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Your Guide to Landlord-Tenant Law

Landlord-Tenant Law

At some time during their lives the majority of people will be involved with the leasing of genuine estate, either as landlord or tenant. Laws that affect landlords and renters can vary substantially from city to city. This pamphlet supplies basic details about being a tenant in Illinois. You ought to consult with an attorney or your municipality or county as they may provide you with higher protection under the law.

Tenancy Agreement

The relationship in between landlord and tenant develops from an agreement, written or oral, by which one party occupies the genuine estate of another with the owner's authorization in return for the payment of certain quantity as rent.

Written Agreement: Most occupancies are in writing and are called a lease. No particular words are essential to produce a lease, but usually the regards to a lease consist of a description of the realty, the length of the agreement, the amount of the lease, and the time of payment. TIP: You must put your contract in composing to prevent future misconceptions.

Provisions in a lease arrangement that safeguard a proprietor 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 constraints and restriction on specific lease terms, so you ought to consult with a lawyer or your town or county.

Oral Agreement: If a tenancy arrangement is not in writing, the term of the arrangement will, normally, 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 regards to an oral lease might be tough to figure out, a celebration may 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 might be terminated by either party with appropriate notification.

- For year-to-year tenancies, other than a lease of farmland, either party might terminate 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 might be ended by either celebration by providing seven days of composed 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 must be provided at least 4 months before the end of the term.
In all other lease arrangements for a period of less than one year, a celebration needs to give 1 month of composed notice. Any notice provided must call for termination on the last day of that rental duration.
The lease may likewise have stated requirements and timeframe for termination of the lease.
In particular towns and counties, landlords are needed to offer 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 specific expiration or termination date, no termination notification is needed. Know that your lease may also require notification of termination in a particular type or a greater notification duration than the minimum needed by law, if any. Landlords ought to keep in mind that no matter what the lease needs or specifies, you might be required to give more than the notice period specified in the lease for termination and in composing. You must seek advice from a lawyer or your municipality or county.

Termination of a month-to-month occupancy usually just requires thirty days of notice by renter and a property manager is required to serve a composed notice of termination of tenancy on the tenant (see Service as needed section listed below). In certain towns and counties, proprietors are required to offer more than thirty days of notice, so you should speak with talk to 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 agreement of the celebrations. If a lease term ends 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 restoring the lease. You should review your lease to validate such requirements. Landlords and renters must note that no matter what the lease requires or specifies, proprietors may likewise have restrictions on how early they can require renewal of a lease by an occupant and are required to put such in composing. You need to seek advice from an attorney or your municipality or county.

Month-to-month occupancies immediately renew from month to month till terminated by either property owner or renter.

Unless there is a composed lease, a property manager can raise the lease by any amount by offering the renter notification: Seven days of notice for a week-to-week tenancy, thirty days of notice for a month-to-month occupancy, and 90 days of notice for mobile home parks. In particular municipalities and counties, property owners are required to give more than seven or one month of notice of a rental boost, so you should speak with seek advice from 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 must submit an eviction to eliminate a renter or occupant from the premises.

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

10-Day Notice. If a landlord wishes to end a lease due to the fact that of a violation of the lease agreement by the renter, other than for non-payment of rent, she or he should serve 10 days of composed notice 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 landlord of the right to end the lease unless the breach suffered is a continuing breach.

Holdover. If an occupant stays beyond the lease expiration date, typically, a may file an expulsion without having to very first serve a notification on the occupant. However, the terms of the lease or in particular towns or counties, a proprietor is required to supply a notification of non-renewal to the occupant, so you ought to speak with a lawyer 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 person above the age of 13 years who lives at the party's home, or sending out a copy of the notice to the celebration by certified or signed up mail with a return receipt from the addressee. If nobody is in the actual possession of the properties, then publishing notice on the properties suffices.

Subletting or Assigning the Lease

Often, composed leases forbid the tenant from subletting the facilities without the written consent of the landlord. Such authorization can not be unreasonably withheld, however the restriction is enforceable under the law. If there is no such restriction, then an occupant might sublease or designate their lease to another. In such cases, nevertheless, the tenant will stay responsible to the property manager unless the proprietor releases the original occupant. A breach of the sublease will not change the preliminary relationship between the property owner and tenant.

