Published 2026-09-25 · 18 min read

Illinois Landlord-Tenant Law 2026: The Plain-English Guide

Illinois is not one landlord-tenant system. It is three, stacked. Statewide statutes set the floor everywhere. Chicago's Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance (RLTO), Chapter 5-12 of the Municipal Code, adds a stricter layer inside the city. Since June 1, 2021, the Cook County Residential Tenant and Landlord Ordinance (RTLO) has added a third layer in suburban Cook County. A practice that is legal in DuPage County can cost a Chicago landlord twice the security deposit plus the tenant's attorney's fees. Know which layers cover your building before you take a deposit, serve a notice, or enter a unit.

Four recent changes matter for 2026, and older guides — including the previous version of this page — miss or misstate all four. Since January 1, 2024, the Security Deposit Return Act (765 ILCS 710) applies to every Illinois residential landlord: Public Act 103-224 deleted the old five-unit threshold. On January 1, 2025, the Landlord Retaliation Act (765 ILCS 721) repealed the 1963 Retaliatory Eviction Act and replaced it with a broader ban, a one-year rebuttable presumption, and real damages. On January 1, 2026, Public Act 104-0029 (SB 1563, the "Squatter Bill") clarified that the eviction article does not stop police from removing a true criminal trespasser — a narrow clarification, not an affidavit shortcut. And the Rental Fee Transparency and Limitations Act (Public Act 104-0479) will rewrite what fees an Illinois lease may charge, with its operative provisions taking effect January 1, 2027 under a trailer bill. This guide works through deposits, rent and fees, notices and eviction, habitability and repairs, entry, and retaliation, in that order.

The numbers that matter

• Deposit cap: none statewide, and none under Chicago's RLTO. The Cook County RTLO caps a deposit at 1.5 months' rent.
• Deposit return clock (765 ILCS 710/1): itemized statement of damage within 30 days of vacating or of the end of the tenant's right of possession, whichever is later; paid receipts within 30 more days if the statement used estimates; if no compliant statement is furnished, return the deposit in full within 45 days of vacating.
• State deposit penalty: refusal or bad-faith statement plus failure to return what is due = twice the amount of the security deposit due, plus court costs and reasonable attorney's fees (765 ILCS 710/1(c)).
• Deposit interest (765 ILCS 715): only at 25 or more units in one building or a complex on contiguous parcels, on deposits held more than 6 months; the rate for leases beginning in 2026 is 0.005%; pay within 30 days after each 12-month period; a willful failure costs an amount equal to the whole deposit, plus costs and fees.
• Chicago deposit interest: set annually by the City Comptroller under § 5-12-081 — 0.01% for 2026, unchanged since 2017 — payable within 30 days after each 12-month period on deposits held more than 6 months.
• Chicago deposit penalty: noncompliance with § 5-12-080 costs two times the deposit, plus the interest due, plus costs and attorney's fees — on top of returning the deposit itself.
• Cook County deposit clock: return within 30 days of vacating; most violations cost two times the deposit plus fees, some only after a 2-business-day cure window.
• Nonpayment notice: 5 days (735 ILCS 5/9-209); full payment inside the window saves the tenancy.
• Lease-violation notice: 10 days (735 ILCS 5/9-210) — a notice to quit; the state statute itself grants no cure right, though Chicago and Cook County add cure opportunities.
• Ending a periodic tenancy: 30 days for month-to-month and other tenancies under a year, 7 days week-to-week (§ 9-207), 60 days year-to-year (§ 9-205).
• Chicago Fair Notice: terminating, non-renewing, or raising rent takes 30 days (tenancy under 6 months), 60 days (6 months to under 3 years), or 120 days (3 years or more).
• Entry: no statewide statute. Chicago (§ 5-12-050) and suburban Cook County both require 2 days' notice, with entry between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. presumed reasonable.
• Chicago repair-and-deduct: after written notice and 14 days, up to the greater of $500 or half a month's rent, never more than one month's rent (§ 5-12-110(c)).
• Late fees: Chicago caps at $10 per month on the first $500 of rent plus 5% of the amount above $500; Cook County caps at $10 on the first $1,000 plus 5% of the amount above $1,000. Statewide there is no cap — the lease and reasonableness govern.
• Retaliation: adverse action within 1 year of protected activity is presumed retaliatory statewide (765 ILCS 721/20); damages run up to 2 months' rent or twice actual damages, whichever is greater, plus attorney's fees.

Which law covers your building?

The layers stack. A 30-unit Chicago building answers to the state return act, the state interest act, and the RLTO at once, and the strictest rule is the one a court enforces. A suburban Cook County building answers to the state acts plus the county RTLO. Everywhere else — DuPage, Kane, Will, Lake, and downstate — the state acts are the whole deposit regime, which since 2024 still means real deadlines and a double-damages penalty even for a landlord with one rented condominium.

What does Illinois's Security Deposit Return Act require of every landlord?

The Return Act now covers everyone (765 ILCS 710)

Before 2024, the Security Deposit Return Act reached only lessors of property "containing 5 or more units." Public Act 103-224, effective January 1, 2024, rewrote Section 1 and deleted that threshold; the current text covers "a lessor of residential real property" with no unit count. Any form or guide that still exempts small Illinois landlords describes repealed law. The interest act kept its threshold (below); the return act did not.

