Renting out your place for the first time? Chicago has its own rules on top of Illinois's, and they come up in the same order every time: before you list, when you pick a renter, when you sign the lease, while someone lives there, and when they move out. Here they are in that order.
Reviewed Monday, October 19, 2026. A summary to get you started, not legal advice.
Most rentals in Chicago fall under the City's Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance, known as the RLTO (Chicago Municipal Code, chapter 5-12). It sets the rules for deposits, notices, repairs and move-outs that most of this page is about.
The big exception: you live in the building and it has six units or fewer. A unit in an owner-occupied building of six or fewer units is outside the RLTO. So are hotel and motel rooms (until someone has stayed 32 days in a row paying monthly), a unit that comes with a job, a co-op unit held by its shareholder, and a buyer living there before closing or a seller after.
Some rules apply to every rental in the city, owner-occupied or not: the ban on lockouts, Chicago's fair housing ordinance (it has no owner-occupied exemption), Illinois's deposit return law, the heat rules, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and the federal lead paint disclosure. Read those sections either way.
Federal, Illinois and Chicago law all say the same thing at heart: you choose a renter on the home's terms (the rent, the move-in date, the criteria you wrote down), never on who the person is.
Who is protected in Chicago. The City's fair housing ordinance protects people from being turned away, steered or treated differently because of race, color, sex, gender identity, age, religion, disability, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, marital status, parental status, military status, source of income or bodily autonomy. Illinois adds arrest record, order of protection status, pregnancy, immigration status, unfavorable military discharge and reproductive health decisions, and federal law covers familial status.
Source of income is protected in Chicago and in all of Illinois. Turning down a Housing Choice Voucher, refusing the voucher paperwork or the inspection, or writing "No Section 8" in a listing all break the law.
Describe the home, not the people you picture in it. The advertising rules apply to everyone, small owner-occupied buildings included.
| Instead of | Write |
|---|---|
| "Perfect for a young professional" | "Two blocks to the Blue Line" |
| "Adults only" or "No kids" | "Two bedrooms, one bath, third floor" |
| "Ideal for a single person" | "Studio, about 450 square feet" |
| "No Section 8" | "Every source of income counts, including housing vouchers" |
| "No felons" | Nothing. Your written screening criteria cover it (see below). |
| "No pets" alone | "No pets. Service and support animals are not pets." |
A renter with a disability may ask to keep a service or support animal, even in a building with no pets. Under the Illinois Assistance Animal Integrity Act you can't charge a pet deposit, pet fee or pet rent for it, though the renter still pays for real damage. You can ask for documentation only when the need isn't obvious, and it has to come from someone who treats the renter.
An accommodation is a change to a rule (a reserved parking spot, say). You make it unless it would be an undue burden. A modification is a physical change (grab bars, a ramp). The renter pays for it, and you can't ask for an extra deposit because of it.
The income you need, the credit you'll look at, the rental history you'll check. Use the same criteria for every applicant, and share them before you take an application fee. Count every lawful source of income: wages, Social Security, a pension, a housing voucher.
Cook County's Just Housing Amendment sets two steps. First, decide whether the applicant qualifies on everything else. Only then run a background check, and only convictions from the last three years count: never arrests, never juvenile records. Each one gets an individual look at what happened, how long ago and what has happened since. Sources disagree on how far the County rule reaches inside Chicago; we suggest following it.
Give the applicant a copy of the background check within 5 business days. The applicant then has 5 business days to dispute it or explain, and you decide within 3 business days after that. A no must be in writing and say why. Leave any question about convictions off the application itself.
Since January 1, 2025, an applicant may offer a screening report less than 30 days old that they paid a consumer reporting agency for. When you use one you can open at no cost, you can't charge that applicant a screening fee, and you can ask them to confirm nothing important has changed. The law doesn't clearly say whether you must accept one.
A new Illinois law caps the application and background check fee at $50 (more only for a higher real cost from the screening company, with receipts). It bans several fees outright, including renewal fees, eviction notice fees and walk-through fees, and every required fee must appear on page 1 of the lease and in the listing. Owner-occupied buildings of six or fewer units are exempt. The state's page gives the January 1, 2027 date; an earlier version of the bill said July 1, 2026, so check before you rely on it.
Hand these over before or with the lease. Several carry their own penalties when they're missing.
