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Your Guide to Landlord-Tenant Law

Landlord-Tenant Law

At some time during their lives many people will be included with the rental of realty, either as proprietor or renter. Laws that impact proprietors and renters can vary significantly from city to city. This handout offers general info about being a tenant in Illinois. You need to speak with an attorney or your town or county as they may offer you with greater security under the law.

Tenancy Agreement

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

Written Agreement: Most tenancies remain in composing and are called a lease. No specific words are necessary to develop a lease, but typically the regards to a lease include a description of the property, the length of the arrangement, the amount of the lease, and the time of payment. TIP: You should put your arrangement in writing to prevent future misunderstandings.

Provisions in a lease arrangement that safeguard a property manager from liability for damages to persons or residential or commercial property brought on by the carelessness of the landlord are considered as being against public policy and are therefore unenforceable. Certain municipalities and counties have other restrictions and restriction on specific lease terms, so you need to speak with an attorney or your municipality or county.

Oral Agreement: If a tenancy arrangement is not in writing, the regard to the contract will, typically, be thought about a month-to-month tenancy. The period is normally 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 may be difficult to identify, a celebration may be bound to the regards to an oral arrangement simply as much as a written one.

Termination of the Lease or Tenancy Agreement

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

- For year-to-year occupancies, besides a lease of farmland, either party might terminate the lease by offering 60 days of composed notification at any time within the four months preceding the last 60 days of the lease.
A week-to-week occupancy may be terminated by either celebration by offering 7 days of written notification to the other party.
Farm leases normally run for one year. Customarily, they begin and end in March of each year. Notice to terminate must be provided a minimum of four months before completion of the term.
In all other lease arrangements for a duration of less than one year, a celebration needs to offer one month of composed notification. Any notice offered need to call for termination on the last day of that rental period.
The lease might also have actually stated requirements and timeframe for termination of the lease.
In particular towns and counties, landlords are required to provide more than the above stated notice period for termination. You ought to seek advice from a lawyer or your municipality or county.

If the lease does mention a particular expiration or termination date, no termination notice is necessary. Know that your lease may also need notice of termination in a specific kind or a greater notice duration than the minimum required by law, if any. Landlords should note that no matter what the lease requires or states, you may be required to provide more than the notice period mentioned in the lease for termination and in composing. You should speak with an attorney or your municipality or county.

Termination of a month-to-month occupancy usually just requires 30 days 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 specific municipalities and counties, property managers are needed to give more than 30 days of notification, so you need to speak with seek advice from an attorney or your town or county.

Renewal of the Lease or Tenancy Agreement, Rental Increases

Generally, a lease may be renewed at any time by oral or written agreement of the celebrations. If a lease term expires and the property owner accepts lease following the expiration of the term, the lease term immediately becomes month-to-month based upon the same terms stated in the lease.

The lease might need a particular notification and timeframe for restoring the lease. You need to examine your lease to confirm such requirements. Landlords and tenants ought to note that no matter what the lease needs or mentions, proprietors might likewise have limitations on how early they can need renewal of a lease by a tenant and are needed to put such in writing. You need to consult with an attorney or your town or county.

Month-to-month occupancies immediately restore from month to month till ended by either landlord or renter.

Unless there is a composed lease, a property manager can raise the rent by any amount by providing the renter notice: Seven days of notification for a week-to-week occupancy, 1 month of notification for a month-to-month tenancy, and 90 days of notification for mobile home parks. In particular municipalities and counties, landlords are needed to offer more than seven or 1 month of notification of a rental increase, so you should talk to talk to 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 submit an eviction to remove a renter 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 need to serve a five-day notice upon the overdue renter unless the lease needs more than five days of notification. Five days after such notice is served, the proprietor may start eviction proceedings against the occupant. If, however, the renter pays the total of lease required in the five-day notice within those 5 days, the property manager might not continue with an eviction. The property owner is not needed, however, to accept rent that is less than the exact amount due. If the property owner accepts a tender of a lesser quantity of rent, it may affect the rights to continue under the notice.

10-Day Notice. If a proprietor wishes to terminate a lease due to the fact that of an infraction of the lease arrangement by the occupant, other than for non-payment of rent, he or she should serve 10 days of composed notification upon the occupant before eviction proceedings can begin, unless the lease requires more than 10 days of notice. Acceptance of rent after such notification is a waiver by the property manager of the right to terminate the lease unless the breach suffered is a continuing breach.

Holdover. If an occupant remains beyond the lease expiration date, usually, a proprietor may file an eviction without needing to very first serve a notice on the tenant. However, the regards to the lease or in certain towns or counties, a property manager is required to offer a notice of non-renewal to the tenant, so you should seek advice from a lawyer 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 renter by delivering a written or printed copy to the occupant, leaving the same with some individual above the age of 13 years who lives at the celebration's house, or sending out a copy of the notification to the celebration by licensed or signed up mail with a return invoice from the addressee. If nobody is in the real possession of the premises, then posting notice on the properties suffices.

