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Your Guide to Landlord-Tenant Law

Landlord-Tenant Law

At some point during their lives a lot of individuals will be included with the rental of genuine estate, either as property manager or renter. Laws that affect landlords and renters can differ significantly from city to city. This handout offers basic info about being an occupant in Illinois. You should seek advice from an attorney or your town or county as they might offer you with higher security under the law.

Tenancy Agreement

The relationship in between property owner and renter develops from a contract, written or oral, by which one celebration inhabits the property of another with the owner's authorization in return for the payment of certain amount as rent.

Written Agreement: Most occupancies remain in composing and are called a lease. No particular words are needed to produce a lease, but normally the terms of a lease include a description of the realty, the length of the contract, the amount of the lease, and the time of payment. TIP: You should put your agreement in composing to avoid future misconceptions.

Provisions in a lease contract that protect a landlord from liability for damages to individuals or residential or commercial property brought on by the neglect of the landlord are considered as being against public policy and are for that reason unenforceable. Certain municipalities and counties have other restrictions and prohibition on particular lease terms, so you ought to speak with a lawyer or your municipality or county.

Oral Agreement: If an occupancy contract is not in writing, the term of the contract will, usually, be thought about a month-to-month tenancy. The period is generally figured out by the frequency of the rental payments. For instance: week to week, month to month, or year to year. Although the terms of an oral lease may be challenging to determine, a celebration might 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 might be terminated by either party with appropriate notice.

- For year-to-year tenancies, besides a lease of farmland, either party may terminate the lease by giving 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 might be terminated by either party by providing seven days of written notice to the other party.
- Farm leases generally run for one year. Customarily, they begin and end in March of each year. Notice to end need to be given a minimum of 4 months before the end of the term.
- In all other lease contracts for a duration of less than one year, a party must give one month of written notification. Any notice provided should require termination on the last day of that rental duration.
- The lease might also have actually specified requirements and timeframe for termination of the lease.
- In particular municipalities and counties, proprietors are required to provide more than the above specified notice duration for termination. You ought to seek advice from a lawyer or your municipality or county.

If the lease does specify a particular expiration or termination date, no termination notice is required. Be mindful that your lease may also need notification of termination in a specific type 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 states, you may be needed to give more than the notice period mentioned in the lease for termination and in composing. You ought to speak with an attorney or your town or county.

Termination of a month-to-month tenancy generally only needs 30 days of notice by renter and a landlord is required to serve a written notification of termination of tenancy on the renter (see Service as needed area listed below). In particular municipalities and counties, proprietors are required to give more than one month of notification, so you ought to consult with seek advice from with a lawyer 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 property owner accepts rent following the expiration of the term, the lease term automatically ends up being month-to-month based upon the exact same terms set forth in the lease.

The lease may need a specific notification and timeframe for restoring the lease. You need to review your lease to verify such requirements. Landlords and renters should note that no matter what the lease needs or states, landlords might likewise have restrictions on how early they can need renewal of a lease by an occupant and are needed to put such in writing. You ought to seek advice from an attorney or your town or county.

Month-to-month tenancies instantly renew from month to month till terminated by either landlord or occupant.

Unless there is a composed lease, a property owner can raise the rent by any quantity by providing the occupant notice: Seven days of notice for a week-to-week tenancy, 30 days of notification for a month-to-month occupancy, and 90 days of notification for mobile home parks. In particular municipalities and counties, property managers are required to provide more than 7 or thirty days of notification of a rental increase, so you ought to consult with speak with a lawyer or your town or county.

Eviction, Termination of Tenants Right to Possession

In Illinois, a landlord does not have a right to self-help and need to file an expulsion to remove a renter or resident from the facilities.

Five-Day Notice. The most typical breach of a lease is for non-payment of rent. In this case the landlord need to serve a five-day notification upon the overdue occupant unless the lease requires more than five days of notice. Five days after such notification is served, the property manager might begin expulsion proceedings against the renter. If, nevertheless, the occupant pays the full amount of rent required in the five-day notification within those five days, the proprietor might not proceed with an expulsion. The landlord is not needed, however, to accept lease that is less than the exact quantity due. If the property owner accepts a tender of a lower quantity of rent, it may affect the rights to continue under the notification.

10-Day Notice. If a proprietor wants to terminate a lease since of an infraction of the lease contract by the occupant, aside from for non-payment of rent, she or he should serve 10 days of composed notification upon the occupant before eviction proceedings can start, unless the lease needs 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 a tenant remains beyond the lease expiration date, normally, a property manager may file an eviction without having to very first serve a notice on the renter. However, the terms of the lease or in particular municipalities or counties, a property owner is required to offer a notice of non-renewal to the occupant, so you should speak with an attorney or your municipality or county.

