Illinois rent increase law

None of the Illinois acts read for this page sets a notice period for a rent increase on an apartment or house. During a fixed term the lease controls; a month-to-month tenancy can be ended with 30 days' written notice, which is how terms usually change. A mobile home park of 5 or more homes must give 90 days' notice of any rent increase. Cities and counties may not adopt rent control.

765 ILCS 705 735 ILCS 5, Article IX 765 ILCS 745/6 765 ILCS 745/1

• A local government may not enact or enforce any rule that controls the amount of rent charged for private residential property. 50 ILCS 825/5
• You may not raise the rent because a tenant made a good-faith complaint or exercised another protected right. 765 ILCS 721/5 See Retaliation on the Illinois page
• You may not raise rent to recover utility payments a tenant lawfully deducted after you failed to pay a utility bill you owed. 765 ILCS 735/4
• You may not switch a tenant from landlord-paid to tenant-paid utilities during a lease term unless you and the tenant sign a written lease amendment, and you must give each affected tenant at least 30 days' notice of the change, or for a tenant under a lease, at least 30 days before the lease ends. 765 ILCS 735/1.2(b)
• A mobile home park of 5 or more homes must give 90 days' notice of any rent increase, and the increase cannot take effect until 90 days after the notice. 765 ILCS 745/6 765 ILCS 745/1
• For Chicago tenancies governed by 5-12-130(j), give written notice of a rent increase, periodic termination or fixed-term nonrenewal at least 30 days before the stated termination date for a tenancy under six months, 60 days for six months to three years, and 120 days for more than three years. The owner-occupied, six-or-fewer-unit exclusion expressly preserves this notice provision. Check the other coverage exclusions, the listed breach/abandonment exceptions and any pilot rule before using a tier. Insufficient or defective notice can extend possession at the prior terms; do not assume a defective 30-day notice produces only a 30-day extension. Chicago Code 5-12-130(i)-(j) Chicago Code 5-12-020
• The Jackson Park pilot in 5-12-135 supersedes the ordinary notice tiers for qualifying leases within its defined area. It lists longer 90-, 120- and 180-day tiers and applies its lease-start and duration conditions. Check the street boundaries, effective date and lease history before selecting a deadline. The published text overlaps at exactly twelve months; obtain a current local interpretation rather than choosing the shorter tier automatically. This review did not verify the enacting ordinance's exact start-date mechanics. Chicago Code 5-12-135

Illinois bars cities and counties from enacting or enforcing rent control. Local governments may still adopt other landlord and tenant rules, and Chicago and Cook County have their own ordinances.

50 ILCS 825/5

• A home rule city or county may not regulate leases in a way that reduces a tenant's repair-and-deduct rights. 765 ILCS 742/30
• A local rule that gives applicants more protection than the state reusable screening report rule applies instead of it. 765 ILCS 705/30(c)
• From 2027, local rules on tenant fees must restrict fees at least as much as the state rule does. 765 ILCS 705/35(d)
• The Rent Control Preemption Act preserves a local government's right to manage and control residential property in which it has a property interest. Its restriction on private-property rent control does not establish the rules for every assisted or publicly owned home. Review the actual property and program requirements separately. 50 ILCS 825/5(b)

You may not knowingly end a tenancy, raise rent, cut services, sue or threaten to sue for possession, or refuse to renew because a tenant in good faith complained to a government agency, official or community organization, asked for repairs, joined a tenants' union, testified about the property's condition, or used any legal right.

765 ILCS 721/5

• If the protected activity happened within one year before your action, the law presumes retaliation unless you rebut it; the presumption does not arise if the activity started after your action. 765 ILCS 721/20
• An action is not retaliatory if you prove a legitimate, non-retaliatory reason, or that you started it before the tenant's protected activity. 765 ILCS 721/15
• A tenant who proves retaliation has a defense to your case and may end the lease and get back the deposit, interest and prepaid rent, recover possession, and recover 2 months' rent or twice the damages, whichever is greater, plus attorney's fees. 765 ILCS 721/10
• The Landlord Retaliation Act replaced the repealed Retaliatory Eviction Act on January 1, 2025. 765 ILCS 721/95