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Your Guide to Landlord-Tenant Law

Landlord-Tenant Law

Eventually during their lives the majority of people will be involved with the rental of real estate, either as property manager or occupant. Laws that affect property managers and renters can vary considerably from city to city. This handout provides basic information about being a renter in Illinois. You ought to seek advice from a lawyer or your town or county as they may offer you with greater defense under the law.

Tenancy Agreement

The relationship in between proprietor and renter emerges from an arrangement, written or oral, by which one celebration inhabits the property of another with the owner's approval in return for the payment of specific quantity as lease.

Written Agreement: Most occupancies are in composing and are called a lease. No specific words are essential to develop a lease, but typically the terms of a lease include a description of the property, the length of the contract, the quantity of the rent, and the time of payment. TIP: You must put your contract in writing to avoid future misunderstandings.

Provisions in a lease agreement that safeguard a property manager from liability for damages to individuals or residential or commercial property caused by the carelessness of the proprietor are viewed as protesting public law and are therefore unenforceable. Certain towns and counties have other limitations and restriction on specific lease terms, so you must speak with a lawyer or your town or county.

Oral Agreement: If an occupancy contract is not in writing, the term of the agreement will, typically, be considered a month-to-month tenancy. The duration is generally determined 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 may be hard to identify, a party might be bound to the terms of an oral contract simply as much as a written one.

Termination of the Lease or Tenancy Agreement

If a lease is not for a particular term, it might be ended by either celebration with proper notice.

- For year-to-year occupancies, besides a lease of farmland, either celebration might end the lease by offering 60 days of written notice at any time within the four months preceding the last 60 days of the lease.
- A week-to-week occupancy might be ended by either celebration by giving 7 days of written notice to the other celebration.
- Farm leases usually run for one year. Customarily, they begin and end in March of each year. Notice to terminate need to be given a minimum of 4 months before the end of the term.
- In all other lease agreements for a duration of less than one year, a party should provide 1 month of written notification. Any notice given need to require termination on the last day of that rental period.
- The lease might also have specified requirements and timeframe for termination of the lease.
- In certain municipalities and counties, property managers are required to provide more than the above mentioned notification duration for termination. You ought to speak with an attorney or your municipality or county.

If the lease does mention a particular expiration or termination date, no termination notification is essential. Understand that your lease may also require notice of termination in a specific type or a greater notice duration than the minimum needed by law, if any. Landlords must note that no matter what the lease needs or mentions, you might be needed to provide more than the notification duration mentioned in the lease for termination and in composing. You must speak with a lawyer or your town or county.

Termination of a month-to-month tenancy generally just needs 1 month of notice by renter and a proprietor is required to serve a written notification of termination of occupancy on the occupant (see Service on Demand area listed below). In certain towns and counties, property managers are required to give more than thirty days of notification, so you must seek advice from seek advice from an attorney or your municipality or county.

Renewal of the Lease or Tenancy Agreement, Rental Increases

Generally, a lease may be restored at any time by oral or written contract of the parties. If a lease term ends and the landlord accepts lease following the expiration of the term, the lease term instantly becomes month-to-month based on the exact same terms set forth in the lease.

The lease may require a particular notification and timeframe for restoring the lease. You ought to review your lease to confirm such requirements. Landlords and tenants need to note that no matter what the lease requires or states, property owners might also have limitations on how early they can require renewal of a lease by a tenant and are required to put such in writing. You must seek advice from an attorney or your town or county.

Month-to-month occupancies immediately renew from month to month up until terminated by either landlord or occupant.

Unless there is a written lease, a property owner can raise the lease by any amount by providing the tenant notification: Seven days of notice for a week-to-week occupancy, 30 days of notice for a month-to-month occupancy, and 90 days of notification for mobile home parks. In particular municipalities and counties, proprietors are required to provide more than 7 or 1 month of notification of a rental increase, so you need to seek advice from speak with a lawyer or your town or county.

Eviction, Termination of Tenants Right to Possession

In Illinois, a property manager does not have a right to self-help and should submit an expulsion to get rid of an occupant or occupant from the premises.

Five-Day Notice. The most common breach of a lease is for non-payment of lease. In this case the property owner need to serve a five-day notice upon the delinquent tenant unless the lease requires more than 5 days of notice. Five days after such notice is served, the proprietor may start eviction proceedings against the tenant. If, however, the renter pays the total of rent demanded in the five-day notification within those five days, the proprietor might not proceed with an eviction. The property manager is not required, however, to accept rent that is less than the specific amount due. If the property manager accepts a tender of a lesser quantity of rent, it might impact the rights to proceed under the notification.

10-Day Notice. If a landlord wants to end a lease due to the fact that of an infraction of the lease contract by the renter, other than for non-payment of rent, he or she must serve 10 days of written notice upon the occupant before expulsion proceedings can begin, unless the lease requires more than 10 days of notification. Acceptance of rent after such notice is a waiver by the property owner of the right to end the lease unless the breach grumbled of is a continuing breach.

Holdover. If a renter stays beyond the lease expiration date, normally, a proprietor may submit an expulsion without needing to first serve a notice on the renter. However, the terms of the lease or in certain towns or counties, a landlord is required to offer a notice of non-renewal to the renter, so you ought to speak with a lawyer or your municipality or county.

