Your Guide to Landlord-Tenant Law
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Your Guide to Landlord-Tenant Law
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Landlord-Tenant Law
At some time throughout their lives the majority of people will be included with the rental of realty, either as property owner or tenant. Laws that impact property managers and occupants can vary substantially from city to city. This handout provides basic information about being an occupant in Illinois. You must speak with a lawyer or your municipality or county as they may offer you with higher security under the law.
Tenancy Agreement
The relationship between property owner and tenant occurs from an agreement, written or oral, by which one celebration occupies the realty of another with the owner's approval in return for the payment of certain quantity as lease.
Written Agreement: Most occupancies remain in composing and are called a lease. No specific words are required to produce a lease, but generally the terms of a lease include a description of the realty, the length of the agreement, the quantity of the rent, and the time of payment. TIP: You should put your arrangement in writing to misconceptions.
Provisions in a lease agreement that secure a property manager from liability for damages to persons or residential or commercial property triggered by the negligence of the property manager are seen as being against public policy and are therefore unenforceable. Certain towns and counties have other limitations and restriction on particular lease terms, so you must seek advice from an attorney or your town or county.
Oral Agreement: If a tenancy arrangement is not in writing, the term of the agreement will, normally, be considered a month-to-month occupancy. The period is generally 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 difficult to identify, a celebration may be bound to the regards to an oral agreement just as much as a written one.
Termination of the Lease or Tenancy Agreement
If a lease is not for a specific term, it might be ended by either celebration with appropriate notification.
- For year-to-year occupancies, besides a lease of farmland, either party might end the lease by offering 60 days of written notice at any time within the four months preceding the last 60 days of the lease. - A week-to-week occupancy may be terminated by either celebration by giving 7 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 terminate need to be given a minimum of four months before the end of the term.
- In all other lease arrangements for a duration of less than one year, a celebration should give 1 month of written notification. Any notice given need to require termination on the last day of that rental period.
- The lease might likewise have actually specified requirements and timeframe for termination of the lease.
- In specific towns and counties, property owners are required to give more than the above specified notification duration for termination. You need to seek advice from a lawyer or your municipality or county.
If the lease does specify a particular expiration or termination date, no termination notification is needed. Know that your lease might likewise need notice of termination in a specific form or a greater notification duration than the minimum needed by law, if any. Landlords should keep in mind that no matter what the lease requires or mentions, you might be required to give more than the notification period specified in the lease for termination and in writing. You need to consult with a lawyer or your municipality or county.
Termination of a month-to-month occupancy usually just requires one month of notification by tenant and a property owner is required to serve a written notice of termination of occupancy on the occupant (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 seek advice from an attorney or your municipality or county.
Renewal of the Lease or Tenancy Agreement, Rental Increases
Generally, a lease might be renewed at any time by oral or written arrangement of the parties. If a lease term ends 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 same terms set forth in the lease.
The lease might need a specific notice and timeframe for restoring the lease. You need to examine your lease to confirm such requirements. Landlords and tenants ought to note that no matter what the lease needs or mentions, proprietors may also have constraints on how early they can require renewal of a lease by an occupant and are needed to put such in composing. You must talk to a lawyer or your municipality or county.
Month-to-month tenancies automatically renew from month to month up until ended by either proprietor or renter.
Unless there is a written lease, a property owner can raise the rent by any amount by providing the tenant notification: Seven days of notice for a week-to-week occupancy, 30 days of notification for a month-to-month occupancy, and 90 days of notice for mobile home parks. In specific municipalities and counties, landlords are needed to offer more than 7 or one month of notification of a rental boost, so you need to seek advice from with speak with an attorney 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 should submit an eviction to remove an occupant or resident from the premises.
Five-Day Notice. The most typical breach of a lease is for non-payment of rent. In this case the property manager should serve a five-day notice upon the delinquent tenant unless the lease requires more than 5 days of notice. Five days after such notification is served, the property manager may commence expulsion proceedings versus the occupant. If, nevertheless, the occupant pays the total of lease demanded in the five-day notice within those 5 days, the property owner may not continue with an eviction. The proprietor is not needed, however, to accept rent that is less than the exact quantity due. If the property manager accepts a tender of a lower quantity of lease, it may affect the rights to continue under the notice.
10-Day Notice. If a property manager wishes to end a lease because of a violation of the lease arrangement by the occupant, aside from for non-payment of rent, she or he must serve 10 days of written notice upon the occupant before eviction proceedings can begin, unless the lease requires more than 10 days of notice. Acceptance of rent after such notice is a waiver by the landlord of the right to terminate the lease unless the breach suffered is a continuing breach.
Holdover. If a tenant stays beyond the lease expiration date, generally, a proprietor may file an eviction without needing to very first serve a notice on the occupant. However, the regards to the lease or in particular municipalities or counties, a landlord is needed to offer a notification of non-renewal to the tenant, so you ought to speak with an attorney or your municipality or county.
Service on Demand Notice
The five-day, 10-day, or termination of month-to-month tenancy notices might be served upon occupant by providing a written or printed copy to the tenant, leaving the very same with some individual above the age of 13 years who lives at the celebration's house, or sending a copy of the notification to the celebration by licensed or signed up mail with a return receipt from the addressee. If nobody is in the actual ownership of the properties, then publishing notification on the facilities is enough.