The mechanics under § 710/1(a):

• A landlord may not withhold any part of a deposit as reimbursement for property damage unless, within 30 days of the date the tenant vacated or within 30 days of the date the tenant's right of possession ends, whichever is later, the landlord furnishes an itemized statement of the damage and the estimated or actual cost of repairing or replacing each item, attaching paid receipts or copies. Delivery may be in person, by postmarked mail to the tenant's last known address, or by email to a verified email address the tenant provided. Collect the forwarding address and a verified email at move-out, in writing.
• The landlord's own labor counts at its reasonable cost. If the statement gives estimated cost, the paid receipts must follow within 30 days from the date the statement was furnished.
• A lease can pre-price some damage: if a written lease specifies the cost of cleaning, repair, or replacement of a component that will not be replaced, the landlord may withhold that amount — it must cover damage beyond normal wear and tear, be reasonable to restore the unit to its lease-start condition, and the statement must reference the lease figure and include the lease excerpt.
• If receipts genuinely cannot be produced through no fault of the landlord, subsection (b) substitutes an itemized cost list, whatever other evidence of cost exists, and a verified statement explaining why receipts are unavailable.
• If no compliant statement and receipts are furnished, the landlord shall return the deposit in full within 45 days of vacating. A tenant who never provides a mailing or email address shields the landlord from damages or penalties resulting from that failure — document your request for one.

The itemization duty is keyed to property damage. Unpaid rent is the classic other deduction and is not subject to the damage-itemization machinery — but write it down with the ledger attached anyway. Judges like paper, and the local ordinances regulate both categories together.

The penalty (§ 710/1(c)). On a circuit court finding that the landlord refused to supply the statement, or supplied it in bad faith, and failed or refused to return the amount due within the statutory limits, the landlord is liable for an amount equal to twice the amount of the security deposit due, together with court costs and reasonable attorney's fees. Two precision points the old version of this page blurred: the measure is twice the deposit due — the amount wrongfully withheld — and the trigger is refusal or bad faith plus non-return. An honest, documented dispute over damage versus wear is not supposed to trigger the doubler; silence and sloppy paperwork are what does.

Transfers (§§ 710/1.1, 1.2). On a sale or other transfer, the transferee is liable for the deposit and statutory interest paid to the transferor, and the transferor remains jointly and severally liable. Chicago and Cook County both add a buyer's written notice due within 14 days. Buyers: take the deposits as a closing credit and send your own notice — "the seller kept the money" is not a defense.

Dated example (weekdays verified): a tenant vacates on Monday, March 2, 2026, leaving a $1,800 deposit, and the right of possession ends the same day. The itemized statement, with receipts, is due by Wednesday, April 1, 2026. If it uses estimates, the paid receipts are due 30 days after the statement — by Friday, May 1, 2026 at the outside. With no compliant statement at all, the full $1,800 must be returned by Thursday, April 16, 2026, 45 days after vacating. Work backward from April 1: inspect and photograph in week one, price every item from invoices or the lease's specified-cost schedule, and mail early enough that the postmark lands inside the window.

Use our Security Deposit Deadline Finder and deductions guide to sanity-check a claim before you send it.

The Interest Act kept its threshold (765 ILCS 715)

The Interest Act applies only to a lessor of 25 or more units in a single building or a complex of buildings on contiguous parcels. If that is you, pay interest on any deposit held more than 6 months, computed from the date of the deposit, at the rate paid on minimum-deposit passbook savings accounts by the largest commercial bank headquartered in Illinois, measured as of December 31 of the year before the agreement began. The Department of Financial and Professional Regulation announced the figure for agreements beginning in 2026: 0.005% (0.01% APY), Northern Trust being the largest bank. Pay in cash or as a rent credit within 30 days after the end of each 12-month rental period, except when the tenant is in default. Public housing deposits are excluded.

The rate is a rounding error; the penalty is not. A landlord who willfully fails to pay is liable, on a circuit court finding, for an amount equal to the amount of the security deposit, together with court costs and reasonable attorney's fees (§ 715/2). On an $1,800 deposit the 2026 interest is nine cents — and skipping it willfully can cost the full $1,800 plus the tenant's lawyer. There is no $100 penalty in this act. Calendar the payment like a rent deadline and keep the proof. State law imposes no cap on the deposit amount and no general separate-account mandate; Chicago and Cook County supply those rules locally.

How does Chicago's RLTO regulate security deposits? (§§ 5-12-080, 5-12-081)

Chapter 5-12 governs most Chicago residential rentals, written or oral, including subsidized units. The headline exemption (§ 5-12-020(a)) is a unit in an owner-occupied building of six units or fewer — both halves must be true, and the anti-lockout section (§ 5-12-160) applies even there. Hotels, motels, and rooming houses are out only until a unit has been occupied 32 or more continuous days on monthly rent; hospitals, dormitories, shelters, employment-tied quarters, purchaser/seller holdovers under a sales contract, and cooperative units of proprietary leaseholders are also excluded. Where no exemption applies, § 5-12-080 imposes the strictest deposit code in the state:

