What Is the Chicago Residential Landlord Tenant Ordinance?

The Chicago Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance, known as the RLTO and codified at Chapter 5-12 of the Municipal Code, sets the ground rules for most residential rentals inside the city limits. It governs how landlords must handle security deposits, disclosures, repairs, heat, entry, late fees, subleases, retaliation, lockouts, and lease termination. The penalties for violations are stiff enough — often two times the deposit or two months’ rent plus attorney fees — that even landlords who know the law sometimes trip over its details.¹

Which Rentals the Ordinance Covers

Apartments, single-family homes, and individual rooms rented as living space inside Chicago are generally covered. The main exception is an owner-occupied building with six or fewer units: if your landlord lives in your small building, the RLTO’s procedural and financial rules mostly do not apply to you.¹

Other excluded arrangements include hotels, motels, inns, and bed-and-breakfasts (though a guest who stays 32 or more days and pays monthly rent becomes covered); hospitals, extended care facilities, convents, monasteries, nonprofit homes for the aged, and school dormitories; dwellings occupied by a buyer under a real estate purchase contract before title transfers; and units occupied by a caretaker or janitor whose occupancy depends on the job. If none of those fit, assume the ordinance applies in full.

What the Landlord Must Give You at Signing

At or before lease signing, your landlord must deliver a written RLTO summary prepared by the Commissioner of Housing. For a written lease, the summary has to be physically attached to the agreement; for an oral arrangement, it still has to be provided separately. The landlord must also give you the name, address, and phone number of the owner or authorized managing agent so you have somewhere to send notices and complaints. If any of this is missing, you can terminate the lease by written notice or sue for $100 in damages.²

Two other disclosures ride along with signing or renewal. Under MCC 5-12-101, the landlord must give you a bedbug prevention brochure explaining both sides’ responsibilities (this one does not apply in owner-occupied buildings with six or fewer units).³ And under MCC 5-12-100, if you will pay gas or electric bills directly to the utility, the landlord must disclose in writing the actual energy costs for the unit over the previous twelve months, either by sharing the bills or a summary from the provider.

Separately, federal law requires a lead hazard pamphlet, a disclosure of known lead-based paint, and any available lead inspection reports for any unit in a building constructed before 1978.⁴

Security Deposits and Interest

Your deposit is still your money. Under MCC 5-12-080, the landlord cannot mix it with personal or business funds, and the landlord’s creditors have no claim to it. It has to sit in a federally insured, interest-bearing account at an Illinois financial institution. When the deposit is collected, you should get a written receipt showing the amount, the date, a description of the unit, the signature of whoever accepted it, and the name and address of the bank holding it.⁵

Every one of those details matters, because a landlord who violates any of the deposit rules in subsections (a) through (e) owes you two times the full deposit plus the accrued interest.

Annual Interest

The City Comptroller sets the required interest rate each year. For January 1 through December 31, 2026, the rate is 0.01 percent.⁶ That is pennies on a typical deposit, but the obligation is absolute. Interest has to be paid or credited within 30 days after each 12-month rental period ends. If the amount is short, you can send written notice of the deficiency, and the landlord then has 14 days to either pay the correct amount plus $50 or send a written explanation of the calculation.⁵

Return After Move-Out

The landlord has 45 days after you move out to return the full deposit plus any unpaid interest. To withhold money for damage beyond normal wear and tear, an itemized statement with estimated or actual repair costs must reach you within 30 days of move-out. Missing either deadline triggers the two-times-deposit penalty.

Habitability, Heat, and Alarms

MCC 5-12-070 requires the landlord to keep the unit in compliance with all applicable building, health, and safety codes. That covers structural condition, plumbing, electrical, and sanitation.⁷

Chicago’s heat ordinance, codified at MCC 14X-8-803, runs September 15 through June 1. During that window, indoor temperatures must reach at least 68°F between 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 p.m., and at least 66°F between 10:30 p.m. and 8:30 a.m.⁸

Building owners also have to install and maintain carbon monoxide alarms where a poisoning risk exists, and replace them when they malfunction or expire. Tenants are expected to test the alarms and change removable batteries. Tampering with or removing an alarm is illegal. Landlords who fail to provide working CO alarms face fines of $500 to $2,000 per day, per violation.⁹

Repair and Deduct When the Landlord Ignores a Problem

If a maintenance issue affecting habitability goes unaddressed, MCC 5-12-110 lets you fix it and deduct the cost. Follow the steps exactly, because any shortcut will be used against you.

Send the landlord a written notice listing each specific defect and stating that you will hire someone to make the repair and deduct the cost from rent if it is not fixed within 14 days. Use certified mail with return receipt or deliver it in person with a witness. You cannot start any repair work until the 15th day after the landlord receives the letter. If the problem is still not fixed, you can hire a licensed professional, pay for the work, and deduct the cost from your next rent payment. The deduction is capped at $500 or half of one month’s rent, whichever is greater. Keep the paid receipt and give the landlord a copy.¹⁰

When the Landlord Can Enter Your Unit

Under MCC 5-12-050, a landlord can enter to make repairs, provide agreed services, or show the unit to prospective buyers or contractors, but only after at least two days’ notice by phone, mail, written note, or another method reasonably designed to reach you. Entry between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. is presumed reasonable. Entries outside those hours are only permissible if you specifically request them. You should not unreasonably refuse access, and the landlord cannot abuse the right of entry or use it to harass you.¹¹

Genuine emergencies — a burst pipe, a fire — are the only exception to the notice rule. If the landlord enters while you are away in an emergency, you must be notified within two days of the date, time, and purpose. Unlawful entry or harassing demands for access entitle you to an injunction, lease termination, or damages of up to one month’s rent or twice your actual losses, whichever is greater.¹¹

Late Fee Caps

Under MCC 5-12-140(h), a late fee cannot exceed $10 per month for the first $500 of monthly rent, plus 5 percent of any portion above $500. On $1,800 rent, that is $10 plus 5 percent of $1,300, or $75 total.¹²

A lease clause that charges more than the legal maximum is not merely unenforceable for the excess. The entire late-fee provision is void, the landlord cannot collect any late fee under it, and trying to do so can expose the landlord to a claim for up to two months’ rent plus attorney fees. Internet lease templates often get this wrong.

