Landlord Atlas

What late fees can a landlord charge in Illinois?

Verified July 8, 2026 All Illinois topics →

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.

The major exceptions are local: Chicago's RLTO caps late fees at $10 per month on the first $500 of rent plus 5% of any amount above that, and suburban Cook County has a similar ordinance, so landlords in those jurisdictions face much stricter rules than state law implies. Mobile-home parks are also separately regulated ($25 cap under the Mobile Home Landlord and Tenant Rights Act).

Illinois late fees at a glance

Statutory cap No statutory cap (see reasonableness standard and notes)
Mandatory grace period None mandated statewide
Must be in the lease Yes
Daily fees Not addressed by statute; subject to general contract-law limits on penalties.
Reasonableness standard No statewide residential late-fee statute exists in the Landlord and Tenant Act (765 ILCS 705) or elsewhere; lease terms control, subject to the general contract-law rule that a late fee is liquidated damages and an amount functioning as a penalty is unenforceable. Chicago (RLTO: $10 per month on the first $500 of rent plus 5% of the excess) and suburban Cook County impose local caps that are out of scope for this state-level record.

Notes and caveats

statutory_cap and grace_period_days are null because no state statute sets them; the citation documents the absence via the official Act text. The Chicago/Cook caps are noted for the local-ordinance disclaimer only (out of scope v1).

Statute citations

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.