• Separate, federally insured, interest-bearing account in an Illinois financial institution, segregated from the landlord's assets, never commingled or used by the landlord. The institution's name and address must be disclosed in the written rental agreement (or by written notice within 14 days if there is none), with fresh disclosure on any change.
• A receipt at the moment of receipt, stating the amount, the date, a description of the unit, and the name of the person receiving it (and the landlord's name if an agent takes it), signed by the receiver; an electronic receipt needs the same contents plus an electronic or digital signature.
• Prepaid rent is pulled in — § 5-12-080 regulates deposits and prepaid rent together, so last month's rent held in advance follows the same account, interest, and return rules.
• Interest annually at the Comptroller's rate. Deposits or prepaid rent held more than six months earn interest from the start of the rental term at the § 5-12-081 rate for the year the agreement was entered into — 0.01% for 2026, unchanged since 2017 — payable within 30 days after the end of each 12-month period, in cash or as a rent credit.
• Return in 45 days; statement in 30. Within 45 days after vacating — or within 7 days after the tenant's notice of termination following a fire or casualty under § 5-12-110(g) — return the deposit and interest, less only (1) unpaid rent not validly withheld or deducted under law and (2) a reasonable amount to repair damage caused by the tenant or persons under the tenant's control or present with consent, reasonable wear and tear excluded. Damage deductions require the itemized statement with estimated or actual costs and copies of paid receipts within 30 days; estimates must be followed by paid receipts or a certification of actual costs (for employee-performed work) within 30 days after the statement.
• Successor notice in 14 days. A successor landlord is liable for deposits and prepaid rent paid to the prior landlord and must notify the tenant in writing within 14 days of transfer that it holds the deposit, with its name, business address, and business telephone number.

The penalty (§ 5-12-080(f)). Noncompliance costs damages equal to two times the security deposit, plus the interest due, together with court costs and reasonable attorney's fees — and the deposit itself must still be accounted for. Unlike the state act, the RLTO penalty requires no showing of bad faith; the deposit sections operate as near-strict liability, which is why Chicago tenant attorneys audit deposit files first. One narrow softening: a claim based only on an error in interest paid requires the tenant's written notice of the deficiency first; the landlord then has 14 days to pay the correct interest plus $50, or deliver a correct written explanation, before the full penalty attaches. Treat that letter as a 14-day fire alarm.

Two practice consequences follow. Many Chicago landlords have stopped taking deposits and charge a genuine non-refundable move-in fee instead — but labels do not control: money refunded when the unit is left clean is a deposit in substance. And the signing packet is regulated too: the city-issued RLTO summary must be attached to every written agreement and renewal (§ 5-12-170), together with the separate deposit interest-rate summary; failure to attach the summary entitles the tenant to terminate and recover $100. Assemble the packet once — RLTO summary, interest-rate summary, bed-bug brochure, heating-cost disclosure where the tenant pays for heat, federal lead disclosure for pre-1978 housing, state radon disclosure — and keep a signed acknowledgment in every file.

Chicago sets no deposit cap — claims that Chicago caps deposits at 1.5 months' rent confuse the RLTO with the Cook County ordinance. What Chicago caps is the late fee: under § 5-12-140(h), no more than $10 per month on the first $500 of rent plus 5% of the amount above $500. On $2,000 rent the maximum is $10 plus 5% of $1,500 — $85. A flat $150 clause is unenforceable, and attempting to enforce a prohibited lease provision carries its own damages exposure under the RLTO. Read your form lease against § 5-12-140 before signing another one.

Suburban Cook County: the RTLO (eff. June 1, 2021)

The Cook County RTLO — Chapter 42, Article XI of the County Code, deposit rules at § 42-111 (also cited as § 42-811 in some compilations) — covers rentals in Cook County outside Chicago, except in municipalities keeping their own ordinances, notably Evanston, Oak Park, and Mount Prospect. It generally exempts owner-occupied buildings of six or fewer units and requires its own summary with the lease. Its numbers differ from Chicago's in ways that trap landlords working both sides of the city line:

• Cap: 1.5 months' rent. Any amount above one month's rent may be paid by the tenant in up to six equal monthly installments over the first six months; refusing the installment right violates the section outright.
• Segregation, receipt, bank disclosure under the same discipline as Chicago's regime.
• Return in 30 days — not 45. Deductions are limited to unpaid rent not validly withheld and the reasonable cost of repairing damage beyond ordinary wear and tear caused by the tenant or persons present with consent. Damage deductions require an itemized statement with actual or estimated costs; actual costs need paid receipts attached, estimates must be followed by receipts or a certification of actual costs within 30 more days.
• Penalty: twice the deposit, with a split cure rule. Core violations — over-cap demands, refused installments, late or defective return and itemization — expose the landlord to two times the deposit plus reasonable attorney's fees with no bad-faith showing. For disclosure failures, the tenant must first give written notice (electronic notice works if the parties have communicated electronically) and the landlord has two business days to cure before the penalty attaches. Route tenant mail and email to an inbox read daily; two business days is an exceptionally short fuse.
• Late fees: $10 plus 5% over $1,000 — on $2,000 rent, a $60 maximum, lower than Chicago's $85 on the same rent. Payments must be applied to rent first, not re-characterized against fees to manufacture a nonpayment.
• Entry: 2 days' notice, reasonable times in the 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. frame, for repairs, services, and showings in the last 60 days of a lease; emergencies need no advance notice.
• Notices: the state 5-day nonpayment notice; a 10-day lease-violation notice that under the county ordinance carries a right to cure within the 10 days; 60 days' notice of non-renewal; and a one-time pay-to-stay right — after a nonpayment eviction is filed but before judgment, the tenant may once pay the rent and specified costs and remain.

