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Your Guide to Landlord-Tenant Law

Landlord-Tenant Law

Eventually during their lives a lot of individuals will be involved with the rental of realty, either as property owner or renter. Laws that affect property owners and renters can differ substantially from city to city. This pamphlet supplies basic info about being an occupant in Illinois. You need to seek advice from a lawyer or your municipality or county as they may provide you with greater defense under the law.

Tenancy Agreement

The relationship in between property manager and tenant emerges from an arrangement, written or oral, by which one party inhabits the genuine estate of another with the owner's approval in return for the payment of specific amount as lease.

Written Agreement: Most tenancies remain in writing and are called a lease. No specific words are needed to develop a lease, however typically the regards to a lease consist of a description of the property, the length of the agreement, the quantity of the rent, and the time of payment. TIP: You should put your agreement in composing to prevent future misunderstandings.

Provisions in a lease arrangement that secure a property owner from liability for damages to individuals or residential or commercial property triggered by the negligence of the property manager are deemed being against public law and are for that reason unenforceable. Certain municipalities and counties have other limitations and prohibition on certain lease terms, so you ought to speak with a lawyer or your municipality or county.

Oral Agreement: If a tenancy arrangement is not in writing, the regard to the agreement will, normally, be considered a month-to-month tenancy. The duration is normally determined by the frequency of the rental payments. For example: week to week, month to month, or year to year. Although the terms of an oral lease may be difficult to identify, a party might be bound to the regards to an oral contract just as much as a written one.

Termination of the Lease or Tenancy Agreement

If a lease is not for a specific term, it may be ended by either celebration with appropriate notice.

- For year-to-year tenancies, besides a lease of farmland, either party may end the lease by offering 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 ended by either celebration by providing 7 days of written notification to the other celebration.
- Farm leases usually run for one year. Customarily, they start and end in March of each year. Notice to end must be given a minimum of 4 months before completion of the term.
- In all other lease agreements for a duration of less than one year, a celebration needs to give thirty days of written notice. Any notice given should require termination on the last day of that rental period.
- The lease may also have actually mentioned requirements and timeframe for termination of the lease.
- In specific towns and counties, proprietors are required to provide more than the above stated notice duration for termination. You should speak with a lawyer or your town or county.

If the lease does specify a particular expiration or termination date, no termination notice is necessary. Know that your lease might likewise require notification of termination in a particular form or a higher notification duration than the minimum needed by law, if any. Landlords ought to keep in mind that no matter what the lease needs or mentions, you may be needed to provide more than the notice period stated in the lease for termination and in writing. You must talk to an attorney or your municipality or county.

Termination of a month-to-month tenancy typically just needs 1 month of notification by occupant and a proprietor is needed to serve a composed notification of termination of occupancy on the occupant (see Service on Demand section below). In specific municipalities and counties, property owners are required to give more than thirty days of notice, so you must seek advice from talk to an attorney or your town 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 celebrations. If a lease term ends and the landlord accepts lease following the expiration of the term, the lease term instantly ends up being month-to-month based on the exact same terms set forth in the lease.

The lease might require a particular notice and timeframe for renewing the lease. You should examine your lease to validate such requirements. Landlords and occupants must note that no matter what the lease requires or states, property managers might likewise have restrictions on how early they can need renewal of a lease by a tenant and are required to put such in writing. You must speak with a lawyer or your town or county.

Month-to-month occupancies instantly renew from month to month up until terminated by either property owner or renter.

Unless there is a composed lease, a landlord can raise the rent by any quantity by providing the renter notice: Seven days of notice for a week-to-week tenancy, thirty days of notification for a month-to-month occupancy, and 90 days of notice for mobile home parks. In specific towns and counties, property owners are required to give more than 7 or thirty days of notification of a rental increase, so you should seek advice from seek advice from an attorney or your town or county.

Eviction, Termination of Tenants Right to Possession

In Illinois, a proprietor does not have a right to self-help and should file an eviction to eliminate a tenant or occupant from the premises.

Five-Day Notice. The most common breach of a lease is for non-payment of rent. In this case the property owner must serve a five-day notification upon the overdue occupant unless the lease needs more than 5 days of notice. Five days after such notification is served, the property owner might begin expulsion proceedings versus the occupant. If, nevertheless, 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 expulsion. The landlord is not needed, however, to accept lease that is less than the precise quantity due. If the landlord accepts a tender of a lesser amount of rent, it might affect the rights to proceed under the notice.

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

Holdover. If an occupant stays beyond the lease expiration date, usually, a proprietor might submit an eviction without needing to very first serve a notification on the renter. However, the terms of the lease or in particular towns or counties, a proprietor is required to supply a notice of non-renewal to the tenant, so you should speak with an attorney or your town or county.

Service on Demand Notice

The five-day, 10-day, or termination of month-to-month occupancy notices may be served upon tenant by providing a composed or printed copy to the tenant, leaving the exact same with some person above the age of 13 years who lives at the party's house, or sending a copy of the notification to the celebration by accredited or registered mail with a return invoice from the addressee. If no one remains in the actual ownership of the premises, then posting notice on the premises suffices.

