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  Your Guide to Landlord-Tenant Law
  
  Landlord-Tenant Law
  
  At some time during their lives many people will be involved with the rental of real estate, either as landlord or occupant. Laws that impact property owners and renters can differ considerably from city to city. This handout provides general information about being a tenant in Illinois. You need to seek advice from a lawyer or your town or county as they might provide you with higher protection under the law.
  
  Tenancy Agreement
  
  The relationship in between property owner and tenant emerges from an agreement, composed or oral, by which one celebration occupies the property of another with the owner's authorization in return for the payment of certain amount as lease.
  
  Written Agreement: Most tenancies are in writing and are called a lease. No particular words are essential to develop a lease, however generally the regards to a lease consist of a description of the property, the length of the arrangement, the amount of the lease, and the time of payment. TIP: You ought to put your agreement in writing to prevent future misunderstandings.
  
  Provisions in a lease agreement that protect a landlord from liability for damages to persons or residential or commercial property triggered by the carelessness of the property owner are seen as protesting public policy and are for that reason unenforceable. Certain municipalities and counties have other restrictions and restriction on specific lease terms, so you ought to seek advice from an attorney or your town or county.
  
  Oral Agreement: If an occupancy contract is not in writing, the term of the contract will, normally, be thought about a month-to-month occupancy. The period is typically identified by the frequency of the rental payments. For instance: week to week, month to month, or year to year. Although the regards to an oral lease might be hard to identify, a celebration might be bound to the terms of an oral contract 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 ended by either party with proper notice.
  
  - For year-to-year tenancies, aside from a lease of farmland, either celebration may end 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 might be terminated by either party by providing 7 days of written notice to the other celebration.
• Farm leases normally run for one year. Customarily, they begin and end in March of each year. Notice to end should 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 celebration must give one month of written notice. Any notification provided should call for termination on the last day of that rental period.
• The lease may also have stated requirements and timeframe for termination of the lease.
• In particular towns and counties, property managers are required to give more than the above specified notification period for termination. You ought to talk to an attorney or your municipality or county.
  
  If the lease does state a specific expiration or termination date, no termination notification is needed. Be mindful that your lease might also require notice of termination in a particular form or a higher notice period than the minimum needed by law, if any. Landlords ought to keep in mind that no matter what the lease needs or mentions, you might be required to offer more than the notice duration specified in the lease for termination and in writing. You should talk to a lawyer or your municipality or county.
  
  Termination of a month-to-month tenancy generally just requires thirty days of notice by occupant and a property manager is required to serve a composed notice of termination of tenancy on the renter (see Service as needed section below). In particular towns and counties, property owners are needed to provide more than 1 month of notice, so you need to consult with talk to 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 expires and the property owner accepts lease following the expiration of the term, the lease term immediately ends up being month-to-month based on the very same terms set forth in the lease.
  
  The lease may require a specific notice and timeframe for renewing the lease. You should examine your lease to validate such requirements. Landlords and tenants need to note that no matter what the lease requires or specifies, landlords may likewise have constraints on how early they can need renewal of a lease by an occupant and are required to put such in composing. You ought to consult with a lawyer or your town or county.
  
  Month-to-month tenancies instantly restore from month to month up until terminated by either property manager or occupant.
  
  Unless there is a composed lease, a proprietor can raise the lease by any amount by providing the renter notification: Seven days of notice for a week-to-week occupancy, one month of notification for a month-to-month occupancy, and 90 days of notice for mobile home parks. In certain municipalities and counties, landlords are needed to offer more than 7 or thirty days of notice of a rental boost, so you should seek advice from speak with a lawyer or your municipality or county.
  
  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 get rid of a tenant 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 property owner must serve a five-day notice upon the overdue occupant unless the lease needs more than five days of notification. Five days after such notification is served, the property owner may start expulsion procedures versus the renter. If, nevertheless, the renter pays the full amount of lease required in the five-day notice within those five days, the property manager might not proceed with an eviction. The property owner is not needed, nevertheless, to accept lease that is less than the precise quantity due. If the property manager accepts a tender of a lesser amount of lease, it may impact the rights to continue under the notification.
  
  10-Day Notice. If a landlord wants to terminate a lease due to the fact that of an infraction of the lease arrangement by the renter, other than for non-payment of rent, he or she must serve 10 days of written notification upon the occupant before eviction proceedings can begin, unless the lease needs more than 10 days of notification. Acceptance of lease after such notification is a waiver by the proprietor of the right to terminate the lease unless the breach suffered is a continuing breach.
  
  Holdover. If a renter remains beyond the lease expiration date, typically, a proprietor might submit an eviction without needing to first serve a notification on the renter. However, the regards to the lease or in certain towns or counties, a proprietor is needed to supply a notice of non-renewal to the renter, so you need 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 tenancy notifications may be served upon occupant by providing a written or printed copy to the occupant, leaving the same with some person above the age of 13 years who lives at the celebration's house, or sending out a copy of the notice to the celebration by certified or registered mail with a return receipt from the addressee. If no one remains in the actual belongings of the premises, then posting notice on the premises suffices.
  