If you own in both Chicago and the suburbs, do not run one deposit procedure: the return deadline (45 vs. 30 days), the cap (none vs. 1.5 months), the late-fee base ($500 vs. $1,000), and the cure mechanics all change at the city boundary.

Can an Illinois landlord raise rent freely, and what notice and fee rules apply?

Rent control is preempted. The Rent Control Preemption Act (50 ILCS 825) forbids local governments from enacting or enforcing any ordinance controlling the rent charged for private residential or commercial property. Referendum bills to lift the ban are introduced regularly; none has become law, so for 2026 there is no rent control in Illinois and no cap on how much rent may rise. What the law regulates is notice — and, for leases signed from 2027, fees.

Statewide notice. Illinois has no stand-alone rent-increase statute; an increase on a periodic tenancy travels with the Eviction Article's termination periods — at least 30 days' written notice for a month-to-month tenancy (§ 9-207), 7 days week-to-week, 60 days year-to-year (§ 9-205). On a fixed term, rent is locked until the term ends unless the lease provides otherwise. See how to raise rent legally.

Chicago's Fair Notice Ordinance reaches further. Under RLTO § 5-12-130(j) as amended in 2020, a Chicago landlord not already in eviction proceedings for cause must give written notice before terminating, declining to renew, or raising rent, on a tenure scale: 30 days (under 6 months), 60 days (6 months to under 3 years), 120 days (3 years or more). A short notice does not void the plan; the tenancy continues at the old rent for the full required period. The 120-day tier is among the longest in the country — for a September increase on a four-year tenancy, a Chicago landlord is already late in May. Suburban Cook County requires 60 days' notice of non-renewal under the RTLO, without Chicago's tenure scale.

Late fees outside the two ordinances are a matter of lease and common law: the fee must be in the lease and must be a reasonable estimate of the cost of late payment, not a penalty. Inside Chicago and suburban Cook County, use the capped formulas and delete any flat-fee clause.

Fee transparency arrives January 1, 2027. Public Act 104-0479, adding a new section to the Landlord and Tenant Act (765 ILCS 705), requires every non-optional fee — one-time or recurring — to be disclosed on the first page of the lease and in listings, and provides that a tenant is not liable for a fee not so disclosed. It requires disclosure of whether utilities are included in rent, caps application and background-check fees (at $50, with exceptions), and prohibits listed fee categories outright, including lease modification or renewal fees, after-hours maintenance-request fees, and pest-abatement fees the tenant did not cause. Renaming a fee to evade the section is prohibited; violations support a civil action for injunctive and monetary relief, attorney's fees, and costs. Owner-occupied premises of six or fewer units are exempt. As enacted the act stated a July 1, 2026 effective date; a signed trailer bill moved the operative date to January 1, 2027, for leases entered into after that date. Build the first-page fee schedule into 2026 signing packets now so renewals crossing into 2027 are already compliant. Bills that would go further — a statewide one-month deposit cap and a 3.5% increase cap (SB 3530, 104th General Assembly) — remained in committee in 2026 and are not law.

What notice must an Illinois landlord serve before filing an eviction? (735 ILCS 5/9-101 et seq.)

Every Illinois eviction runs through the Eviction Article of the Code of Civil Procedure (Article 9 of 735 ILCS 5, successor to the Forcible Entry and Detainer Act). Only the court process removes a tenant, and it starts with the correct written notice; the wrong notice is the most common reason Illinois cases are dismissed.

Nonpayment — the 5-day notice (§ 9-209). Serve a written demand stating the amount owed; the tenant has 5 days to pay in full, and full payment inside the window waives termination for that default. Carry the statute's warning: only full payment prevents termination unless the landlord agrees in writing to continue the lease for a partial payment. Pad the figure with amounts that are not rent and you have handed the tenant a defense. In Chicago and suburban Cook County, accepting rent with knowledge of a default can also waive the termination under the local ordinances — do not collect post-notice rent casually. Dated example: a 5-day notice delivered on Thursday, March 5, 2026 counts Friday March 6 through Tuesday, March 10, 2026; unpaid at the end of March 10, the landlord may file on March 11.

Lease violation — the 10-day notice (§ 9-210). For a default other than nonpayment, serve a notice to quit describing the specific default, terminating the tenancy 10 days out. Read the statute precisely: § 9-210 grants the tenant no right to cure — the old version of this page called it a "Notice to Cure," which misstates statewide law. Cure rights come from the local layers: suburban Cook County's RTLO gives a 10-day cure opportunity, and Chicago's RLTO requires written notice and a cure window for remediable tenant noncompliance (10 days for most violations, with a 14-day track for conditions materially affecting health and safety). Outside those jurisdictions a landlord may accept a cure, but the tenant cannot demand one under § 9-210.

No-fault termination (§§ 9-205, 9-207). Ending a periodic tenancy without cause takes 60 days' written notice for year-to-year, 30 days for any other tenancy under a year — month-to-month included — and 7 days week-to-week. Chicago landlords must instead satisfy the Fair Notice scale (30/60/120 days by tenure); suburban Cook County landlords owe 60 days for non-renewal. There is no statewide just-cause requirement: outside the local notice rules, a periodic tenancy may be ended for any lawful, non-retaliatory, non-discriminatory reason or no stated reason.

