beyond the lease declared due.
  
  A proprietor's breach and tenant's damages may be challenging to prove. Because of the limited and technical nature of these guidelines, occupants should be exceptionally cautious in withholding rent and ought to most likely do so only after speaking with a lawyer.
  
  Please note that specific towns or counties attend to specific commitments and requirements that the property owner should perform. If a landlord stops working to abide by such commitments or requirements, the renter might have additional solutions for such failure. You should seek advice from an attorney or your municipality or county.
  
  Breach by the Tenant, Landlord Remedies
  
  In addition to termination for certain breaches by occupant, a landlord also has the following remedies:
  
  If lease is not paid, the property manager may: (1) demand the lease due or to become due in the future and (2) end the lease and gather any past lease due. Under specific circumstances in the occasion of non-payment of lease the property manager may hold the furniture and individual residential or commercial property of the renter up until past lease is paid by the occupant.
  
  If a renter stops working to leave the leased facility at the end of the lease term, the tenant might end up being liable for double lease for the duration of holdover if the holdover is deemed to be willful. The occupant can likewise be kicked out.
  
  If the occupant harms the facilities, the landlord might sue for the repair work of such damages.
  
  Please note that particular municipalities or counties offer specific commitments and requirements that the occupant should satisfy. If a tenant fails to abide by such responsibilities or requirements, the proprietor may have additional solutions for such failure. You should talk to a lawyer or your municipality or county.
  
  Discrimination
  
  Under the federal Fair Housing Act and Illinois law, it is illegal for a landlord to discriminate in the leasing of a home home, flat, or apartment or condo against prospective occupants who have children under the age of 14. It is also illegal for a property owner to victimize a tenant on the basis of race, religious beliefs, sex, nationwide origin, source of income, sexual origination, gender identity, or disability.
  
  Down Payment, Move-in Fee
  
  Down payment. An occupant can be needed to deposit with the property owner an amount of to inhabiting the residential or commercial property. This is usually referred to as a down payment. This cash is deemed to be security for any damage to the properties or non-payment of lease. The down payment does not relieve the renter of the responsibility to pay the last month's rent or for damage caused to the premises. It should be returned to the renter upon vacating the properties if no damage has actually been done beyond normal wear and tear and the lease is completely paid.
  
  If a property manager stops working to return the security deposit immediately, the tenant can sue to recover the part of the security deposit to which the tenant is entitled. In some municipalities or counties and certain scenarios under state law, when a proprietor wrongfully withholds a renter's security deposit the renter might have the ability to recover additional damages and lawyers' charges. You need to consult with a lawyer.
  
  Generally, a property owner who gets a down payment may not keep any part of that deposit as payment for residential or commercial property damage unless he provides to the renter, within 30 days of the date the tenant abandons, a statement of damage apparently brought on by the renter and the estimated or real expense of fixing or changing each product on that declaration. If no such declaration is provided within thirty days, the property owner must return the security deposit completely within 45 days of the date the occupant left.
  
  If a structure consists of 25 or more property systems, the proprietor should also pay interest on the deposit from the date it was paid, if held more than 67 months. Interest is computed at the rate paid by the biggest bank in Illinois, as identified by overall assets, on a passbook security account.
  
  The above statements concerning security deposits are based upon state law. However, some towns or counties might impose additional commitments. For example, Cook County, Evanston, Chicago, and Oak Park all have additional requirements that a property owner need to adhere to when taking down payment and offer high penalties when a landlord fails to comply.
  
  Move-in Fee. In addition to or as an option to a down payment, a landlord might charge a move-in cost. Generally, there are no specific constraints on the amount of a move-in fee, however, specific towns or counties do offer limitations. TIP: A move-in cost needs to be nonrefundable, otherwise it could be considered to be a security deposit.
  
  Landlord and renter matters can end up being complex. Both property manager and tenant must speak with a lawyer for support with particular issues. For more details about your rights and responsibilities as a renter, consisting of specific landlord-tenant laws in your municipality or county, contact your regional 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
  
  Prepared by the Illinois State Bar Association's Real Estate Law Section (2024 )
  
  This pamphlet is prepared and released by the Illinois State Bar Association as a civil service. Every effort has been made to supply precise information at the time of publication.