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Your Guide to Landlord-Tenant Law

Landlord-Tenant Law

Eventually throughout their lives many people will be included with the leasing of property, either as landlord or occupant. Laws that impact proprietors and renters can vary significantly from city to city. This pamphlet provides basic details about being an occupant in Illinois. You ought to talk to a lawyer or your municipality or county as they might supply you with higher protection under the law.

Tenancy Agreement

The relationship in between landlord and occupant emerges from an agreement, composed or oral, by which one celebration occupies the realty of another with the owner's consent in return for the payment of certain quantity as lease.

Written Agreement: Most tenancies remain in writing and are called a lease. No specific words are essential to create a lease, however usually the terms of a lease consist of a description of the realty, the length of the contract, the amount of the lease, and the time of payment. TIP: You must put your contract in writing to prevent future misunderstandings.

Provisions in a lease arrangement that protect a proprietor from liability for damages to persons or residential or commercial property triggered by the neglect of the property owner are viewed as protesting public law and are therefore unenforceable. Certain towns and counties have other constraints and restriction on specific lease terms, so you need to consult with a lawyer or your town or county.

Oral Agreement: If a tenancy agreement is not in composing, the regard to the agreement will, generally, be thought about a month-to-month occupancy. The duration is usually identified 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 challenging to determine, a party may be bound to the regards to an oral arrangement just as much as a composed one.

Termination of the Lease or Tenancy Agreement

If a lease is not for a particular term, it might be terminated by either party with proper notification.

- For year-to-year tenancies, aside from a lease of farmland, either celebration might terminate the lease by offering 60 days of composed notification 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 offering 7 days of written notification to the other party.
- Farm leases usually run for one year. Customarily, they begin and end in March of each year. Notice to terminate should be offered a minimum of four months before the end of the term.
- In all other lease arrangements for a period of less than one year, a party should offer thirty days of written notice. Any notification given ought to 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 particular municipalities and counties, property owners are needed to offer more than the above specified notification period for termination. You need to speak with an attorney or your municipality or county.

If the lease does specify a specific expiration or termination date, no termination notice is essential. Understand that your lease might also need notification of termination in a specific form or a higher notice period than the minimum required by law, if any. Landlords must keep in mind that no matter what the lease requires or specifies, you may be needed to provide more than the notification period specified in the lease for termination and in writing. You must seek advice from an attorney or your town or county.

Termination of a month-to-month occupancy normally only needs one month of notification by tenant and a property manager is required to serve a composed notification of termination of occupancy on the tenant (see Service on Demand area below). In specific towns and counties, property managers are required to provide more than one month of notice, so you need to talk to talk to an attorney or your town 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 celebrations. If a lease term expires and the property manager accepts rent 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 may need a particular notice and timeframe for renewing the lease. You ought to review your lease to confirm such requirements. Landlords and occupants ought to note that no matter what the lease needs or specifies, property managers might also have constraints on how early they can need renewal of a lease by a renter and are required to put such in composing. You should consult with an attorney or your town or county.

Month-to-month tenancies automatically restore from month to month until ended by either property manager or tenant.

Unless there is a composed lease, a proprietor can raise the lease by any amount by giving the tenant notification: Seven days of notice for a week-to-week occupancy, 1 month of notification for a month-to-month occupancy, and 90 days of notification for mobile home parks. In specific municipalities and counties, property managers are required to provide more than 7 or 1 month of notice of a rental increase, so you ought to talk to seek advice from with an attorney or your municipality or county.

Eviction, Termination of Tenants Right to Possession

In Illinois, a property owner does not have a right to self-help and should file an expulsion to get rid of an occupant or resident from the facilities.

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

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

Holdover. If a renter remains beyond the lease expiration date, usually, a property owner might submit an eviction without having to first serve a notice on the renter. However, the regards to the lease or in specific municipalities or counties, a proprietor is needed to supply a notice of non-renewal to the renter, so you need to seek advice from 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 providing a written or printed copy to the renter, leaving the very same with some person above the age of 13 years who lives at the party's home, or sending a copy of the notice to the celebration by certified or signed up mail with a return receipt from the addressee. If no one is in the actual possession of the properties, then publishing notice on the properties is adequate.