Subletting or Assigning the Lease

Often, composed leases restrict the occupant from subletting the properties without the composed permission of the property owner. Such authorization can not be unreasonably kept, however the restriction is enforceable under the law. If there is no such restriction, then a renter may sublease or assign their lease to another. In such cases, however, the occupant will stay responsible to the property owner unless the property owner releases the original occupant. A breach of the sublease will not change the preliminary relationship between the property manager and tenant.

Breach by Landlord, Tenant Remedies

If the property owner has actually breached the lease by stopping working to meet their responsibilities under the lease, particular solutions occur in favor of the renter:

- The tenant might sue the property owner for damages sustained as an outcome of the breach.
If a landlord stops working to maintain a rented home in a livable condition, the tenant might be able to vacate the properties and end the lease under the theory of "constructive eviction."
The failure of a landlord to maintain a leased residence in a habitable condition or comply considerably with regional housing codes may be a breach of the landlord's "suggested service warranty of habitability" (independent of any composed lease arrangements or oral guarantees), which the tenant might assert as a defense to an eviction 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 a renter to keep rent or a decrease in the rental value. The commitment to pay rent continues as long as the renter stays in the rented facilities and to assert this defense effectively, the renter will need to show that their damages resulting from proprietor's breach of this "implied warranty" equivalent or exceed the rent declared due.

A proprietor's breach and occupant's damages might be difficult to prove. Because of the limited and technical nature of these guidelines, tenants need to be very careful in keeping lease and should most likely do so only after speaking with an attorney.

Please note that certain municipalities or counties attend to specific responsibilities and requirements that the landlord need to perform. If a proprietor fails to abide by such responsibilities or requirements, the renter may have additional remedies for such failure. You must 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 tenant, a property manager likewise has the following remedies:

If lease is not paid, the proprietor might: (1) demand the rent due or to become due in the future and (2) terminate the lease and collect any previous rent due. Under particular situations in case of non-payment of lease the landlord might hold the furniture and personal residential or commercial property of the renter till previous lease is paid by the tenant.

If a renter fails to abandon the leased premise at the end of the lease term, the tenant may become accountable for double rent for the period of holdover if the holdover is considered to be willful. The occupant can also be forced out.

If the tenant harms the facilities, the landlord might take legal action against for the repair work of such damages.

Please note that specific municipalities or counties attend to specific commitments and requirements that the tenant need to satisfy. If a renter stops working to comply with such obligations or requirements, the property manager may have extra solutions for such failure. You ought to speak with a lawyer or your municipality 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 home house, flat, or apartment against prospective tenants who have children under the age of 14. It is likewise illegal for a property manager to victimize an occupant on the basis of race, religious beliefs, sex, national origin, source of earnings, sexual origination, gender identity, or impairment.

Security Deposits, Move-in Fee

Security Deposit. A renter can be required to deposit with the property owner a sum 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 premises or non-payment of lease. The down payment does not alleviate the occupant of the duty to pay the last month's rent or for damage caused to the facilities. It must be returned to the occupant upon leaving the facilities if no damage has actually been done beyond normal wear and tear and the lease is totally paid.

If a property manager fails to return the security deposit quickly, the renter can sue to recover the portion of the security deposit to which the occupant is entitled. In some towns or counties and particular scenarios under state law, when a property manager wrongfully keeps a renter's security deposit the tenant might have the ability to recuperate additional damages and lawyers' costs. You ought to speak with a legal representative.

Generally, a property manager who gets a down payment might not keep any part of that deposit as payment for residential or commercial property damage unless he furnishes to the occupant, within one month of the date the renter leaves, a declaration of damage supposedly triggered by the renter and the estimated or actual cost of fixing or changing each product on that declaration. If no such declaration is furnished within 30 days, the proprietor should return the security deposit in complete within 45 days of the date the renter abandoned.

If a structure contains 25 or more domestic units, the proprietor must also pay interest on the deposit from the date it was paid, if held more than 67 months. Interest is calculated at the rate paid by the biggest bank in Illinois, as determined by overall assets, on a passbook security account.

The above statements relating to down payment are based upon state law. However, some towns or counties may impose extra commitments. For instance, Cook County, Evanston, Chicago, and Oak Park all have additional requirements that a property owner need to comply with 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 down payment, a property owner may charge a move-in fee. Generally, there are no particular limitations on the quantity of a move-in cost, nevertheless, specific municipalities or counties do supply limitations. TIP: A move-in charge ought to be nonrefundable, otherwise it could be considered to be a down payment.

Landlord and renter matters can become complex. Both property owner and renter should speak with a lawyer for assistance with particular problems. To find out more about your rights and duties as a tenant, including specific landlord-tenant laws in your municipality or county, call your regional 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 Real Estate Law Section (2024 )

This handout is prepared and released by the Illinois State Bar Association as a civil service. Every effort has been made to offer precise information at the time of publication.