Breach by Landlord, Tenant Remedies

If the landlord has actually breached the lease by failing to satisfy their tasks under the lease, certain remedies occur in favor of the renter:

- The occupant may sue the property manager for damages sustained as a result of the breach.
If a landlord fails to maintain a leased house in a livable condition, the occupant may have the ability to abandon the premises and terminate the lease under the theory of "constructive expulsion."
The failure of a proprietor to keep a leased home in a livable condition or comply significantly with regional housing codes may be a breach of the proprietor's "indicated service warranty of habitability" (independent of any composed lease provisions or oral pledges), which the occupant might assert as a defense to an eviction based on the non-payment of lease or a claim for reduction in the rental worth of the properties. However, breach by property owner does not immediately entitle an occupant to keep rent or a decrease in the rental value. The responsibility to pay rent continues as long as the renter remains in the leased facilities and to assert this defense effectively, the renter will have to show that their damages resulting from property owner's breach of this "implied guarantee" equivalent or exceed the lease declared due.

A proprietor's breach and renter's damages might be challenging to show. Because of the limited and technical nature of these guidelines, occupants ought to be exceptionally careful in withholding lease and should probably do so only after speaking with a lawyer.

Please note that specific towns or counties offer certain responsibilities and requirements that the proprietor must perform. If a landlord stops working to adhere to such commitments or requirements, the occupant might have additional remedies for such failure. You need to consult with 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 solutions:

If rent is not paid, the property manager might: (1) sue for the lease due or to end up being due in the future and (2) end the lease and collect any past rent due. Under specific situations in the occasion of non-payment of lease the property manager might hold the furnishings and personal residential or commercial property of the renter until past lease is paid by the tenant.

If a tenant stops working to vacate the rented facility at the end of the lease term, the renter might become liable for double lease for the duration of holdover if the holdover is deemed to be willful. The occupant can likewise be forced out.

If the renter harms the premises, the landlord may demand the repair work of such damages.

Please note that certain municipalities or counties attend to particular obligations and requirements that the tenant need to satisfy. If a renter fails to abide by such responsibilities or requirements, the property owner may have extra solutions for such failure. You should seek advice from with a lawyer or your municipality 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 dwelling home, flat, or home against prospective tenants who have kids under the age of 14. It is also unlawful for a property manager to victimize a renter on the basis of race, faith, sex, nationwide origin, income source, sexual origination, gender identity, or impairment.

Security Deposits, Move-in Fee

Security Deposit. A tenant can be required to deposit with the property owner a sum of money prior to occupying the residential or commercial property. This is generally described as a security deposit. This money is deemed to be security for any damage to the premises or non-payment of lease. The down payment does not eliminate the tenant of the responsibility to pay the last month's rent or for damage triggered to the properties. It must be returned to the occupant upon vacating the properties if no damage has actually been done beyond typical wear and tear and the lease is fully paid.

If a landlord stops working to return the security deposit quickly, the occupant can sue to recover the portion of the down payment to which the tenant is entitled. In some municipalities or counties and particular situations under state law, when a property manager wrongfully keeps a tenant's security deposit the occupant may be able to recuperate additional damages and attorneys' charges. You ought to seek advice from with a lawyer.

Generally, a landlord who receives a down payment may not withhold any part of that deposit as compensation for residential or commercial property damage unless he provides to the tenant, within thirty days of the date the tenant leaves, a declaration of damage supposedly triggered by the tenant and the approximated or actual cost of repairing or replacing each product on that declaration. If no such statement is provided within thirty days, the landlord must return the down payment in complete within 45 days of the date the occupant vacated.

If a structure consists of 25 or more domestic systems, 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 figured out by total properties, on a passbook security account.

The above statements concerning down payment are based upon state law. However, some towns or counties might enforce additional responsibilities. For example, Cook County, Evanston, Chicago, and Oak Park all have additional requirements that a property owner need to abide by when taking security deposits and offer steep charges when a landlord fails to comply.

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

Landlord and renter matters can end up being complex. Both landlord and occupant should consult a lawyer for assistance with particular issues. For additional information about your rights and obligations as a renter, including particular landlord-tenant laws in your town 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 Bar Association's Real Estate Law Section (2024 )

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