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  Your Guide to Landlord-Tenant Law
  
  Landlord-Tenant Law
  
  At some point throughout their lives many people will be included with the rental of genuine estate, either as landlord or tenant. Laws that impact landlords and renters can vary considerably from city to city. This handout provides basic details about being a renter in Illinois. You should consult with a lawyer or your municipality or county as they may offer you with greater protection under the law.
  
  Tenancy Agreement
  
  The relationship in between property manager and occupant emerges from a contract, composed or oral, by which one party inhabits the property of another with the owner's authorization in return for the payment of certain amount as rent.
  
  Written Agreement: Most tenancies are in writing and are called a lease. No specific words are needed to produce a lease, but generally the terms of a lease consist of a description of the property, the length of the arrangement, the amount of the rent, and the time of payment. TIP: You should put your agreement in writing to prevent future misunderstandings.
  
  Provisions in a lease arrangement that secure a property owner from liability for damages to persons or residential or commercial property triggered by the neglect of the landlord are viewed as being versus public law and are for that reason unenforceable. Certain towns and counties have other restrictions and restriction on specific lease terms, so you should speak with an attorney or your town or county.
  
  Oral Agreement: If a tenancy agreement is not in writing, the regard to the contract will, typically, be thought about a month-to-month occupancy. The duration is usually 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 might be hard to identify, a party may be bound to the regards to an oral arrangement simply as much as a composed one.
  
  Termination of the Lease or Tenancy Agreement
  
  If a lease is not for a particular term, it may be ended by either party with appropriate notification.
  
  - For year-to-year tenancies, besides a lease of farmland, either party may terminate the lease by offering 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 ended by either celebration by giving 7 days of composed notification to the other celebration.
• Farm leases typically run for one year. Customarily, they start and end in March of each year. Notice to terminate need to be provided a minimum of 4 months before the end of the term.
• In all other lease arrangements for a period of less than one year, a celebration must offer 1 month of composed notice. Any notice provided must require termination on the last day of that rental period.
• The lease may also have actually stated requirements and timeframe for termination of the lease.
• In certain municipalities and counties, property owners are needed to give more than the above mentioned notification period for termination. You need to seek advice from a lawyer or your town or county.
  
  If the lease does state a specific expiration or termination date, no termination notification is required. Know that your lease may also require notification of termination in a specific form or a greater notice duration than the minimum needed by law, if any. Landlords must keep in mind that no matter what the lease needs or mentions, you might be to give more than the notification duration stated in the lease for termination and in composing. You should consult with an attorney or your town or county.
  
  Termination of a month-to-month occupancy normally just needs thirty days of notification by occupant and a landlord is required to serve a written notice of termination of occupancy on the tenant (see Service as needed area listed below). In specific municipalities and counties, property owners are required to offer more than 30 days of notice, so you need to 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 restored at any time by oral or written contract of the parties. If a lease term expires and the proprietor accepts lease following the expiration of the term, the lease term automatically becomes month-to-month based upon the very same terms set forth in the lease.
  
  The lease might need a particular notification and timeframe for restoring the lease. You ought to evaluate your lease to confirm such requirements. Landlords and tenants should note that no matter what the lease needs or mentions, landlords might also have constraints on how early they can need renewal of a lease by an occupant and are needed to put such in writing. You need to seek advice from with a lawyer or your municipality or county.
  
  Month-to-month occupancies automatically restore from month to month till terminated by either landlord or tenant.
  
  Unless there is a written lease, a property owner can raise the lease by any quantity by providing the occupant notice: Seven days of notice for a week-to-week tenancy, 30 days of notification for a month-to-month tenancy, and 90 days of notification for mobile home parks. In specific municipalities and counties, landlords are required to give more than 7 or thirty days of notification of a rental increase, so you should speak with talk to a lawyer or your town or county.
  
  Eviction, Termination of Tenants Right to Possession
  
  In Illinois, a proprietor does not have a right to self-help and need to submit an eviction to eliminate a tenant or occupant from the premises.
  
  Five-Day Notice. The most typical breach of a lease is for non-payment of lease. In this case the property manager need to serve a five-day notice upon the delinquent tenant unless the lease requires more than 5 days of notification. Five days after such notification is served, the landlord may commence expulsion proceedings versus the renter. If, however, the tenant pays the total of rent demanded in the five-day notification within those 5 days, the landlord may not proceed with an eviction. The property owner is not required, however, to accept rent that is less than the exact quantity due. If the proprietor accepts a tender of a lesser amount of lease, it might affect the rights to proceed under the notice.
  
  10-Day Notice. If a property manager wants to terminate a lease since of a violation of the lease contract by the occupant, other than for non-payment of rent, she or he should serve 10 days of composed notice upon the occupant before expulsion proceedings can start, unless the lease requires more than 10 days of notification. Acceptance of lease after such notice is a waiver by the property manager of the right to terminate the lease unless the breach suffered is a continuing breach.
  
  Holdover. If a renter stays beyond the lease expiration date, normally, a property owner may submit an expulsion without having to very first serve a notice on the renter. However, the regards to the lease or in certain towns or counties, a landlord is needed to offer a notice of non-renewal to the occupant, so you should talk to a lawyer or your town or county.
  
  Service as needed Notice
  
  The five-day, 10-day, or termination of month-to-month tenancy notices may be served upon renter by delivering a composed or printed copy to the occupant, leaving the very same with some person above the age of 13 years who lives at the celebration's home, or sending a copy of the notice to the celebration by licensed or signed up mail with a return receipt from the addressee. If no one remains in the actual belongings of the premises, then posting notice on the properties is sufficient.
  