Subleases and Breaking the Lease Early

If you need to leave before the lease ends, MCC 5-12-120 requires the landlord to make a good-faith effort to re-rent at a fair price for comparable units in the building or neighborhood. The landlord must also accept any reasonable sublease you propose, without extra fees or deposits.¹³

If a new tenant moves in, your remaining liability is only the gap between your old rent and the new rent for the time left on the lease. If the landlord makes a genuine effort but no tenant materializes, you owe rent through the end of the term plus reasonable advertising costs. A landlord who rejects a qualified subtenant or does nothing to fill the unit cannot then chase you for the full remainder.

Retaliation Is Prohibited

MCC 5-12-150 bars a landlord from raising your rent, cutting services, refusing to renew, or threatening eviction because you complained to a government agency about code violations, requested repairs, joined a tenants’ organization, or exercised any legal right under the ordinance.¹⁴

If you engaged in any of those protected activities within the past year, the law presumes any adverse action is retaliatory. The landlord can rebut the presumption by proving a legitimate reason, but the burden shifts to them. Remedies include recovering possession if you were removed, terminating the lease if you want out, damages of up to two months’ rent or twice your actual losses (whichever is greater), and reasonable attorney fees. If the lease ends because of retaliation, your deposit and any prepaid rent must come back in full.¹⁴

Illegal Lockouts and Utility Shutoffs

MCC 5-12-160 makes it illegal for a landlord to force you out without going through court eviction. Changing the locks, removing doors, shutting off utilities, and blocking access are all prohibited self-help tactics. The city can fine a violating landlord $200 to $500 per day for each day the violation continues.

On the civil side, a locked-out tenant can recover possession of the unit and personal property, plus damages of up to two months’ rent or twice actual losses, whichever is greater. The civil and criminal consequences are independent, so a tenant can still sue even if the city has already fined the landlord. Document everything and get legal help quickly if this happens to you.

Ending the Lease: Notice Requirements

How the lease ends depends on whether the landlord is terminating for a specific breach or simply not renewing. Under MCC 5-12-130, unpaid rent requires a written five-day notice giving you a chance to pay before termination. For other material lease violations, the landlord must give at least 10 days’ written notice describing the problem and allowing time to cure it.¹⁵

Non-Renewals and Rent Increases

Chicago’s Fair Notice rules require written notice before a landlord declines to renew a lease or raises the rent, and the notice period depends on how long you have lived in the unit:

Less than six months: 30 days.
Six months to three years: 60 days.
More than three years: 120 days.

If the landlord does not give the full required notice, you can stay in the unit at your current rent until the proper notice period has run. Notice must be delivered by personal service or by certified or registered mail. During the notice period, the existing lease terms stay in place and rent remains due.

Attorney Fees

MCC 5-12-180 gives the prevailing plaintiff in an RLTO lawsuit the right to recover court costs and reasonable attorney fees. In theory this cuts both ways, but in practice it mostly helps tenants, because the ordinance creates far more affirmative claims for tenants than for landlords.¹⁶

Fee-shifting does not apply to standard eviction (forcible entry and detainer) actions. But for security deposit violations, illegal lockouts, retaliation, unlawful entry, and missing disclosures, the risk of paying the tenant’s legal bills on top of statutory damages is what makes the ordinance bite. It also makes it practical to hire an attorney for a smaller claim you otherwise could not afford to pursue.

1
American Legal Publishing Corporation. Municipal Code of Chicago – Chapter 5-12 Residential Landlords and Tenants
2
Chicago Municipal Code. Municipal Code of Chicago 5-12-170 – Summary of Ordinance Attached to Rental Agreement
3
City of Chicago. Learn About Bed Bugs and Requirements for Landlords and Tenants
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 4852d – Disclosure of Information Concerning Lead Upon Transfer of Residential Property
5
Chicago Municipal Code. Municipal Code of Chicago 5-12-080 – Security Deposits
6
City of Chicago. Setting Interest Rate on Rental Agreement Security Deposits
7
American Legal Publishing. Municipal Code of Chicago 5-12-070 – Landlord’s Responsibility to Maintain
8
City of Chicago. Chicago Heat Ordinance
9
City of Chicago. Carbon Monoxide Alarms for Your Home
10
American Legal Publishing Corporation. Municipal Code of Chicago 5-12-110 – Tenant Remedies
11
American Legal Publishing Corporation. Municipal Code of Chicago 5-12-050 – Landlord’s Right of Access
12
American Legal Publishing. Municipal Code of Chicago 5-12-140 – Rental Agreement
13
American Legal Publishing. Municipal Code of Chicago 5-12-120 – Subleases
14
American Legal Publishing. Municipal Code of Chicago 5-12-150 – Prohibition on Retaliatory Conduct by Landlord
15
Chicagoland Apartment Association. Evictions
16
American Legal Publishing / Chicago Municipal Code. Residential Landlords and Tenants – Attorney’s Fees