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Your Guide to Landlord-Tenant Law

Landlord-Tenant Law

Eventually throughout their lives many individuals will be involved with the rental of realty, either as property manager or tenant. Laws that affect landlords and renters can differ significantly from city to city. This handout provides general info about being a tenant in Illinois. You must seek advice from an attorney or your municipality or county as they might offer you with greater protection under the law.

Tenancy Agreement

The relationship in between property manager and renter emerges from a contract, composed or oral, by which one celebration inhabits the realty of another with the owner's consent in return for the payment of particular quantity as rent.

Written Agreement: Most tenancies are in writing and are called a lease. No specific words are essential to develop a lease, however typically the terms of a lease consist of a description of the property, the length of the agreement, the amount of the rent, and the time of payment. TIP: You ought to put your contract in composing to prevent future misconceptions.

Provisions in a lease agreement that protect a property owner from liability for damages to individuals or residential or commercial property brought on by the neglect of the proprietor are deemed being against public law and are therefore unenforceable. Certain municipalities and counties have other limitations and restriction on specific lease terms, so you ought to seek advice from with a lawyer or your municipality or county.

Oral Agreement: If a tenancy contract is not in writing, the term of the agreement will, generally, be thought about a month-to-month tenancy. The period is usually 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 difficult to determine, a party might 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 specific term, it may be terminated by either party with appropriate notice.

- For year-to-year occupancies, aside from a lease of farmland, either celebration may end the lease by offering 60 days of written 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 party by offering 7 days of written notice to the other party.
- Farm leases usually run for one year. Customarily, they start and end in March of each year. Notice to terminate 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 party must offer thirty days of composed notice. Any notice provided should call for termination on the last day of that rental duration.
- The lease might also have mentioned requirements and timeframe for termination of the lease.
- In certain towns and counties, property owners are needed to give more than the above stated notification duration for termination. You ought to speak with an attorney or your municipality or county.

If the lease does state a particular expiration or termination date, no termination notice is needed. Know that your lease might likewise need notice of termination in a particular 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 may be required to offer more than the notice period mentioned in the lease for termination and in writing. You should speak with an attorney or your town or county.

Termination of a month-to-month occupancy generally only requires thirty days of notification by renter and a property owner is required to serve a written notification of termination of occupancy on the renter (see Service on Demand section listed below). In certain towns and counties, proprietors are required to provide more than one month of notice, so you need to 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 renewed at any time by oral or written contract of the parties. If a lease term expires and the proprietor accepts rent following the expiration of the term, the lease term instantly becomes month-to-month based upon the very same terms stated in the lease.

The lease may need a particular notification and timeframe for renewing the lease. You need to review your lease to confirm such requirements. Landlords and renters need to keep in mind that no matter what the lease requires or states, landlords may likewise have constraints on how early they can require renewal of a lease by an occupant and are needed to put such in composing. You should seek advice from an attorney or your town or county.

Month-to-month tenancies automatically renew from month to month up until terminated by either property owner or occupant.

Unless there is a written lease, a property manager can raise the lease by any amount by offering the renter notification: Seven days of notification for a week-to-week tenancy, one month of notification for a month-to-month tenancy, and 90 days of notice for mobile home parks. In certain municipalities and counties, property managers are required to give more than seven or 30 days of notice of a rental boost, so you should seek advice from seek advice from a lawyer 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 submit an eviction to remove a renter or resident from the properties.

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

10-Day Notice. If a landlord wants to end a lease since of an infraction of the lease contract by the renter, other than for non-payment of rent, she or he should serve 10 days of written notification upon the occupant before expulsion proceedings can start, unless the lease needs more than 10 days of notice. Acceptance of rent after such notice is a waiver by the property manager of the right to end the lease unless the breach experienced is a continuing breach.

Holdover. If an occupant remains beyond the lease expiration date, generally, a property manager may file an eviction without needing to first serve a notice on the tenant. However, the regards to the lease or in specific towns or counties, a landlord is required to offer a notification of non-renewal to the tenant, so you should seek advice from an attorney or your town or county.

Service as needed Notice

The five-day, 10-day, or termination of month-to-month tenancy notifications might be served upon renter by providing a composed or printed copy to the renter, leaving the exact same with some individual above the age of 13 years who lives at the party's house, or sending out a copy of the notification to the celebration by accredited or registered mail with a return invoice from the addressee. If no one is in the real belongings of the facilities, then posting notification on the premises suffices.