  Subletting or Assigning the Lease
  
  Often, written leases forbid the occupant from subletting the facilities without the composed authorization of the proprietor. Such approval can not be unreasonably kept, however the prohibition is enforceable under the law. If there is no such restriction, then a tenant may sublease or appoint their lease to another. In such cases, nevertheless, the renter will stay accountable to the landlord unless the property manager launches the original occupant. A breach of the sublease will not change the preliminary relationship between the landlord and occupant.
  
  Breach by Landlord, Tenant Remedies
  
  If the property manager has actually breached the lease by stopping working to fulfill their tasks under the lease, specific treatments occur in favor of the renter:
  
  - The renter might sue the proprietor for damages sustained as an outcome of the breach.
• If a property owner fails to a rented home in a habitable condition, the tenant may be able to vacate the premises and terminate the lease under the theory of "constructive expulsion."
• The failure of a property owner to keep a rented house in a livable condition or comply significantly with regional housing codes might be a breach of the proprietor's "suggested 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 worth of the facilities. However, breach by property manager does not automatically entitle a renter to withhold rent or a decrease in the rental worth. The responsibility to pay rent continues as long as the occupant stays in the rented properties and to assert this defense successfully, the renter will have to show that their damages arising from property owner's breach of this "implied guarantee" equal or surpass the rent claimed due.
  
  A proprietor's breach and tenant's damages might be hard to prove. Because of the limited and technical nature of these guidelines, renters must be extremely cautious in withholding lease and needs to most likely do so only after consulting an attorney.
  
  Please note that certain municipalities or counties offer particular commitments and requirements that the property manager must carry out. If a property manager fails to abide by such commitments or requirements, the tenant might have extra remedies for such failure. You should seek advice from a lawyer or your town or county.
  
  Breach by the Tenant, Landlord Remedies
  
  In addition to termination for certain breaches by occupant, a proprietor likewise has the following solutions:
  
  If lease is not paid, the property manager may: (1) sue for the lease due or to become due in the future and (2) terminate the lease and collect any previous lease due. Under particular scenarios in case of non-payment of rent the landlord may hold the furniture and personal residential or commercial property of the renter up until past rent is paid by the tenant.
  
  If a tenant fails to leave the leased premise at the end of the lease term, the renter may become responsible for double lease for the period of holdover if the holdover is considered to be willful. The tenant can also be forced out.
  
  If the occupant damages the facilities, the property owner might demand the repair of such damages.
  
  Please note that specific towns or counties attend to certain responsibilities and requirements that the renter need to meet. If a tenant stops working to abide by such commitments or requirements, the landlord might have additional solutions for such failure. You need to talk to a lawyer or your municipality or county.
  
  Discrimination
  
  Under the federal Fair Housing Act and Illinois law, it is unlawful for a property manager to discriminate in the leasing of a residence house, flat, or house versus potential occupants who have children under the age of 14. It is likewise unlawful for a property owner to discriminate against a tenant on the basis of race, faith, sex, nationwide origin, source of earnings, sexual origination, gender identity, or special needs.
  
  Down Payment, Move-in Fee
  
  Security Deposit. A tenant can be needed to deposit with the proprietor an amount of cash prior to inhabiting the residential or commercial property. This is typically described 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 ease the tenant of the duty to pay the last month's lease or for damage triggered to the properties. It should be returned to the occupant upon leaving the properties if no damage has been done beyond normal wear and tear and the lease is fully paid.
  
  If a proprietor 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 renter is entitled. In some municipalities or counties and particular situations under state law, when a proprietor wrongfully withholds a renter's security deposit the renter may have the ability to recuperate extra damages and attorneys' charges. You ought to talk to an attorney.
  
  Generally, a proprietor who receives a security deposit may not withhold any part of that deposit as payment for residential or commercial property damage unless he provides to the occupant, within 30 days of the date the renter vacates, a statement of damage allegedly triggered by the occupant and the approximated or real cost of fixing or changing each product on that statement. If no such statement is provided within one month, the proprietor must return the down payment completely within 45 days of the date the occupant vacated.
  
  If a building consists of 25 or more domestic units, the property manager needs to likewise 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 identified by overall possessions, on a passbook security account.
  
  The above statements relating to security deposits are based on state law. However, some municipalities or counties might enforce additional responsibilities. For example, Cook County, Evanston, Chicago, and Oak Park all have extra requirements that a landlord should comply with when taking down payment and offer high charges when a property owner fails to comply.
  
  Move-in Fee. In addition to or as an option to a security deposit, a landlord may charge a move-in cost. Generally, there are no particular restrictions on the quantity of a move-in fee, nevertheless, particular municipalities or counties do provide restrictions. TIP: A move-in charge ought to be nonrefundable, otherwise it might be deemed to be a security deposit.
  
  Landlord and renter matters can become complex. Both property owner and renter should consult an attorney for assistance with specific issues. To learn more about your rights and duties as a tenant, consisting of particular landlord-tenant laws in your town or county, call your local bar association, or go to 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 handout is prepared and published by the Illinois State Bar Association as a civil service. Every effort has been made to supply precise info at the time of publication.