Subletting or Assigning the Lease
Often, composed leases forbid the renter from subletting the premises without the written permission of the property owner. Such authorization can not be unreasonably withheld, however the prohibition is enforceable under the law. If there is no such restriction, then a renter might sublease or appoint their lease to another. In such cases, however, the renter will stay accountable to the property manager unless the landlord launches the original tenant. A breach of the sublease will not alter the preliminary relationship in between the property manager and occupant.
Breach by Landlord, Tenant Remedies
If the property owner has actually breached the lease by failing to meet their responsibilities under the lease, particular solutions emerge in favor of the tenant:
- The tenant might sue the property owner for damages sustained as a result of the breach. - If a property manager fails to maintain a rented house in a habitable condition, the occupant may have the ability to vacate the properties and terminate the lease under the theory of "positive eviction."
- The failure of a property owner to keep a leased residence in a livable condition or comply significantly with local housing codes may be a breach of the property owner's "implied warranty of habitability" (independent of any written lease arrangements or oral pledges), which the tenant may assert as a defense to an eviction based upon the non-payment of lease or a claim for reduction in the rental value of the properties. However, breach by property owner does not instantly entitle a renter to withhold rent or a reduction in the rental value. The commitment to pay rent continues as long as the renter remains in the leased facilities and to assert this defense successfully, the occupant will have to show that their damages arising from proprietor's breach of this "implied service warranty" equal or surpass the lease claimed due.
A proprietor's breach and occupant's damages might be hard to show. Because of the minimal and technical nature of these rules, tenants should be incredibly mindful in keeping rent and should most likely do so just after seeking advice from a lawyer.
Please note that certain towns or counties offer for specific obligations and requirements that the proprietor must carry out. If a property manager stops working to adhere to such commitments or requirements, the occupant might have extra solutions for such failure. You should consult with an attorney or your town or county.
Breach by the Tenant, Landlord Remedies
In addition to termination for particular breaches by occupant, a proprietor also has the following remedies:
If rent is not paid, the property manager may: (1) sue for the lease due or to end up being due in the future and (2) terminate the lease and gather any past rent due. Under specific scenarios in the occasion of non-payment of lease the property owner may hold the furniture and personal residential or commercial property of the occupant till previous lease is paid by the occupant.
If a renter stops working to leave the rented property at the end of the lease term, the renter may end up being liable for double lease for the duration of holdover if the holdover is deemed to be willful. The renter can also be kicked out.
If the tenant harms the premises, the property manager might take legal action against for the repair 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 stops working to comply with such responsibilities or requirements, the proprietor might have extra treatments for such failure. You must speak with an attorney or your town or county.
Discrimination
Under the federal Fair Housing Act and Illinois law, it is illegal for a property owner to discriminate in the leasing of a home home, flat, or house versus prospective occupants who have children under the age of 14. It is also unlawful for a landlord to discriminate versus a renter on the basis of race, religion, sex, national origin, source of income, sexual origination, gender identity, or special needs.
Security Deposits, Move-in Fee
Down payment. A renter can be needed to deposit with the property owner a sum of cash prior to inhabiting the residential or commercial property. This is normally referred to 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 ease the occupant of the responsibility to pay the last month's lease or for damage triggered to the premises. It should be gone back to the tenant upon leaving the facilities if no damage has been done beyond typical wear and tear and the rent is completely paid.
If a property owner fails to return the security deposit immediately, the renter can sue to recuperate the part of the down payment to which the tenant is entitled. In some towns or counties and particular situations under state law, when a landlord wrongfully withholds a renter's down payment the occupant may have the ability to recover additional damages and lawyers' charges. You should seek advice from a legal representative.
Generally, a property owner who receives a down payment might not withhold any part of that deposit as compensation for residential or commercial property damage unless he furnishes to the renter, within 1 month of the date the renter vacates, a declaration of damage apparently caused by the renter and the approximated or real cost of repairing or replacing each product on that statement. If no such declaration is provided within 30 days, the property owner should return the down payment completely within 45 days of the date the occupant vacated.
If a structure includes 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 computed at the rate paid by the largest bank in Illinois, as figured out by overall possessions, on a passbook security account.
The above declarations relating to down payment are based on state law. However, some towns or counties may enforce extra commitments. For instance, Cook County, Evanston, Chicago, and Oak Park all have extra requirements that a landlord should comply with when taking security deposits and supply high charges when a property manager fails to comply.
Move-in Fee. In addition to or as an alternative to a down payment, a landlord may charge a move-in cost. Generally, there are no particular constraints on the quantity of a move-in cost, however, certain municipalities or counties do provide limitations. TIP: A move-in cost should be nonrefundable, otherwise it might be deemed to be a down payment.
Landlord and renter matters can end up being complex. Both property manager and renter should consult an attorney for support with particular problems. For additional information about your rights and duties as a renter, consisting of particular landlord-tenant laws in your town or county, contact 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 pamphlet is prepared and released by the Illinois State Bar Association as a civil service. Every effort has actually been made to supply accurate details at the time of publication.
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