Service (§ 9-211). Serve by delivering a copy to the tenant personally, leaving it with a person age 13 or older residing on or in possession of the premises, sending it by certified or registered mail with return receipt from the addressee, or — only if no one is in actual possession — posting it on the premises. Count from the day after service; intermediate weekends count as ordinary days, and a period ending on a weekend or legal holiday extends to the next business day (5 ILCS 70/1.11). File only after the period has fully expired.

In court. After the notice expires, the landlord files in the circuit court of the county where the property sits. The summons must be served at least 3 days before the first return date; hearings are typically set 7–21 days after filing. Uncontested cases commonly resolve in several weeks; contested Cook County cases, with its additional local filing rules, take materially longer, and sheriff scheduling adds time at the end. If the landlord prevails, the court enters an order for possession, enforced only by the county sheriff after the stay the order sets, and the order must be enforced within 120 days of entry. Until the sheriff executes it, the tenant remains in lawful possession. Rent and damages may be joined where the defendant has been properly served; a possession-only judgment collects no money.

Self-help is illegal statewide. Lock changes, door removal, utility interruption, or removing a tenant's property to force a departure is unlawful everywhere in Illinois. Chicago's § 5-12-160 makes it a police-enforced ordinance violation, with fines of $200 to $500 per day and tenant damages of two months' rent or twice actual damages — and it applies to every rented unit in Chicago, including units in otherwise-exempt owner-occupied buildings. Full walkthrough: how to evict a tenant.

Squatters — what the 2026 law actually changed. Public Act 104-0029 (SB 1563), signed July 21, 2025 and effective January 1, 2026, added § 9-102(e): nothing in the Eviction Article may be construed to prohibit law enforcement from enforcing criminal trespass, or to interfere with officers removing persons or property when a criminal trespass has occurred. That is the whole operative change. Illinois enacted no owner-affidavit procedure, no sworn-statement removal form, and no colorable-claim test — that machinery is Florida's § 82.035, widely misattributed to Illinois in 2025 coverage. A person who broke in with no lease, no payment history, and no permission is a criminal trespasser (720 ILCS 5/21-3; 5/19-4 for a residence) and police may act without an eviction judgment, though practice varies by department and Cook County officers still frequently direct owners to court. Anyone who ever held a lease, paid rent, or entered with permission — holdovers and fake-lease occupants included — still goes through the Eviction Article. Plan around the eviction case, not the affidavit that does not exist.

Where does an Illinois landlord's habitability duty come from if no statute lists it?

Statewide, habitability is case law, not a statute. No Illinois act lists a landlord's maintenance duties. The duty comes from Jack Spring, Inc. v. Little, 50 Ill. 2d 351 (1972), where the Illinois Supreme Court read an implied warranty of habitability into residential leases of multi-unit dwellings, fulfilled by substantial compliance with the applicable building and housing codes. Because rent and habitability are mutually dependent, a tenant may raise breach as a defense in a nonpayment eviction. State it as the court stated it: substantial compliance, not perfection — minor code violations do not make a unit uninhabitable — litigated case by case on the unit's condition, the notice the landlord received, and diminished value; a lease clause that simply waives the warranty invites a court to disregard it. Statewide law gives no repair-and-deduct remedy and no free-standing right to stop paying rent: outside the two ordinances, the remedies are the Jack Spring defense, diminished-value damages, code enforcement, and, in extreme cases, termination arguments. Even so, treat every written repair notice as the start of a litigation file — the landlord who answers a Jack Spring defense with dated work orders and photos usually wins it.

Codes supply the content of "substantial compliance." Two statewide equipment acts belong in every lease file: the Smoke Detector Act (425 ILCS 60) and the Carbon Monoxide Alarm Detector Act (430 ILCS 135), which requires an approved CO alarm within 15 feet of every room used for sleeping where fuel-burning appliances or an attached garage are present. Chicago's RLTO places detector-battery duties on the tenant inside the unit (§ 5-12-040) — say in the lease which side supplies batteries, and test at move-in on a signed checklist.

Chicago duties and remedies. Under § 5-12-070 the landlord must maintain the building and each unit in compliance with the Municipal Code and keep facilities and appliances in good working order. Section 5-12-040 states the tenant's duties — keep the unit safe and clean, use equipment reasonably, dispose of garbage properly, not damage the unit, not disturb residents, maintain detector batteries — enforced through the RLTO's notice-and-cure remedies (§ 5-12-130), not lease-invented fines. Tenant remedies sit at § 5-12-110, and every track starts with the tenant's written notice:

• Minor defects — repair-and-deduct. Where the landlord materially fails to comply with the agreement or § 5-12-070 and the reasonable cost of compliance does not exceed the greater of $500 or one-half of the monthly rent — and does not exceed one month's rent at all — the tenant gives written notice of intent to correct the condition at the landlord's expense. If the landlord fails to correct within 14 days (or as promptly as an emergency requires), the tenant may have the work done in a workmanlike manner, in compliance with law and building regulations, submit the paid bill, and deduct the amount, capped as above and at the reasonable customary price. Tenant-caused conditions are excluded. On an $1,800-a-month unit the ceiling is the greater of $500 or $900 — $900. The alternatives are withholding an amount reflecting reduced value from the fifteenth day until repairs are made, or suing for damages and injunctive relief.
• Major defects. If noncompliance renders the premises not reasonably fit and habitable, written notice and 14 days precede a tenant termination; the tenant must deliver possession within 30 days or the notice is treated as withdrawn.
• Essential services. Failure to supply heat, running or hot water, electricity, gas, or plumbing contrary to the lease — or a code failure creating immediate danger to health and safety — opens a faster menu after written notice: procure substitute service and deduct the cost on paid receipts; sue for reduced-value damages; procure substitute housing, be excused from rent for the period, and recover its cost up to one month's rent; demand correction within 24 hours and then withhold the diminished-value amount; or terminate if the failure continues beyond 72 hours. Failures caused by the utility provider itself are carved out of parts of this menu.