Service on Demand Notice

The five-day, 10-day, or termination of month-to-month occupancy notifications might be served upon occupant by providing a written or printed copy to the tenant, leaving the exact same with some individual above the age of 13 years who lives at the celebration's home, or sending out a copy of the notice to the party by licensed or registered mail with a return receipt from the addressee. If no one is in the actual ownership of the facilities, then publishing notification on the properties is enough.

Subletting or Assigning the Lease

Often, composed leases forbid the occupant from subletting the properties without the written approval of the property owner. Such authorization can not be unreasonably withheld, but the restriction is enforceable under the law. If there is no such prohibition, then a renter might sublease or assign their lease to another. In such cases, nevertheless, the renter will stay responsible to the proprietor unless the property owner releases the original occupant. A breach of the sublease will not alter the preliminary relationship in between the proprietor and occupant.

Breach by Landlord, Tenant Remedies

If the property manager has actually breached the lease by stopping working to fulfill their duties under the lease, particular remedies occur in favor of the occupant:

- The tenant may take legal action against the property owner for damages sustained as an outcome of the breach.
- If a landlord stops working to preserve a leased home in a habitable condition, the tenant may have the ability to vacate the properties and end the lease under the theory of "useful expulsion."
- The failure of a property manager to keep a leased home in a livable condition or comply substantially with regional housing codes may be a breach of the proprietor's "suggested warranty of habitability" (independent of any composed lease arrangements or oral promises), which the renter may 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 properties. However, breach by property owner does not immediately entitle a tenant to keep lease or a decrease in the rental value. The commitment to pay lease continues as long as the tenant stays in the leased facilities and to assert this defense successfully, the occupant will need to show that their damages resulting from proprietor's breach of this "implied guarantee" equivalent or go beyond the rent claimed due.

A proprietor's breach and occupant's damages might be challenging to prove. Because of the restricted and technical nature of these guidelines, occupants should be extremely cautious in keeping lease and must probably do so just after speaking with a lawyer.

Please note that certain towns or counties offer for specific responsibilities and requirements that the property owner must carry out. If a property owner stops working to comply with such commitments or requirements, the tenant may have extra remedies for such failure. You should seek advice from with a lawyer or your town or county.

Breach by the Tenant, Landlord Remedies

In addition to termination for specific breaches by tenant, a landlord also has the following remedies:

If rent is not paid, the property manager might: (1) demand the lease due or to end up being due in the future and (2) terminate the lease and collect any past lease due. Under certain circumstances in the occasion of non-payment of lease the property owner might hold the furnishings and individual residential or commercial property of the occupant till past rent is paid by the renter.

If an occupant fails to vacate the rented facility at the end of the lease term, the renter might end up being responsible for double rent for the duration of holdover if the holdover is deemed to be willful. The tenant can likewise be evicted.

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

Please note that specific municipalities or counties offer for particular commitments and requirements that the occupant need to satisfy. If a renter fails to adhere to such commitments or requirements, the landlord may have additional treatments for such failure. You should talk to a lawyer or your town or county.

Discrimination

Under the federal Fair Housing Act and Illinois law, it is unlawful for a property owner to discriminate in the leasing of a home house, flat, or apartment or condo versus potential tenants who have children under the age of 14. It is likewise illegal for a proprietor to discriminate versus a tenant on the basis of race, religious beliefs, sex, nationwide origin, income source, sexual origination, gender identity, or special needs.

Security Deposits, Move-in Fee

Down payment. A tenant can be required to deposit with the landlord a sum of cash prior to occupying the residential or commercial property. This is generally referred to as a security deposit. This cash is considered to be security for any damage to the facilities or non-payment of lease. The down payment does not alleviate the renter of the task to pay the last month's rent or for damage caused to the properties. It needs to be gone back to the renter upon abandoning the properties if no damage has been done beyond typical wear and tear and the lease is fully paid.

If a landlord stops working to return the security deposit promptly, the occupant can take legal action against to recover the part of the security deposit to which the occupant is entitled. In some towns or counties and specific scenarios under state law, when a proprietor wrongfully keeps an occupant's down payment the occupant might have the ability to recover extra damages and lawyers' costs. You must speak with an attorney.

Generally, a property manager who gets a security deposit might not withhold any part of that deposit as settlement for residential or commercial property damage unless he furnishes to the renter, within one month of the date the tenant vacates, a declaration of damage apparently caused by the occupant and the approximated or real cost of fixing or replacing each item on that statement. If no such statement is provided within one month, the proprietor should return the security deposit in complete within 45 days of the date the occupant abandoned.

If a building contains 25 or more property systems, the proprietor 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 determined by total possessions, on a passbook security account.

The above statements concerning down payment are based on state law. However, some towns or counties might impose additional responsibilities. For example, Cook County, Evanston, Chicago, and Oak Park all have extra requirements that a proprietor should abide by when taking down payment and provide steep charges when a landlord stops working to comply.

Move-in Fee. In addition to or as an alternative to a security deposit, a property owner may charge a move-in fee. Generally, there are no particular constraints on the quantity of a move-in fee, nevertheless, certain towns or counties do offer limitations. TIP: A move-in fee needs to be nonrefundable, otherwise it could be deemed to be a down payment.

Landlord and tenant matters can become complex. Both property manager and renter must speak with a lawyer for help with specific issues. To learn more about your rights and obligations as a tenant, including particular landlord-tenant laws in your municipality or county, call your local 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

Prepared by the Illinois State Bar Association's Real Estate Law Section (2024 )

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