Your Guide to Landlord-Tenant Law

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Your Guide to Landlord-Tenant Law

Landlord-Tenant Law

At some point throughout their lives a lot of people will be included with the rental of realty, either as landlord or tenant. Laws that affect proprietors and tenants can vary significantly from city to city. This pamphlet provides general information about being a tenant in Illinois. You should seek advice from an attorney or your town or county as they may provide you with higher protection under the law.

Tenancy Agreement

The relationship between property owner and tenant emerges from an agreement, composed or oral, by which one party inhabits the property of another with the owner's authorization in return for the payment of specific amount as lease.

Written Agreement: Most tenancies are in writing and are called a lease. No specific words are required to create a lease, however normally the terms of a lease include a description of the property, the length of the agreement, the quantity of the lease, and the time of payment. TIP: You need to put your agreement in composing to prevent future misunderstandings.

Provisions in a lease arrangement that protect a property owner from liability for damages to persons or residential or commercial property triggered by the negligence of the proprietor are deemed being against public law and are for that reason unenforceable. Certain towns and counties have other restrictions and restriction on particular lease terms, so you ought to talk to a lawyer or your town or county.

Oral Agreement: If an occupancy contract is not in writing, the regard to the agreement will, typically, be considered a month-to-month tenancy. The period is normally determined 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 figure out, a party may be bound to the terms of an oral contract just 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 ended by either celebration with proper notice.

- For year-to-year tenancies, aside from a lease of farmland, either party might end the lease by giving 60 days of composed notice at any time within the 4 months preceding the last 60 days of the lease.
A week-to-week occupancy may be ended by either party by offering 7 days of composed notification to the other party.
Farm leases generally run for one year. Customarily, they start and end in March of each year. Notice to end should be given at least 4 months before completion of the term.
In all other lease arrangements for a period of less than one year, a celebration should provide 30 days of written notice. Any notice given ought to call for termination on the last day of that rental period.
The lease may likewise have stated requirements and timeframe for termination of the lease.
In specific municipalities and counties, property owners are needed to provide more than the above specified notice duration for termination. You must talk to a lawyer or your municipality or county.

If the lease does state a particular expiration or termination date, no termination notice is required. Be conscious that your lease may likewise require notice of termination in a particular kind or a higher notification period than the minimum needed by law, if any. Landlords should note that no matter what the lease needs or states, you may be required to provide more than the notification period stated in the lease for termination and in writing. You ought to seek advice from an attorney or your town or county.

Termination of a generally only needs 1 month of notice by renter and a property owner is required to serve a composed notice of termination of occupancy on the tenant (see Service as needed section below). In certain municipalities and counties, property owners are needed to offer more than 30 days of notification, so you must seek advice from seek advice from with an attorney or your town or county.

Renewal of the Lease or Tenancy Agreement, Rental Increases

Generally, a lease might be restored 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 automatically ends up being month-to-month based upon the very same terms stated in the lease.

The lease might require a particular notice and timeframe for restoring the lease. You need to examine your lease to validate such requirements. Landlords and occupants should note that no matter what the lease needs or specifies, proprietors may also have constraints on how early they can require renewal of a lease by a renter and are needed to put such in composing. You need to seek advice from a lawyer or your municipality or county.

Month-to-month occupancies automatically renew from month to month up until ended by either proprietor or renter.

Unless there is a written lease, a property manager can raise the rent by any amount by offering the renter notification: Seven days of notification for a week-to-week occupancy, thirty days of notice for a month-to-month tenancy, and 90 days of notification for mobile home parks. In specific towns and counties, property owners are needed to give more than seven or one month of notice of a rental increase, so you need to talk to seek advice from 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 submit an expulsion to remove a tenant or resident 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 should 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 manager might commence eviction proceedings against the occupant. If, nevertheless, the tenant pays the complete amount of rent required in the five-day notice within those five days, the proprietor might not proceed with an expulsion. The property owner is not needed, however, to accept lease that is less than the specific amount due. If the proprietor accepts a tender of a lesser amount of rent, it may impact the rights to proceed under the notice.

10-Day Notice. If a property manager wishes to end a lease due to the fact that of an infraction of the lease agreement by the tenant, besides for non-payment of lease, she or he need to serve 10 days of written notification upon the tenant before eviction proceedings can start, unless the lease requires more than 10 days of notification. Acceptance of rent after such notice is a waiver by the landlord of the right to terminate the lease unless the breach complained of is a continuing breach.

Holdover. If an occupant remains beyond the lease expiration date, typically, a property owner might submit an eviction without needing to very first serve a notification on the occupant. However, the regards to the lease or in certain towns or counties, a property manager is required to supply a notification of non-renewal to the occupant, so you need to consult 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 occupant by delivering a written or printed copy to the renter, leaving the same with some individual above the age of 13 years who lives at the party's house, 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 remains in the actual possession of the facilities, then publishing notice on the properties suffices.