The operational answer: every written repair notice gets a dated response, a work order, and a completion photo inside 14 days — an unanswered § 5-12-110 letter is the most preventable source of lawful rent deductions in Chicago. Suburban Cook County's RTLO carries parallel maintenance and remedy provisions and adds a landlord-side symmetry Chicago lacks: a 14-day right to cure material noncompliance and the 2-business-day cure for administrative and disclosure slips.

Other statewide duties landlords miss. The Safe Homes Act (765 ILCS 750) lets a tenant facing a credible imminent threat of domestic or sexual violence at the premises terminate early on the statutory procedure and have the locks changed, and bars penalizing a tenant for exercising those rights or calling emergency assistance. The Illinois Human Rights Act (775 ILCS 5) is broader than the federal floor — protected classes include source of income (statewide since January 1, 2023, so refusing a Housing Choice Voucher holder for that reason alone is unlawful), familial status, disability, sexual orientation, age, and arrest record within its limits; screen on documented, consistently applied criteria only. The Rental Property Utility Service Act (765 ILCS 735) governs shared-meter disclosures and bars utility shutoff as leverage.

How much notice must an Illinois landlord give before entering a rental?

Statewide, there is still no entry statute — verified for 2026. No Illinois act fixes a notice period outside the two local ordinances; the rule is the lease plus the covenant of quiet enjoyment. Put a 48-hour written-notice clause in every non-ordinance lease, enter at reasonable times for the purposes the lease lists, and log every entry.

Chicago (§ 5-12-050) fixes the rule the old page described loosely as "48 hours." The tenant may not unreasonably withhold consent to entry for repairs, improvements, agreed services, government-authorized inspections, showing to prospective purchasers, mortgagees, workers, or contractors, showing to prospective tenants 60 days or less before the agreement expires, practical necessity, determining lease compliance, and emergencies. Except for practical-necessity and emergency entry, the landlord must give no less than two days' notice, delivered to the unit by mail, telephone, written notice, or other good-faith means; after an emergency or practical-necessity entry, notice of the entry is due within two days after it. Entry between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m., or at a time the tenant expressly requests, is presumed reasonable, and access may never be abused or used to harass. A tenant who refuses lawful access faces injunctive relief or termination under §§ 5-12-060 and 5-12-130(b), plus damages. Suburban Cook County matches the shape: 2 days' notice, the same 8-to-8 frame, showings in the last 60 days, no-notice emergency entry. One protocol — two days, in writing, inside 8-to-8, logged — is compliant in both jurisdictions and merely best practice downstate.

Retaliation: the 2025 Act changed the statewide rule

Cite the current statute, not the repealed one. The Landlord Retaliation Act (765 ILCS 721), enacted by Public Act 103-831, effective January 1, 2025, repealed the Retaliatory Eviction Act (former 765 ILCS 720) outright (§ 721/95). It is now against Illinois public policy for a landlord to knowingly terminate a tenancy, increase rent, decrease services, or bring or threaten a possession action because the tenant, in good faith: complained of a code violation to the enforcing agency; complained of a code violation or an illegal landlord practice to a community organization or the news media; complained to the landlord or requested repairs required by a code, ordinance, regulation, or the agreement; sought a community organization's help; testified about the property's condition; joined a tenants' union; or exercised any other legal right or remedy.

Two provisions do the practical work. The rebuttable presumption (§ 721/20): evidence that protected activity occurred within one year before the alleged retaliation creates a presumption the landlord's conduct was retaliatory (the section was amended by Public Act 104-417, effective August 15, 2025; the one-year presumption remains, and it does not arise from activity begun after the landlord's action). The defense (§ 721/15): the action is not retaliatory if the landlord proves a legitimate, non-retaliatory basis, or that the action began before the tenant's protected activity. Operationally: within a year of any complaint, repair request, or organizing activity, do not raise rent, cut a service, or file anything without a documented independent reason assembled before you act — contemporaneous invoices, a pre-existing plan, a ledger of arrears that predates the complaint.

Remedies (§ 721/10). The tenant has a defense in the retaliatory action and may sue for relief including terminating the agreement (with return of the deposit and interest recoverable under the Return Act and all prepaid rent), recovering possession after a dispossession or threatened dispossession, and recovering not more than 2 months' rent or 2 times actual damages, whichever is greater, plus reasonable attorney's fees. Chicago's RLTO carries a parallel ban at § 5-12-150 with the same one-year presumption structure, and the Cook County RTLO prohibits retaliatory conduct as well — a Chicago landlord answers to two regimes for the same act, so document first and act second.

Landlord in Illinois — or thinking about investing across state lines? Chicago's RLTO, the 45-day deposit clock, and the 1-year retaliation presumption are one state's quirks; every state rewrites the rules. The 50-State Landlord Law Dataset (CSV + JSON) puts all 50 states' deposit caps, return deadlines, and notice periods in one spreadsheet-ready dataset ($29, one-time purchase).