Subletting or Assigning the Lease

Often, composed leases prohibit the tenant from subletting the properties without the composed approval of the proprietor. Such approval can not be unreasonably kept, but the restriction is enforceable under the law. If there is no such restriction, then a renter may sublease or designate their lease to another. In such cases, however, the occupant will stay accountable to the property owner unless the landlord releases the initial occupant. A breach of the sublease will not alter the initial relationship in between the proprietor and renter.

Breach by Landlord, Tenant Remedies

If the property manager has breached the lease by stopping working to meet their tasks under the lease, particular solutions arise in favor of the renter:

- The renter might take legal action against the property owner for damages sustained as an outcome of the breach.
- If a property owner fails to maintain a rented home in a livable condition, the renter may be able to abandon the properties and terminate the lease under the theory of "positive eviction."
- The failure of a property owner to maintain a rented house in a livable condition or comply substantially with regional housing codes might be a breach of the property owner's "suggested guarantee of habitability" (independent of any written lease arrangements or oral promises), which the tenant may assert as a defense to an expulsion based on the non-payment of lease or a claim for reduction in the rental worth of the facilities. However, breach by property manager does not instantly entitle a renter to withhold rent or a decrease in the rental worth. The commitment to pay rent continues as long as the occupant remains in the leased facilities and to assert this defense effectively, the occupant will have to reveal that their damages resulting from property manager's breach of this "implied warranty" equal or surpass the rent claimed due.

A property manager's breach and occupant's damages might be hard to prove. Because of the limited and technical nature of these rules, occupants ought to be very cautious in keeping lease and needs to most likely do so only after consulting an attorney.

Please note that particular municipalities or counties attend to certain commitments and requirements that the property owner need to perform. If a property manager fails to adhere to such responsibilities or requirements, the tenant might have additional solutions for such failure. You ought to seek advice from 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 property manager might: (1) demand the rent due or to end up being due in the future and (2) end the lease and collect any previous rent due. Under specific circumstances in case of non-payment of lease the proprietor might hold the furniture and individual residential or commercial property of the renter up until past lease is paid by the tenant.

If an occupant fails to leave the leased premise at the end of the lease term, the renter might become responsible for double rent for the duration of holdover if the holdover is considered to be willful. The tenant can also be kicked out.

If the renter harms the facilities, the proprietor might take legal action against for the repair of such damages.

Please note that particular towns or counties offer certain responsibilities and requirements that the tenant should satisfy. If an occupant fails to adhere to such responsibilities or requirements, the landlord may have additional remedies for such failure. You must seek advice from a lawyer or your town or county.

Discrimination

Under the federal Fair Housing Act and Illinois law, it is illegal for a proprietor to discriminate in the leasing of a home home, flat, or house against prospective tenants who have children under the age of 14. It is likewise illegal for a landlord to victimize an occupant on the basis of race, religion, sex, nationwide origin, income, sexual origination, gender identity, or special needs.

Security Deposits, Move-in Fee

Security Deposit. An occupant can be needed to deposit with the property owner an amount of money prior to inhabiting the residential or commercial property. This is normally described as a down payment. This money is deemed to be security for any damage to the properties or non-payment of lease. The security deposit does not relieve the tenant of the responsibility to pay the last month's rent or for damage caused to the facilities. It must be gone back to the renter upon vacating the properties if no damage has actually been done beyond regular wear and tear and the rent is totally paid.

If a property manager fails to return the down payment quickly, the occupant can sue to recuperate the portion of the security deposit to which the tenant is entitled. In some municipalities or counties and particular circumstances under state law, when a property owner wrongfully keeps a renter's down payment the renter might be able to recover additional damages and lawyers' fees. You need to consult with an attorney.

Generally, a property manager who gets a security deposit might not keep any part of that deposit as settlement for residential or commercial property damage unless he furnishes to the occupant, within one month of the date the occupant leaves, a statement of damage presumably triggered by the occupant and the approximated or actual cost of fixing or changing each item on that statement. If no such declaration is provided within 1 month, the property manager should return the down payment completely within 45 days of the date the tenant vacated.

If a structure 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 largest bank in Illinois, as identified by total 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 additional requirements that a property manager should adhere to when taking down payment and provide steep penalties when a proprietor stops working to comply.

Move-in Fee. In addition to or as an alternative to a security deposit, a property manager might charge a move-in charge. Generally, there are no particular limitations on the amount of a move-in charge, nevertheless, specific towns or counties do offer restrictions. TIP: A move-in cost must be nonrefundable, otherwise it might be considered to be a down payment.

Landlord and renter matters can end up being complex. Both proprietor and renter need to seek advice from a lawyer for assistance with specific issues. For additional information about your rights and responsibilities as an occupant, including specific 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 prepared and published by the Illinois State Bar Association as a civil service. Every effort has been made to supply precise details at the time of publication.