Service as needed Notice

The five-day, 10-day, or termination of month-to-month occupancy notices might be served upon tenant by providing a composed or printed copy to the tenant, leaving the exact same with some individual above the age of 13 years who lives at the celebration's residence, or sending out a copy of the notice to the celebration by licensed or signed up mail with a return invoice from the addressee. If nobody is in the actual possession of the properties, then publishing notification on the properties suffices.

Subletting or Assigning the Lease

Often, written leases forbid the renter from subletting the premises without the written authorization of the property manager. Such authorization can not be unreasonably kept, but the restriction is enforceable under the law. If there is no such restriction, then an occupant may sublease or designate their lease to another. In such cases, nevertheless, the tenant will stay accountable to the property manager unless the proprietor releases the initial renter. A breach of the sublease will not alter the initial relationship between the landlord and occupant.

Breach by Landlord, Tenant Remedies

If the proprietor has actually breached the lease by stopping working to fulfill their duties under the lease, certain remedies arise in favor of the occupant:

- The tenant may sue the landlord for damages sustained as a result of the breach.
- If a property manager fails to maintain a rented home in a livable condition, the tenant may have the ability to vacate the premises and terminate the lease under the theory of "constructive expulsion."
- The failure of a proprietor to maintain a leased residence in a livable condition or comply significantly with local housing codes might be a breach of the proprietor's "suggested warranty of habitability" (independent of any composed lease provisions or oral pledges), which the tenant might 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 landlord does not automatically entitle a tenant to withhold lease or a reduction in the rental value. The responsibility to pay lease continues as long as the occupant remains in the leased premises and to assert this defense successfully, the occupant will have to reveal that their damages resulting from property owner's breach of this "implied guarantee" equal or exceed the rent claimed due.

A property manager's breach and occupant's damages may be tough to show. Because of the limited and technical nature of these guidelines, occupants should be extremely careful in keeping lease and ought to probably do so only after seeking advice from an attorney.

Please note that certain municipalities or counties provide for specific obligations and requirements that the property manager need to perform. If a property owner fails to comply with such commitments or requirements, the tenant may have additional treatments for such failure. You ought to talk to a lawyer or your municipality or county.

Breach by the Tenant, Landlord Remedies

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

If lease is not paid, the proprietor may: (1) take legal action against for the lease due or to become due in the future and (2) end the lease and gather any previous rent due. Under certain situations in the event of non-payment of lease the property owner might hold the furniture and personal residential or commercial property of the tenant up until previous rent is paid by the tenant.

If a renter stops working to leave the rented property at the end of the lease term, the renter might end up being responsible for double rent 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 premises, the property owner may demand the repair of such damages.

Please note that particular towns or counties attend to specific obligations and requirements that the tenant must meet. If a tenant fails to abide by such commitments or requirements, the property manager might have additional solutions for such failure. You need to seek advice from an attorney or your town or county.

Discrimination

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

Down Payment, Move-in Fee

Security Deposit. A tenant can be needed to deposit with the property manager a sum of money prior to inhabiting the residential or commercial property. This is generally referred to as a down payment. This cash is deemed to be security for any damage to the facilities or non-payment of rent. The security deposit does not alleviate the tenant of the task to pay the last month's lease or for damage caused to the premises. It needs to be gone back to the renter upon abandoning the properties if no damage has been done beyond typical wear and tear and the rent is totally paid.

If a landlord fails to return the security deposit without delay, the occupant can take legal action against to recuperate the part of the down payment to which the renter is entitled. In some towns or counties and certain circumstances under state law, when a property owner wrongfully keeps a tenant's down payment the tenant may 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 security deposit might not withhold any part of that deposit as settlement for residential or commercial property damage unless he provides to the tenant, within 1 month of the date the tenant vacates, a declaration of damage presumably triggered by the renter and the estimated or actual expense of fixing or changing each item on that declaration. If no such declaration is provided within one month, the property manager needs to return the down payment in full within 45 days of the date the tenant left.

If a structure contains 25 or more domestic 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 biggest bank in Illinois, as figured out by overall properties, on a passbook security account.

The above declarations relating to security deposits are based upon state law. However, some towns or counties might impose extra commitments. For instance, Cook County, Evanston, Chicago, and Oak Park all have extra requirements that a proprietor must abide by when taking security deposits and supply 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 fee. Generally, there are no specific limitations on the quantity of a move-in charge, however, particular municipalities or counties do provide restrictions. TIP: A move-in charge needs to be nonrefundable, otherwise it might be considered to be a security deposit.

Landlord and tenant matters can become complex. Both landlord and occupant should seek advice from a lawyer for assistance with particular problems. To learn more about your rights and duties as a tenant, including particular landlord-tenant laws in your municipality 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 prepared and released by the Illinois State Bar Association as a civil service. Every effort has been made to offer precise info at the time of publication.