Subletting or Assigning the Lease

Often, composed leases prohibit the tenant from subletting the properties without the written consent of the proprietor. Such authorization can not be unreasonably withheld, but the restriction is enforceable under the law. If there is no such restriction, then an occupant may sublease or appoint their lease to another. In such cases, nevertheless, the renter will remain responsible to the landlord unless the proprietor launches the initial renter. A breach of the sublease will not change the initial relationship between the property owner and renter.

Breach by Landlord, Tenant Remedies

If the property manager has actually breached the lease by stopping working to satisfy their duties under the lease, specific remedies arise in favor of the occupant:

- The tenant might sue the property manager for damages sustained as an outcome of the breach.
- If a proprietor fails to keep a leased residence in a habitable condition, the tenant might be able to leave the facilities and terminate the lease under the theory of "useful eviction."
- The failure of a property owner to keep a leased home in a habitable condition or comply substantially with regional housing codes might be a breach of the property manager's "indicated guarantee of habitability" (independent of any written lease provisions or oral guarantees), which the renter may assert as a defense to an expulsion based on the non-payment of lease or a claim for decrease in the rental value of the premises. However, breach by property owner does not instantly entitle a tenant to withhold lease or a reduction in the rental value. The commitment to pay rent continues as long as the occupant remains in the rented premises and to assert this defense effectively, the renter will need to show that their damages arising from property manager's breach of this "implied guarantee" equal or go beyond the lease declared due.

A property owner's breach and tenant's damages might be hard to prove. Because of the restricted and technical nature of these guidelines, renters ought to be very mindful in withholding lease and needs to probably do so only after consulting a lawyer.

Please note that particular towns or counties provide for particular responsibilities and requirements that the proprietor should perform. If a property manager fails to abide by such commitments or requirements, the tenant may have additional remedies for such failure. You should talk to an attorney or your town or county.

Breach by the Tenant, Landlord Remedies

In addition to termination for particular breaches by tenant, a property owner likewise has the following remedies:

If lease is not paid, the proprietor may: (1) demand the lease due or to become due in the future and (2) terminate the lease and gather any previous lease due. Under certain circumstances in case of non-payment of rent the proprietor might hold the furnishings and individual residential or commercial property of the tenant up until past rent is paid by the tenant.

If a tenant stops working to leave the rented premise at the end of the lease term, the occupant might end up being liable for double lease for the period of holdover if the holdover is considered to be willful. The tenant can likewise be forced out.

If the tenant damages the properties, the proprietor may take legal action against for the repair work of such damages.

Please note that specific towns or counties provide for certain responsibilities and requirements that the tenant need to satisfy. If a renter stops working to abide by such commitments or requirements, the proprietor might have additional treatments for such failure. You need to speak with 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 home, flat, or apartment or condo against prospective renters who have kids under the age of 14. It is likewise illegal for a landlord to victimize a tenant on the basis of race, religious beliefs, sex, national origin, source of 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 a sum of cash prior to occupying the residential or commercial property. This is generally referred to as a security deposit. This cash is deemed to be security for any damage to the premises or non-payment of rent. The security deposit does not relieve the renter of the responsibility to pay the last month's rent or for damage triggered to the premises. It should be gone back to the occupant upon vacating the facilities if no damage has actually been done beyond regular wear and tear and the rent is fully paid.

If a landlord stops working to return the security deposit without delay, the occupant can sue to recuperate the portion of the security deposit to which the tenant is entitled. In some towns or counties and certain scenarios under state law, when a proprietor wrongfully keeps an occupant's security deposit the tenant might be able to recuperate additional damages and lawyers' costs. You ought to seek advice from a lawyer.

Generally, a property owner who gets a security deposit might not keep any part of that deposit as compensation for residential or commercial property damage unless he furnishes to the occupant, within 30 days of the date the renter abandons, a declaration of damage allegedly caused by the occupant and the approximated or actual expense of repairing or changing each item on that statement. If no such declaration is provided within one month, the proprietor should return the security deposit in full within 45 days of the date the renter vacated.

If a structure contains 25 or more property systems, the landlord 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 possessions, on a passbook security account.

The above declarations relating to down payment are based upon state law. However, some towns or counties might impose extra commitments. For example, Cook County, Evanston, Chicago, and Oak Park all have additional requirements that a property manager should abide by when taking down payment and provide steep charges when a property owner fails to comply.

Move-in Fee. In addition to or as an alternative to a down payment, a property manager may charge a move-in cost. Generally, there are no specific limitations on the quantity of a move-in charge, however, certain municipalities or counties do provide restrictions. TIP: A move-in fee needs to be nonrefundable, otherwise it might be deemed to be a down payment.

Landlord and occupant matters can become complex. Both landlord and renter need to seek advice from an attorney for support with specific problems. For additional information about your rights and obligations as a renter, consisting of 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 handout is prepared and published by the Illinois State Bar Association as a public service. Every effort has actually been made to supply accurate info at the time of publication.