A 10-step Illinois compliance checklist

1. Identify your layers before signing: state acts everywhere, RLTO inside Chicago, RTLO in suburban Cook County — and check for a local ordinance (Evanston, Oak Park, Mount Prospect) that displaces the county one.

2. On receipt of any deposit, in Chicago move it to a separate federally insured interest-bearing Illinois account and issue the signed § 5-12-080 receipt the same day; in suburban Cook County segregate it, receipt it, and disclose the bank; everywhere, calendar the interest duty if you hold 25 or more units (state) or any covered Chicago deposit over 6 months.

3. Attach the full signing packet: RLTO summary and deposit interest-rate summary in Chicago, RTLO summary in suburban Cook County, plus bed-bug, heating-cost, lead, and radon disclosures as they apply — and keep the signed acknowledgment.

4. Price every fee against the caps that already bind you — Chicago late fee $10 on the first $500 plus 5% of the rest; Cook County $10 on the first $1,000 plus 5% of the rest; suburban Cook deposit at or under 1.5 months' rent with installments on the excess — and build the first-page fee schedule the 2027 transparency act will require.

5. Calendar rent defaults from service: 5-day notice for nonpayment (§ 9-209) with the full-payment warning, 10-day notice to quit for other defaults (§ 9-210), and the Fair Notice or county non-renewal period before promising the unit to anyone else.

6. Use the right no-cause clock: 30 days month-to-month statewide, 60 days year-to-year — but 30/60/120 days by tenure in Chicago and 60 days for non-renewal in suburban Cook County.

7. Give two days' written notice before any non-emergency entry in Chicago and suburban Cook County, enter only between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m., put the same clause in downstate leases, and log every entry.

8. Answer every written repair notice inside 14 days with a dated work order and completion photos — that letter starts the tenant's repair-and-deduct, withholding, and termination clocks under RLTO § 5-12-110.

9. At move-out, run the clocks: itemized statement within 30 days of vacating or the end of possession (whichever is later), receipts within 30 days after an estimate-based statement, and the balance back within 45 days statewide and in Chicago — 30 days in suburban Cook County.

10. Before any rent increase, non-renewal, or service change within a year of a tenant complaint or repair request, assemble the independent, documented reason first — the 2025 Retaliation Act presumes the timing is the reason. Never touch locks, utilities, doors, or the tenant's property outside a sheriff-executed order for possession.

The bottom line

Illinois rewards landlords who first answer one question — which layers cover this building? Statewide, the floor is now real for everyone: a 30-day itemized statement and 45-day return under a Return Act with no small-landlord exemption, interest at 25-plus units with a penalty equal to the whole deposit, 5-day and 10-day notices, and a 2025 retaliation act with a one-year presumption and two months' rent in damages. Chicago's RLTO then makes deposit handling a strict-liability discipline — segregated interest-bearing account, signed receipt, Comptroller-rate interest, double damages — and adds two-day entry, capped late fees, 14-day repair clocks, and tenure-scaled Fair Notice. Suburban Cook County's RTLO mirrors much of that with its own numbers: a 1.5-month deposit cap, a 30-day return, a cheaper late-fee formula, and a two-business-day cure fuse on disclosure errors. Get the layer right and Illinois is manageable; run a Chicago building on downstate habits and the deposit file alone can cost three times the deposit plus the other side's attorney.

Primary sources

• Security Deposit Return Act, 765 ILCS 710 (Justia) — the current text as amended by Public Act 103-224: universal coverage, the 30/45-day clocks, lease-specified costs, and the twice-the-deposit-due penalty at § 1(c).
• Landlord Retaliation Act, 765 ILCS 721 (Justia) — protected activity, remedies at § 10, the non-retaliation defense at § 15, the one-year presumption at § 20, and the repeal of the Retaliatory Eviction Act.
• Interest Rates Affecting the Security Deposit Interest Act (Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation) — the official January 6, 2026 announcement: 0.005% rate, Northern Trust as largest bank, 25-unit and 6-month thresholds.
• Public Act 104-0479, Rental Fee Transparency and Limitations Act (Illinois General Assembly) — first-page fee disclosure, prohibited fees, and the civil action, as enacted.
• Chicago Municipal Code, Chapter 5-12 (American Legal Publishing) — the full RLTO: exemptions § 5-12-020, access § 5-12-050, deposits §§ 5-12-080/081, tenant remedies § 5-12-110, retaliation § 5-12-150, summary § 5-12-170.
• Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance, full text (Reda | Ciprian | Magnone) — a section-by-section RLTO reference used to cross-check the code library text.
• Residential Tenant Landlord Ordinance (Cook County) — the county's official RTLO page: 1.5-month deposit cap, 30-day return, late-fee formula, 2-day entry, 60-day non-renewal, and pay-to-stay.
• Chicago Security Deposit Interest Rate (Domu, summarizing the City Comptroller rate) — the Comptroller's 0.01% rate for 2026 agreements under §§ 5-12-081/082, unchanged since 2017.
• Jack Spring, Inc. v. Little, 50 Ill. 2d 351 (1972) (Justia) — the Illinois Supreme Court decision establishing the implied warranty of habitability, fulfilled by substantial compliance with the applicable building code.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Illinois Security Deposit Return Act apply to a landlord with only one or two units?

