Illinois Landlord-Tenant Laws

Verified July 8, 2026 Updated September 5, 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), ending the statewide bar on local rent regulation and leaving home-rule and non-home-rule units free to consider rent-control ordinances. Repeal bills of this kind have been introduced in most recent sessions without passing. Status: Introduced February 2025; in Senate committee with no floor action. Alive until the 104th General Assembly adjourns in January 2027. (checked August 12, 2026).

Illinois at a glance

Rule	Illinois	Cited to
Max security deposit	No statutory cap	765 ILCS 710/1 (Security Deposit Return Act) +2 more
Deposit return deadline	45 days	765 ILCS 710/1 (Security Deposit Return Act) +2 more
Rent-increase notice (month-to-month)	No statute — derived from termination notice	735 ILCS 5/9-207 +1 more
Statewide rent control / rent cap	No	735 ILCS 5/9-207 +1 more
Late-fee cap	No statutory cap	765 ILCS 705 (Landlord and Tenant Act; no late-fee provision)
Entry notice	No fixed statutory period	765 ILCS 705 (Landlord and Tenant Act; no entry-notice provision)
Eviction notice (nonpayment)	5 days	735 ILCS 5/9-209 +15 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)) +15 more
Repair and deduct	Yes — authorized by statute	765 ILCS 705/20 (heating and cooling standards; the 55-and-over limiter in subsection (c)) +15 more
Landlord notice to end a month-to-month tenancy	30 days (2 counting rules)	735 ILCS 5/9-207 +30 more

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Illinois Landlord-Tenant Laws (verified July 8, 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 housing the local government itself has an interest in.

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

Cited to Rent Control Preemption Act, 50 ILCS 825 · Verified August 12, 2026 · Full Illinois rent-increase rules →

Illinois landlord-tenant laws by topic

Illinois security deposits

Illinois sets no cap on security deposits, and in buildings of five or more units the landlord must send an itemized damage statement with receipts within 30 days of move-out and return the balance — or, if no valid statement is sent, the full deposit — within 45 days.

Illinois rent increase notice

Illinois has no 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 — 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 — the Landlord and Tenant Act is silent on them — so a late fee must appear in the lease to be collectable and, if challenged, is tested under general contract law as liquidated damages rather than a penalty.

Illinois entry notice

Illinois has no statewide statute requiring advance notice before a landlord enters an occupied rental unit — the lease governs entry, backstopped by the tenant's right to quiet enjoyment, and 24 hours' notice at reasonable times is the convention courts expect where the lease is silent.

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 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.

Changes since last full verification

The Verified date above (July 8, 2026) marks the last time every figure on this page was verified end-to-end against official state sources. The changes below were published since then, each verified against the official source it names (what these dates mean).

Updated, September 5, 2026 — Chicago: § 5-12-130(j) as amended by SO2025-0019933 (in force April 15, 2026) is now stated on the Chicago record: where notice of termination, non-renewal or a rent increase is missing, insufficient or defective, the tenant may remain for up to 60 days (tenancies of three years or less) or 120 days (longer tenancies) from the date notice is actually given, and the landlord may not file an eviction action until that period has run.
Correction, August 29, 2026 — Deposit-interest prose corrections from a primary-source re-read of every state's law: IA unsupported after-five-years inference removed (Iowa Code 562A.12 stops at the five-year landlord allocation) and the anti-commingling rule narrowed to the landlord's personal funds; FL commingling bar scoped to the two account options in 83.49(1)(a)-(b); IL local line names Chicago only and the Department announces the qualifying bank's rate; NJ 46:8-19's ten-unit tier stated as a mandatory vehicle rule (money-market fund or variable-rate account); MN unverified pre-2003 5.5% figure removed and 504B.178 subd. 7's bad-faith presumption with its two-week-after-suit cure window added; NM 47-8-18's rate reference records the 1986 federal ceiling expiry alongside the 1989 agency abolition; VA repeal pinned to July 1, 2014 (accrual duty) and January 1, 2015 (rate schedule) under 2014 Acts c. 651 enactment clause 4; MO 99.040 carve-out stated in the statute's own scope words; AZ mobile-home-park deposit cell gains A.R.S. 33-1431(B)'s five-percent-minimum annual interest duty (paid or compounded annually) with the 33-1431(D) doubling remedy.
Updated, August 12, 2026 — Illinois' eviction page now records 735 ILCS 5/9-102(e) (P.A. 104-0029, in force since January 1, 2026): nothing in the eviction article may be construed to prohibit law enforcement from enforcing criminal trespass (720 ILCS 5/21-3) or removing persons or property from premises where that offense is being committed. The self-help discussion now distinguishes the landlord's eviction-action-only route from this police-authority carve-out.

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.