Illinois Landlord-Tenant Laws

Verified October 1, 2026 Correction October 8, 2026

Legislative changes ahead — not yet in force. This page reflects the law in force today. The following measure would change Illinois's landlord-tenant law:

SB 1260 (104th General Assembly, 2025-2026) — Would repeal the Rent Control Preemption Act (50 ILCS 825), removing the statewide bar on local rent control. Status: Filed January 28, 2025 and referred to the Senate Committee on Assignments the same day; no committee or floor action since. It dies when the 104th General Assembly's term ends in January 2027. (checked October 1, 2026).

Illinois at a glance

Rule	Illinois	Cited to
Max security deposit	No statutory cap	765 ILCS 710/1 (Security Deposit Return Act) +3 more
Deposit return deadline	45 days	765 ILCS 710/1 (Security Deposit Return Act) +3 more
Rent-increase notice (month-to-month)	No statute — derived from termination notice	735 ILCS 5/9-207 +3 more
Statewide rent control / rent cap	No	735 ILCS 5/9-207 +3 more
Late-fee cap	No statutory cap	765 ILCS 705 (Landlord and Tenant Act; no late-fee provision) +1 more
Entry notice	No fixed statutory period	765 ILCS 705 (Landlord and Tenant Act; no entry-notice provision) +1 more
Eviction notice (nonpayment)	5 days	735 ILCS 5/9-209 +17 more
Application fee cap	No statutory cap	765 ILCS 705/30 +24 more
Interest owed on deposits	Conditional — owed only in certain circumstances	765 ILCS 715/1 (Security Deposit Interest Act; coverage, the six-month condition and the rate) +6 more
Repair deadline after tenant notice	14 days	765 ILCS 705/20 (heating and cooling standards; the 55-and-over limiter in subsection (c)) +16 more
Repair and deduct	Yes — authorized by statute	765 ILCS 705/20 (heating and cooling standards; the 55-and-over limiter in subsection (c)) +16 more
Landlord notice to end a month-to-month tenancy	30 days (2 counting rules)	735 ILCS 5/9-207 +31 more
Owner and agent identity disclosure	No duty	765 ILCS 705/1 (Landlord and Tenant Act — exculpatory covenants) +30 more
In-force state hazard disclosures beyond the federal lead-paint rule	2	765 ILCS 705/1 (Landlord and Tenant Act — exculpatory covenants) +30 more
Pet deposit	No statute, no cap	310 ILCS 120/5 +15 more
Assistance animals: the state instrument	Documentation statute or rule	310 ILCS 120/5 +15 more

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Illinois Landlord-Tenant Laws (verified October 1, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/illinois/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Every figure above is cited to the Illinois statute it comes from on the linked topic page.

Local rent regulation in Illinois

Illinois's Rent Control Preemption Act forbids every unit of local government, including home-rule cities such as Chicago, from controlling the amount of rent charged for private residential or commercial property; the only exception is residential property in which the local government itself has a property interest.

Chicago — Rent Control (none; barred by state law)

Cited to Rent Control Preemption Act, 50 ILCS 825 · Verified October 1, 2026 · Full Illinois rent-increase rules →

Illinois landlord-tenant laws by topic

Illinois security deposits

Illinois sets no statewide cap on security deposits for an ordinary residential lease.

Illinois rent increase notice

Illinois has no general statute setting a notice period for rent increases; the effective floor for a month-to-month tenancy is the termination rule in 735 ILCS 5/9-207(b), 30 days' written notice, because a tenant who rejects the new rent is on notice the tenancy can end on that same timeline.

Illinois late fees

Illinois sets no statewide cap on residential late fees and mandates no grace period for an ordinary residential lease, since the Landlord and Tenant Act is silent on them, so a late fee rests on the lease and, if challenged, is tested under general contract law as liquidated damages rather than a penalty.

Illinois entry notice

Illinois has no statute requiring advance notice before a landlord enters an occupied unit under an ordinary residential lease; the lease governs entry, backstopped by the tenant's right to quiet enjoyment.

Illinois eviction process

Illinois evictions start with a 5-day demand for rent — calendar days, with the deadline rolling forward if it lands on a weekend or holiday — and only full payment within those 5 days is guaranteed to save the tenancy; partial payments don't defeat a properly worded notice, and once the window closes the statute gives the tenant no right to force reinstatement by paying up.

Illinois application & screening fees

Illinois does not cap residential rental application or screening fees today, but it does bar any application screening fee when an applicant hands the landlord a qualifying reusable tenant screening report, and a $50 limit on application and background-check fees begins on January 1, 2027.

Illinois deposit interest

Illinois requires deposit interest only from lessors of residential property with 25 or more units, and only on a deposit held more than six months.

Illinois habitability & repairs

Illinois requires landlords to keep rented homes habitable, but the duty comes from the courts rather than from a statute: the Illinois Supreme Court created an implied warranty of habitability in 1972 and has since applied it to every residential lease in the state, whether or not the town has a housing code.