  Subletting or Assigning the Lease
  
  Often, written leases prohibit the tenant from subletting the facilities without the written approval of the property manager. Such approval can not be unreasonably kept, however the prohibition is enforceable under the law. If there is no such restriction, then an occupant may sublease or appoint their lease to another. In such cases, nevertheless, the renter will remain responsible to the property owner unless the property manager releases the initial renter. A breach of the sublease will not change the initial relationship in between the proprietor and renter.
  
  Breach by Landlord, Tenant Remedies
  
  If the property owner has breached the lease by failing to satisfy their responsibilities under the lease, particular treatments arise in favor of the tenant:
  
  - The tenant may sue the landlord for damages sustained as a result of the breach.
• If a landlord fails to preserve a leased house in a habitable condition, the occupant may have the ability to abandon the facilities and end the lease under the theory of "constructive eviction."
• The failure of a landlord to keep a leased residence in a livable condition or comply considerably with local housing codes might be a breach of the proprietor's "implied guarantee of habitability" (independent of any composed lease provisions or oral pledges), which the tenant may assert as a defense to an expulsion based upon the non-payment of rent or a claim for reduction in the rental value of the properties. However, breach by property owner does not instantly entitle a tenant to keep lease or a reduction in the rental worth. The obligation to pay lease continues as long as the occupant remains in the leased premises and to assert this defense effectively, the renter will have to reveal that their damages arising from property owner's breach of this "implied service warranty" equivalent or surpass the lease declared due.
  
  A property owner's breach and renter's damages might be difficult to prove. Because of the restricted and technical nature of these rules, occupants ought to be very mindful in keeping lease and should probably do so only after consulting a lawyer.
  
  Please note that certain towns or counties supply for particular responsibilities and requirements that the proprietor should perform. If a landlord stops working to adhere to such commitments or requirements, the occupant may have additional solutions for such failure. You ought to speak with a lawyer or your town or county.
  
  Breach by the Tenant, Landlord Remedies
  
  In addition to termination for particular breaches by tenant, a property manager also has the following remedies:
  
  If rent is not paid, the landlord might: (1) demand the lease due or to become due in the future and (2) end the lease and gather any past lease due. Under certain situations in the event of non-payment of lease the property manager may hold the furnishings and individual residential or commercial property of the renter till previous lease is paid by the tenant.
  
  If a tenant stops working to leave the rented facility at the end of the lease term, the renter might become liable for double lease for the period of holdover if the holdover is deemed to be willful. The tenant can likewise be forced out.
  
  If the renter damages the facilities, the proprietor may demand the repair of such damages.
  
  Please note that specific towns or counties offer certain obligations and requirements that the occupant should satisfy. If a renter fails to comply with such commitments or requirements, the property owner may have extra treatments for such failure. You need to speak with a lawyer or your municipality or county.
  
  Discrimination
  
  Under the federal Fair Housing Act and Illinois law, it is unlawful for a proprietor to discriminate in the leasing of a home house, flat, or home against prospective renters who have children under the age of 14. It is also illegal for a landlord to victimize a renter on the basis of race, faith, sex, nationwide origin, income, sexual origination, gender identity, or impairment.
  
  Security Deposits, Move-in Fee
  
  Security Deposit. A renter can be required to deposit with the property manager an amount of money prior to occupying the residential or commercial property. This is generally referred to as a security deposit. This money is considered to be security for any damage to the properties or non-payment of rent. The down payment does not alleviate the occupant of the duty to pay the last month's lease or for damage caused to the premises. It must be returned to the renter upon abandoning the properties if no damage has been done beyond typical wear and tear and the rent is fully paid.
  
  If a landlord fails to return the security deposit without delay, the occupant can take legal action against to recuperate the portion of the security deposit to which the renter is entitled. In some municipalities or counties and certain circumstances under state law, when a landlord wrongfully withholds an occupant's down payment the tenant may be able to recover additional damages and attorneys' costs. You ought to seek advice from a legal representative.
  
  Generally, a property manager who gets a down payment may not withhold any part of that deposit as payment for residential or commercial property damage unless he furnishes to the tenant, within 1 month of the date the occupant vacates, a declaration of damage supposedly caused by the tenant and the approximated or actual cost of repairing or changing each item on that declaration. If no such statement is furnished within 1 month, the proprietor should return the security deposit completely within 45 days of the date the occupant abandoned.
  
  If a structure consists of 25 or more residential units, the property manager 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 largest bank in Illinois, as determined by overall possessions, on a passbook security account.
  
  The above declarations concerning security deposits are based on state law. However, some municipalities or counties may enforce additional responsibilities. For instance, Cook County, Evanston, Chicago, and Oak Park all have additional requirements that a property manager should abide by when taking down payment and supply steep charges when a proprietor stops working to comply.
  
  Move-in Fee. In addition to or as an option to a security deposit, a property owner may charge a move-in fee. Generally, there are no specific constraints on the quantity of a move-in charge, nevertheless, specific municipalities or counties do supply limitations. TIP: A move-in fee should be nonrefundable, otherwise it could be considered to be a down payment.
  
  Landlord and tenant matters can end up being complex. Both property manager and renter need to speak with a lawyer for support with particular problems. To find out more about your rights and duties as a tenant, consisting of specific landlord-tenant laws in your town or county, call your regional bar association, or visit 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
  realestateagentsites.com
  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 actually been made to provide precise information at the time of publication.