Your Guide to Landlord-Tenant Law
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Your Guide to Landlord-Tenant Law
Landlord-Tenant Law
At some point during their lives most people will be involved with the rental of realty, either as property owner or occupant. Laws that affect property owners and renters can vary considerably from city to city. This handout supplies general details about being a tenant in Illinois. You need to speak with an attorney or your municipality or county as they may provide you with higher protection under the law.
Tenancy Agreement
The relationship between property owner and occupant develops from an agreement, composed or oral, by which one party occupies the property of another with the owner's consent in return for the payment of certain amount as rent.
Written Agreement: Most tenancies are in writing and are called a lease. No specific words are essential to create a lease, however normally the regards to a lease include a description of the genuine estate, the length of the agreement, the quantity of the lease, and the time of payment. TIP: You should put your agreement in composing to avoid future misconceptions.
Provisions in a lease arrangement that protect a property owner from liability for damages to persons or residential or commercial property brought on by the negligence of the property owner are deemed protesting public policy and are therefore unenforceable. Certain towns and counties have other constraints and prohibition on particular lease terms, so you need to seek advice from an attorney or your town or county.
Oral Agreement: If an occupancy agreement is not in writing, the regard to the arrangement will, generally, 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 terms of an oral lease may be tough to determine, a celebration might be bound to the terms of an oral arrangement just as much as a composed 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 notification.
- For year-to-year tenancies, other than a lease of farmland, either celebration might terminate the lease by providing 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 may be ended by either party by offering seven days of composed notification to the other celebration.
- Farm leases normally run for one year. Customarily, they begin and end in March of each year. Notice to terminate must be offered at least four months before completion of the term.
- In all other lease contracts for a duration of less than one year, a celebration should give 1 month of composed notice. Any notification given need to require termination on the last day of that rental duration.
- The lease might likewise have actually mentioned requirements and timeframe for termination of the lease.
- In particular municipalities and counties, property managers are required to provide more than the above stated notice duration for termination. You must seek advice from with an attorney or your municipality or county.
If the lease does specify a particular expiration or termination date, no termination notice is essential. Know that your lease might likewise need notice of termination in a particular form or a higher notice duration than the minimum needed by law, if any. Landlords must note that no matter what the lease needs or specifies, you may be needed to give more than the notice period stated in the lease for termination and in writing. You need to seek advice from an attorney or your municipality or county.
Termination of a month-to-month tenancy usually just requires 30 days of notification by tenant and a property owner is needed to serve a composed notification of termination of tenancy on the tenant (see Service as needed area listed below). In specific municipalities and counties, property managers are needed to offer more than 30 days of notification, so you need to consult with seek advice from an attorney or your municipality or county.
Renewal of the Lease or Tenancy Agreement, Rental Increases
Generally, a lease might be restored at any time by oral or written arrangement 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 on the exact same terms stated in the lease.
The lease might need a particular notice and timeframe for renewing the lease. You should review your lease to verify such requirements. Landlords and tenants ought to keep in mind that no matter what the lease requires or mentions, landlords might also have constraints on how early they can require renewal of a lease by a tenant and are required to put such in composing. You should talk to a lawyer or your town or county.
Month-to-month tenancies automatically restore from month to month until terminated by either proprietor or renter.
Unless there is a written lease, a landlord can raise the lease by any amount by providing the occupant notice: Seven days of notification for a week-to-week tenancy, 30 days of notice for a month-to-month tenancy, and 90 days of notification for mobile home parks. In certain towns and counties, proprietors are needed to give more than seven or one month of notification of a rental boost, so you ought to speak with seek advice from a lawyer 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 need to file an eviction to get rid of an occupant or occupant from the facilities.
Five-Day Notice. The most common breach of a lease is for non-payment of lease. In this case the landlord must serve a five-day notification upon the overdue tenant unless the lease requires more than five days of notification. Five days after such notification is served, the property owner might commence eviction procedures versus the tenant. If, nevertheless, the renter pays the complete quantity of lease demanded in the five-day notice within those 5 days, the property manager might not continue with an eviction. The property manager is not needed, however, to accept rent that is less than the exact amount due. If the property owner accepts a tender of a lower amount of rent, it might affect the rights to continue under the notification.
10-Day Notice. If a property manager wishes to terminate a lease due to the fact that of an infraction of the lease agreement by the occupant, other than for non-payment of lease, he or she must serve 10 days of written notice upon the tenant before expulsion proceedings can start, unless the lease requires more than 10 days of notification. Acceptance of lease after such notification is a waiver by the landlord of the right to end the lease unless the breach grumbled of is a continuing breach.
Holdover. If a renter remains beyond the lease expiration date, typically, a property manager may file an eviction without having to very first serve a notice on the occupant. However, the terms of the lease or in particular towns or counties, a landlord is required to provide a notification of non-renewal to the occupant, so you should seek advice from with an attorney or your municipality or county.