Subletting or Assigning the Lease

Often, written leases prohibit the renter from subletting the facilities without the composed consent of the property manager. Such consent can not be unreasonably kept, however the restriction is enforceable under the law. If there is no such prohibition, then an occupant may sublease or appoint their lease to another. In such cases, however, the tenant will stay responsible to the property owner unless the landlord launches the original occupant. A breach of the sublease will not alter the preliminary relationship between the proprietor and occupant.

Breach by Landlord, Tenant Remedies

If the landlord has actually breached the lease by failing to fulfill their responsibilities under the lease, specific treatments develop in favor of the renter:

- The tenant may sue the proprietor for damages sustained as a result of the breach.
- If a proprietor stops working to preserve a rented house in a livable condition, the renter might have the ability to vacate the properties and terminate the lease under the theory of "constructive expulsion."
- The failure of a proprietor to keep a leased residence in a livable condition or comply considerably with regional housing codes might be a breach of the property owner's "indicated guarantee of habitability" (independent of any composed lease provisions or oral pledges), which the renter may assert as a defense to an expulsion based upon the non-payment of lease or a claim for reduction in the rental value of the facilities. However, breach by property manager does not immediately entitle an occupant to keep lease or a decrease in the rental value. The commitment to pay rent continues as long as the occupant stays in the leased premises and to assert this defense effectively, the tenant will have to show that their damages arising from property owner's breach of this "implied warranty" equivalent or go beyond the lease declared due.

A landlord's breach and occupant's damages might be tough to prove. Because of the minimal and technical nature of these rules, occupants ought to be very careful in keeping rent and ought to probably do so only after seeking advice from an attorney.

Please note that certain towns or counties provide for specific obligations and requirements that the property manager need to carry out. If a property owner fails to abide by such commitments or requirements, the occupant may have extra treatments for such failure. You ought to consult with a lawyer or your municipality or county.

Breach by the Tenant, Landlord Remedies

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

If lease is not paid, the landlord might: (1) demand the rent due or to end up being due in the future and (2) terminate the lease and gather any previous rent due. Under specific circumstances in case of non-payment of lease the property owner might hold the furnishings and personal residential or commercial property of the tenant up until previous rent is paid by the tenant.

If a tenant stops working to leave the rented facility at the end of the lease term, the occupant might end up being accountable for double rent for the period of holdover if the holdover is deemed to be willful. The tenant can also be evicted.

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

Please note that certain municipalities or counties offer certain commitments and requirements that the renter need to satisfy. If a tenant fails to adhere to such commitments or requirements, the landlord may have additional treatments for such failure. You should seek advice from an attorney or your town 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 residence house, flat, or house against potential tenants who have kids under the age of 14. It is also illegal for a property owner to discriminate against a tenant on the basis of race, faith, sex, nationwide origin, income, sexual origination, gender identity, or disability.

Security Deposits, Move-in Fee

Down payment. A renter can be needed to deposit with the property manager an amount of money prior to inhabiting the residential or commercial property. This is generally referred to as a down payment. This money is considered to be security for any damage to the facilities or non-payment of lease. The security deposit does not ease the tenant of the task to pay the last month's rent or for damage caused to the facilities. It needs to be returned to the renter upon abandoning the facilities if no damage has been done beyond normal wear and tear and the lease is totally paid.

If a property manager stops working to return the down payment quickly, the tenant can sue to recover the part of the security deposit to which the tenant is entitled. In some municipalities or counties and specific situations under state law, when a property owner wrongfully withholds an occupant's down payment the tenant may be able to recuperate extra damages and attorneys' fees. You should talk to a lawyer.

Generally, a property manager who receives a security deposit might not keep any part of that deposit as compensation for residential or commercial property damage unless he provides to the tenant, within 30 days of the date the renter vacates, a statement of damage apparently triggered by the renter and the approximated or real expense of fixing or changing each product on that statement. If no such declaration is provided within 30 days, the landlord must return the security deposit in complete within 45 days of the date the tenant vacated.

If a structure includes 25 or more domestic units, the property owner must 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 assets, on a passbook security account.

The above statements concerning down payment are based upon state law. However, some municipalities or counties may impose additional commitments. For instance, Cook County, Evanston, Chicago, and Oak Park all have extra requirements that a proprietor should comply with when taking down payment and offer high penalties when a proprietor fails to comply.

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

Landlord and occupant matters can end up being complex. Both property owner and occupant must seek advice from an attorney for assistance with specific issues. For more information about your rights and responsibilities as an occupant, including particular 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

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 actually been made to offer accurate info at the time of publication.