Chicago doesn't cap the amount today. What it does regulate is everything after you take it, and one missed step can cost twice the deposit.
When you receive it: the amount, who received it, the date, a description of the unit, and a signature. An electronic receipt works for an electronic payment.
A federally insured, interest-bearing account at an Illinois bank, separate from your own money. If it came in one payment with the first month's rent, move it within 5 business days. If the account ever moves, tell the renter in writing within 14 days.
On a deposit held more than 6 months, at the City's rate for the year the lease was signed. Pay it within 30 days after each 12 months, in cash or as a credit on the rent. The rate has been 0.01% for years and is reported as 0.01% for 2026; check the City's page for the current one.
You may keep only unpaid rent and the cost of damage beyond normal wear and tear. For damage, send an itemized list with paid receipts within 30 days.
The buyer takes over the deposits and the interest, and must tell the renters in writing within 14 days.
Miss any of these steps and the renter can be awarded twice the deposit plus interest, court costs and attorney's fees. Illinois's deposit return law now covers every rental too, owner-occupied buildings included: an itemized list within 30 days, the rest back within 45.
A move-in fee is a different thing: it isn't refundable, and the RLTO doesn't regulate it. From 2027 it goes on page 1 of the lease with every other fee.
The notice depends on how long the renter has lived there. It covers raising the rent, not renewing, and ending a month-to-month lease. Owner-occupied buildings of six or fewer units are exempt. Give it late, and the renter can stay through the full notice period.
| The renter has lived there | Notice you give |
|---|---|
| Less than 6 months | 30 days |
| 6 months to 3 years | 60 days |
| More than 3 years | 120 days |
At most $10 a month on the first $500 of rent, plus 5% of the rent above $500. On $1,500 rent that is $60; on $2,500 rent, $110.
If you collect rent through an online portal that charges a fee, offer a way to pay with no fee too, such as a check.
Give 2 days' notice before entering. Between 8am and 8pm is presumed reasonable. In an emergency, no notice is needed.
Keep up with them. If a repair isn't made within 14 days of written notice, the renter can have it fixed and take the cost off the rent: up to $500 or half a month's rent, whichever is more, and never more than one month's rent.
Changing the locks, removing doors, or cutting off heat or utilities to get a renter out is illegal in every Chicago rental, owner-occupied buildings included. Fines run $200 to $500 a day, and the renter can recover two months' rent or twice the damages.
Raising the rent, refusing to renew or threatening to evict because a renter complained to the City, joined a renters' group or used their rights is retaliation. Since 2025, Illinois presumes retaliation when it comes within a year of the complaint.
A 5-day notice for unpaid rent (it must say only full payment stops it), a 10-day notice for a lease violation, or the Fair Notice periods above to end a tenancy.
After the notice, an eviction is a court case, and only the Cook County Sheriff carries it out. Since 2026, children can't be named in an eviction case.
Immigration status: never threaten to report a renter or end a lease because of it. Illinois law forbids both.
If the building has six units or fewer and you live there, the RLTO's deposit, notice and lease rules don't apply. The lockout ban, Chicago's fair housing ordinance, Illinois's deposit return law, the heat and alarm rules and the lead paint disclosure still do.
Chicago sets no limit today (a one-month cap is proposed but not law). What is regulated is the receipt, the account, the yearly interest and the 45-day return, and missing a step can cost twice the deposit.
You can't turn an applicant down because they pay with one. In Chicago and across Illinois, source of income is protected: every source of income counts, including housing vouchers, and that includes going along with the voucher paperwork and inspection. Your other written criteria still apply, the same way they do for everyone.
Service and support animals aren't pets. A renter with a disability can ask for one as an accommodation, and you can't charge a pet deposit, pet fee or pet rent for it. You can ask for documentation only when the need isn't obvious.
30 days if the renter has lived there less than 6 months, 60 days from 6 months to 3 years, and 120 days after 3 years. Owner-occupied buildings of six or fewer units are exempt.
Many Chicago owners do. A move-in fee isn't refundable and the RLTO doesn't regulate it. From January 1, 2027, it must appear on page 1 of the lease with every other fee.
We read the ordinances and statutes themselves where we could. Laws change, and a few points here are unsettled (we say so where they are). Before you act on any of it, check the source or ask a real estate attorney.
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