Service on Demand Notice
The five-day, 10-day, or termination of month-to-month occupancy notices might be served upon tenant by delivering a composed or printed copy to the renter, leaving the very same with some person 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 certified or signed up mail with a return receipt from the addressee. If no one remains in the real ownership of the premises, then publishing notification on the premises is adequate.
Subletting or Assigning the Lease
Often, composed leases forbid the tenant from subletting the premises without the written permission of the proprietor. Such approval can not be unreasonably withheld, however the prohibition is enforceable under the law. If there is no such restriction, then a tenant might sublease or appoint their lease to another. In such cases, nevertheless, the occupant will remain responsible to the landlord unless the property manager releases the original occupant. A breach of the sublease will not change the initial relationship between the property manager and renter.
Breach by Landlord, Tenant Remedies
If the property manager has actually breached the lease by stopping working to fulfill their tasks under the lease, certain solutions arise in favor of the occupant:
- The occupant may take legal action against the property owner for damages sustained as a result of the breach. - If a property owner fails to maintain a leased house in a habitable condition, the renter may have the ability to vacate the properties and terminate the lease under the theory of "positive eviction."
- The failure of a property manager to maintain a leased residence in a livable condition or comply significantly with regional housing codes might be a breach of the proprietor's "implied service warranty of habitability" (independent of any composed lease arrangements or oral guarantees), which the renter might assert as a defense to an expulsion based on the non-payment of lease or a claim for decrease in the rental worth of the properties. However, breach by property owner does not automatically entitle a tenant to withhold lease or a reduction in the rental value. The commitment to pay lease continues as long as the occupant stays in the leased premises and to assert this defense successfully, the tenant will have to show that their damages resulting from property manager's breach of this "implied guarantee" equal or go beyond the lease claimed due.
A landlord's breach and tenant's damages might be hard to prove. Because of the limited and technical nature of these rules, renters need to be exceptionally careful in keeping rent and ought to most likely do so only after consulting an attorney.
Please note that certain towns or counties attend to particular responsibilities and requirements that the landlord should perform. If a landlord fails to adhere to such commitments or requirements, the renter might have extra remedies for such failure. You should 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 occupant, a proprietor likewise has the following treatments:
If lease is not paid, the proprietor may: (1) demand the rent due or to become due in the future and (2) end the lease and gather any past rent due. Under specific situations in the occasion of non-payment of lease the landlord may hold the furnishings and personal residential or commercial property of the occupant until previous rent is paid by the renter.
If an occupant fails to leave the leased premise at the end of the lease term, the renter might become liable for double rent for the period of holdover if the holdover is considered to be willful. The renter can likewise be forced out.
If the occupant damages the facilities, the proprietor may demand the repair of such damages.
Please note that particular towns or counties attend to certain responsibilities and requirements that the tenant should meet. If a tenant stops working to adhere to such obligations or requirements, the landlord may have extra treatments for such failure. You must consult with an attorney or your town 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 residence house, flat, or apartment or condo against potential tenants who have children under the age of 14. It is likewise illegal for a property manager to discriminate versus a tenant on the basis of race, religious beliefs, sex, national origin, source of income, sexual origination, gender identity, or impairment.
Security Deposits, Move-in Fee
Security Deposit. A tenant can be required to deposit with the property manager an amount of money prior to occupying the residential or commercial property. This is typically referred to as a down payment. This money is considered to be security for any damage to the properties or non-payment of rent. The security deposit does not eliminate the renter of the responsibility to pay the last month's lease or for damage triggered to the properties. It should be returned to the tenant upon vacating the properties if no damage has been done beyond typical wear and tear and the rent is completely paid.
If a property owner stops working to return the security deposit immediately, the occupant can take legal action against to recover the portion of the security deposit to which the renter is entitled. In some municipalities or and certain situations under state law, when a proprietor wrongfully withholds a renter's security deposit the renter may have the ability to recover additional damages and attorneys' charges. You need to talk to an attorney.
Generally, a property manager who gets 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 30 days of the date the tenant leaves, a declaration of damage apparently brought on by the occupant and the estimated or actual cost of fixing or changing each item on that declaration. If no such declaration is provided within 1 month, the property owner must return the down payment in full within 45 days of the date the tenant left.
If a building contains 25 or more domestic systems, the proprietor 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 assets, on a passbook security account.
The above declarations relating to security deposits are based on 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 landlord need to comply with when taking security deposits and offer steep charges when a property owner fails to comply.
Move-in Fee. In addition to or as an option to a security deposit, a proprietor might charge a move-in fee. Generally, there are no specific limitations on the amount of a move-in charge, however, specific municipalities or counties do supply constraints. TIP: A move-in fee should be nonrefundable, otherwise it could be considered to be a down payment.
Landlord and occupant matters can become complex. Both property owner and tenant need to seek advice from a lawyer for help with specific problems. To find out more about your rights and obligations as a tenant, including specific landlord-tenant laws in your town or county, call your local bar association, or check out 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.
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