Illinois lease termination

An Illinois landlord ends a month-to-month tenancy with 30 days' written notice, a week-to-week tenancy with 7 days, and a year-to-year tenancy with 60 days timed to the end of the year, and no reason is required.

Illinois lease disclosures

Every written Illinois lease must carry the state summary of rights for survivors of domestic and sexual violence as its first page, signed by each tenant at the bottom of all four pages.

Illinois pets & assistance animals

Illinois sets no limit on a pet deposit, pet rent or a pet fee, and outside mobile home parks no state deposit cap applies to one.

Illinois mobile home park laws

Illinois governs lot tenancies through the Mobile Home Landlord and Tenant Rights Act, 765 ILCS 745, which applies to any park containing five or more mobile homes and is unusual in two ways: the park owner must offer every tenant a written lease of at least 24 months, and every rent increase takes 90 days' written notice and cannot take effect any sooner.

Illinois Fair Market Rents (FY 2027) — HUD's benchmark rents for every Illinois metro area and county.

Editable Illinois deposit kit · Editable Illinois disclosure packet — editable documents built on the verified Illinois rules on this page, in Word, fillable PDF and Excel.

Changes since last full verification

The Verified date above (October 1, 2026) marks the last time every figure on this page was verified end-to-end against official sources. The changes below were published since then, each verified against the official source it names (what these dates mean).

Correction, October 8, 2026 — Illinois: the Rent Concession Act's legend ("Concession Granted" across the face and text of the lease) applies to a concession the written lease does not expressly mention (765 ILCS 730/2 and /3). Oregon: ORS 90.245 bars a rental agreement from making the tenant waive chapter 90 rights; it protects the tenant and does not bar the landlord from agreeing to a longer notice. Ohio: a written lease must give an entity owner's or agent's principal place of business in the county or, failing one there, in Ohio (section 5321.18(A)). Delaware: any lease term that conflicts with the Code is unenforceable unless the Code allows it (section 5101(a)). Colorado: section 38-12-106 calls the $300 pet deposit an additional security deposit and section 38-12-102.5 caps a security deposit at two months' rent; neither says whether the pet deposit counts inside the cap, and the pages now say so. New York: the good-cause page no longer names a fixed list of opted-in localities; the state housing agency publishes the current list and the Attorney General keeps its own. Maine: the Attorney General's Total Price Disclosure Statement is listed as a document (14 M.R.S. § 6030-J).
Correction, October 2, 2026 — Chicago (correction): the heat page had said that in a building using the same equipment for heating and cooling the minimum is 64 degrees "at all hours" in the two shoulder periods; the ordinance passed May 20, 2026 struck those words (Municipal Code 14X-8-802.2.2). The Chicago page now states that the April 15, 2026 notice amendment took effect on passage and publication, and adds the Jackson Park pilot (Municipal Code 5-12-135, passed September 25, 2025): inside the pilot area a landlord must give 90, 120 or 180 days' notice by length of tenancy, and the pilot ends no later than January 31, 2029. The deposit pages for Chicago and Illinois now state the exclusion of owner-occupied buildings of six or fewer units (5-12-020(a)) and the student-housing exclusions, and a sentence about a former rent control chapter is limited to what the October 3, 2001 repeal ordinance shows.

How this record was verified: Web verification against ilga.gov (official Illinois General Assembly ILCS database) for the Security Deposit Return Act (765 ILCS 710), Security Deposit Interest Act (765 ILCS 715), Landlord and Tenant Act (765 ILCS 705), Rent Control Preemption Act (50 ILCS 825), and 735 ILCS 5/9-207, with statute text confirmed via current-year compiled-statute mirrors of the ilga.gov database and IDFPR official guidance on deposit interest rates. September 5, 2026 addendum: the decisive figures touched by the 2025-2026 enactments reviewed that day were re-read on the official host — 735 ILCS 5/9-106 and 5/9-121 and the Landlord Retaliation Act, 765 ILCS 721, on ilga.gov; the earlier reads stand as recorded. October 1, 2026: every section the security deposit, rent increase, late fee and entry answers rest on was read again on ilga.gov, with each section's source line and the Public Acts of the 104th General Assembly through Public Act 104-0854: the Security Deposit Return Act, the Security Deposit Interest Act, the Landlord and Tenant Act, the Mobile Home Landlord and Tenant Rights Act (765 ILCS 745), the Rent Control Preemption Act, 735 ILCS 5/9-207 and 5/9-213, and 420 ILCS 46/26 and 46/30. That reading found that Public Act 103-224 removed the five-unit threshold from the Security Deposit Return Act effective January 1, 2024; these pages had still stated the threshold and were corrected the same day. No act of the 104th General Assembly amends the deposit, interest or preemption acts; Public Act 104-479 adds 765 ILCS 705/35 from January 1, 2027.