Chicago Heating Cost Disclosure Requirements for Landlords

If you rent out a residential unit in Chicago where the tenant pays the heating bill directly to the utility, Chicago’s heating cost disclosure requirements for landlords say you must give that prospective tenant a written statement of the unit’s heating costs for the previous 12 months before you sign a lease, make an oral rental agreement, or accept a security deposit or any other payment. The rule sits in Chapter 5-16 of the Municipal Code, and skipping it — or providing false numbers — carries a fine of up to $500 per violation.¹²

Whether Your Unit Is Covered

The trigger is individual metering. If the unit has its own meter for the heating fuel and the tenant pays the utility company directly, the disclosure is required. Buildings with central heating, a shared boiler, or heat folded into the rent are outside the ordinance.³

There is one owner-occupant exemption. If you own a building with two or fewer units and live in one of them as your primary residence, you don’t have to comply.¹ Every other landlord renting an individually metered unit needs to.

What the Disclosure Has To Show

The disclosure gives the prospective tenant the projected annual and average monthly heating cost for that specific unit, based on actual energy consumption during the 12 months immediately preceding the date you offer it for rent, adjusted for current or estimated rates and normal weather.¹³

A vacant unit does not relieve you of the duty. If the unit was empty or had no heating service during the preceding 12 months, you need to supply cost data based on a comparable unit in the same or a similar building. For newly built units, or units just converted to individually metered gas or electric heat with no consumption history, the figure must be estimated by the utility, a registered professional engineer, or an architect, using the degree-day calculation method from the current ASHRAE handbook.³

How To Get the Numbers From the Utility

You don’t calculate the figures yourself. The ordinance requires utilities to deliver the information within 15 days of receiving a written request from the owner.¹ You submit one request per unit, using the standard Chicago Heating Cost Disclosure Form, and you send it to the utility, not the city.

For natural gas, Peoples Gas accepts requests through peoplesgasdelivery.com/heatingdisclosure, which the city recommends for the fastest turnaround, and by email.
For electricity, ComEd accepts requests through ComEd.com/EnergyDisclosure or by fax at 630-684-2692.

The form asks for your name and mailing address, whether you are the owner or an agent, the current occupant’s name, the specific unit address and apartment number, and your signature certifying the information.⁴ A unit heated with both gas and electric needs separate requests to each utility.

When To Deliver It and How To Prove You Did

Timing is the part landlords miss. The completed heating cost statement has to be in the prospective tenant’s hands before you sign a written lease, before any oral agreement to rent, before you accept a security deposit, and before you take any other payment tied to the lease.¹ Handing it over after money has changed hands is not compliance.

The disclosure must be in writing, and the tenant must acknowledge receipt in writing. In practice, that means giving them the city’s Heating Cost Disclosure Form and having them sign a Receipt for Disclosure, with both of you keeping a copy alongside the lease.³ If you handle leasing electronically, the written-acknowledgment requirement still applies, so document the tenant’s consent to sign digitally before you rely on an electronic signature.

Lease Renewals

The disclosure is required for the first lease between you and a particular tenant on a particular unit. You are not obligated to produce updated heating cost data automatically at renewal.³ A renewing tenant can ask for updated figures in writing, and you should be ready to pull them from the utility if that request comes in.

What Non-Compliance Costs

An owner or agent who fails to provide the disclosure, or who provides false information on it, commits an offense under the Municipal Code and can be fined up to $500 per violation.² The fine is per unit, so a landlord who skips the disclosure across a multi-unit building faces cumulative exposure that climbs quickly.

Enforcement starts with the city’s Department of Consumer Services. If a tenant files a complaint, the department sends the landlord a letter explaining the obligation and expects a truthful disclosure to follow. Continued refusal or false information leads to prosecution.³ The cleanest path is to request the data from the utility well before you list a unit, build the signed disclosure into your standard lease packet, and keep the acknowledgment on file for every tenant from day one.

1
American Legal Publishing. Municipal Code of Chicago – Chapter 5-16 Disclosure of Utility Costs to Tenants
2
Municipal Code of Chicago. Municipal Code of Chicago – 5-16-070 Penalties
3
City of Chicago. Heating Cost Disclosure Rules
4
City of Chicago. Chicago Heating Cost Disclosure Form