Yes, since January 1, 2024. Public Act 103-224 deleted the act's former "5 or more units" threshold from 765 ILCS 710/1, so every residential lessor who takes a deposit owes the 30-day itemized statement and the 45-day return. The separate Interest Act (765 ILCS 715) kept its threshold and applies only at 25 or more units in one building or a contiguous complex.

How long does an Illinois landlord have to return a security deposit?

Statewide, the itemized statement of damage is due within 30 days of the date the tenant vacated or the date the tenant's right of possession ends, whichever is later, and if no compliant statement is furnished the deposit must be returned in full within 45 days of vacating. Chicago's RLTO uses the same 45-day return with a 30-day statement. Suburban Cook County's RTLO is stricter: the deposit is due back within 30 days of vacating.

What is the penalty for wrongfully withholding a deposit in Illinois?

Under 765 ILCS 710/1(c), a landlord who refuses to supply the itemized statement, or supplies it in bad faith, and fails to return the amount due is liable for twice the amount of the security deposit due, plus court costs and reasonable attorney's fees. In Chicago, § 5-12-080(f) imposes damages of two times the deposit plus the interest due, plus costs and fees, without a bad-faith requirement. Cook County's RTLO likewise awards two times the deposit plus attorney's fees for core deposit violations.

Must an Illinois landlord pay interest on a security deposit?

It depends on the layer. Statewide, only landlords of 25 or more units in one building or contiguous complex owe interest, on deposits held more than 6 months, at the largest Illinois bank's passbook rate — 0.005% for agreements beginning in 2026 — payable within 30 days after each 12-month period; a willful failure costs an amount equal to the deposit plus costs and fees. In Chicago, every covered deposit or prepaid rent held more than 6 months earns interest at the City Comptroller's rate, 0.01% for 2026. Suburban Cook County requires segregation and disclosure but sets no interest rate.

Is there a cap on security deposits in Illinois?

Statewide, no, and Chicago's RLTO sets no cap either. Suburban Cook County's RTLO caps the deposit at 1.5 months' rent, and any amount above one month's rent may be paid by the tenant in up to six equal monthly installments during the first six months. A statewide one-month cap bill (SB 3530) remained in committee in 2026 and is not law. Check a planned deposit against Illinois's layered cap rules with the Security Deposit Max Checker, which returns a compliant or over-the-limit verdict for the amount and state you enter.

How many days' notice does Illinois require for nonpayment of rent?

Five days, under 735 ILCS 5/9-209. The written demand must state the rent actually due, and full payment within the 5 days waives the landlord's right to terminate for that default. Unless the landlord agrees in writing to continue the lease for a partial payment, only full payment stops the termination. To run these same dates for your own case — the 5-day nonpayment notice period and the full-payment deadline that stops the termination — use the Eviction Timeline Calculator.

Does a tenant get a chance to cure a lease violation in Illinois?

Statewide, the 10-day notice under 735 ILCS 5/9-210 is a notice to quit — the statute itself grants no cure right. Suburban Cook County's RTLO adds a right to cure within its 10-day lease-violation notice, and Chicago's RLTO requires written notice and a cure window for remediable tenant noncompliance. A landlord may always accept a cure voluntarily, but outside the local ordinances the tenant cannot demand one under § 9-210.

How much notice is required to raise rent or end a tenancy in Chicago?

Chicago's Fair Notice Ordinance scales the answer by tenure: 30 days' written notice if the tenant has lived in the unit under 6 months, 60 days at 6 months to under 3 years, and 120 days at 3 years or more — for a rent increase, a non-renewal, or a termination alike. Statewide, ending a month-to-month tenancy takes 30 days under 735 ILCS 5/9-207 and a year-to-year tenancy 60 days under § 9-205; suburban Cook County requires 60 days' notice of non-renewal.

How much notice must an Illinois landlord give before entering a rental unit?

There is no statewide entry statute — the lease and the duty to respect quiet enjoyment govern, and 48 hours' written notice in the lease is the standard protective practice. Chicago (§ 5-12-050) and suburban Cook County both require 2 days' notice for non-emergency entry, with entry between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. presumed reasonable, and notice within 2 days after an emergency entry in Chicago.

Can an Illinois tenant repair a defect and deduct the cost from rent?

In Chicago, yes, under § 5-12-110(c): after written notice and 14 days without correction, for a defect whose reasonable repair cost does not exceed the greater of $500 or half a month's rent (and never more than one month's rent), the tenant may have the work done properly, submit the paid bill, and deduct the cost. Illinois has no statewide repair-and-deduct statute; outside Chicago and the Cook County ordinance, habitability is enforced through the Jack Spring implied-warranty defense and damages, not rent deductions.

What did Illinois's 2026 squatter law change?

Public Act 104-0029 (SB 1563), effective January 1, 2026, added 735 ILCS 5/9-102(e), clarifying that the Eviction Article does not bar police from enforcing criminal trespass or removing a person when a criminal trespass has occurred. It created no affidavit procedure and no new removal form. Occupants who ever had a lease, paid rent, or entered with permission — including holdovers — must still be removed through an eviction case in circuit court and a sheriff-executed order for possession.

More landlord-tenant law guides

• Landlord-tenant law by state
• Idaho landlord-tenant law
• Indiana landlord-tenant law
• Hawaii landlord-tenant law
• Iowa landlord-tenant law

This is general information, not legal advice. Chicago's RLTO is detailed — consult an Illinois landlord-tenant attorney for specific situations.