Subletting or Assigning the Lease

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

Breach by Landlord, Tenant Remedies

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

- The tenant may take legal action against the property owner for damages sustained as a result of the breach.
If a property owner fails to preserve a leased residence in a habitable condition, the occupant might have the ability to vacate the facilities and end the lease under the theory of "useful expulsion."
The failure of a landlord to maintain a leased house in a habitable condition or comply substantially with local housing codes might be a breach of the landlord's "suggested service warranty of habitability" (independent of any written lease provisions or oral pledges), which the renter may assert as a defense to an eviction based upon the non-payment of rent or a claim for reduction in the rental worth of the facilities. However, breach by landlord does not instantly entitle an occupant to withhold lease or a reduction in the rental value. The obligation to pay rent continues as long as the occupant remains in the leased properties and to assert this defense effectively, the renter will have to show that their damages arising from property manager's breach of this "implied service warranty" equal or go beyond the lease claimed due.

A property owner's breach and renter's damages may be difficult to prove. Because of the limited and technical nature of these guidelines, tenants must be incredibly careful in keeping rent and should most likely do so just after seeking advice from a lawyer.

Please note that certain towns or counties offer specific responsibilities and requirements that the landlord should carry out. If a landlord stops working to abide by such obligations or requirements, the tenant may have extra treatments for such failure. You need to seek advice from with a lawyer or your town or county.

Breach by the Tenant, Landlord Remedies

In addition to termination for certain breaches by renter, a property owner also has the following remedies:

If lease is not paid, the proprietor may: (1) demand the lease due or to end up being due in the future and (2) end the lease and gather any past lease due. Under certain situations in the occasion of non-payment of rent the landlord may hold the furniture and personal residential or commercial property of the renter till previous lease is paid by the renter.

If a tenant fails to vacate the leased premise at the end of the lease term, the tenant might become responsible for double rent for the period of holdover if the holdover is considered to be willful. The renter can likewise be evicted.

If the tenant harms the facilities, the landlord may demand the repair of such damages.

Please note that specific towns or counties offer for particular responsibilities and requirements that the occupant need to fulfill. If an occupant stops working to abide by such commitments or requirements, the property owner might have additional remedies for such failure. You should consult with an attorney or your municipality or county.

Discrimination

Under the federal Fair Housing Act and Illinois law, it is unlawful for a proprietor to discriminate in the leasing of a home home, flat, or home against potential renters who have kids under the age of 14. It is likewise illegal for a property manager to victimize a renter on the basis of race, religion, sex, nationwide origin, income, sexual origination, gender identity, or disability.

Down Payment, Move-in Fee

Security Deposit. An occupant can be needed to deposit with the property manager a sum of cash prior to occupying the residential or commercial property. This is usually described as a down payment. This cash is considered 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 needs to be gone back to the renter upon vacating the premises if no damage has actually been done beyond regular wear and tear and the rent is completely paid.

If a proprietor stops working to return the security deposit promptly, the occupant can sue to recover the portion of the down payment to which the occupant is entitled. In some towns or counties and certain scenarios under state law, when a landlord wrongfully withholds an occupant's down payment the renter might have the ability to recover additional damages and lawyers' fees. You ought to seek advice from a legal representative.

Generally, a landlord who receives a down payment might not withhold any part of that deposit as payment for residential or commercial property damage unless he furnishes to the occupant, within thirty days of the date the tenant leaves, a declaration of damage presumably brought on by the occupant and the estimated or real cost of repairing or changing each product on that declaration. If no such declaration is furnished within 30 days, the property owner needs to return the down payment completely within 45 days of the date the occupant vacated.

If a structure consists of 25 or more property systems, the property manager must 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 determined by overall properties, on a passbook security account.

The above declarations regarding security deposits are based on state law. However, some towns or counties might impose extra responsibilities. For example, Cook County, Evanston, Chicago, and Oak Park all have additional requirements that a property manager need to comply with when taking down payment and offer high charges when a property owner 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 cost. Generally, there are no specific restrictions on the quantity of a move-in charge, nevertheless, certain municipalities or counties do offer constraints. TIP: A move-in cost ought to be nonrefundable, otherwise it could be deemed to be a security deposit.

Landlord and tenant matters can end up being complex. Both property owner and occupant need to consult an attorney for support with specific issues. For more details about your rights and responsibilities as a tenant, consisting of specific landlord-tenant laws in your municipality or county, contact 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 ready and published by the Illinois State Bar Association as a public service. Every effort has been made to offer precise information at the time of publication.
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