Chicago Tenants Rights: RLTO Deposits, Repairs, and Entry

If you rent an apartment or house in Chicago, you are covered by one of the strongest local tenant-protection laws in the country. Chicago tenant rights come mainly from the Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance (RLTO), a chapter of the Municipal Code that sets rules on security deposits, repairs, privacy, notice, and eviction, and attaches real dollar penalties when landlords break them. State law fills in what the ordinance leaves alone. What follows is what those protections actually give you.

Does the RLTO Apply to Your Unit

Most rental housing inside the city limits is covered, but not all of it. The ordinance excludes owner-occupied buildings with six or fewer units, along with hospitals, dormitories, shelters, and hotels for transient guests. If your landlord lives in the building and there are six or fewer units, most of the RLTO does not apply to you.¹

One exception matters even in those excluded buildings: the ban on lockouts and utility shutoffs still applies, and so do parts of the Fair Notice Ordinance. A landlord in a four-flat who lives on the first floor still cannot change your locks or cut your heat to force you out.¹

Security Deposits

The deposit rules are strict, and the penalty for breaking them is twice the deposit plus interest. Every deposit must be held in a federally insured, interest-bearing account at a financial institution in Illinois. The name and address of that institution have to appear in your written lease. Without a written lease, the landlord has 14 days after receiving the deposit to give you that information in writing.²

Interest is owed on any deposit held longer than six months and must be paid or credited to rent every 12 months. The city publishes the rate each year. For 2026, the rate is 0.01 percent.³

When you move out, the landlord has 30 days to give you an itemized statement of any damage deductions, with copies of paid receipts or invoices. If nothing is deducted, the full deposit plus interest must be returned within 45 days.³

Miss any of these requirements, and the landlord owes you twice the deposit plus interest. The one softer spot: if the interest amount is simply calculated wrong, the landlord gets 14 days after your written notice to fix it before the full penalty applies.²

Late Fees

Late fees are capped. Your landlord can charge no more than $10 per month on the first $500 of rent, plus 5 percent per month on any rent above $500. On $1,500 rent, that maxes out at $60. A lease that sets a higher fee is unenforceable on that provision, and attempting to collect the higher amount entitles you to recover up to two months’ rent.⁴

Repairs and Essential Services

Your landlord must keep the unit compliant with building, health, and safety codes, and this duty cannot be waived by anything in your lease.⁵

For ordinary code violations, the RLTO gives you a repair-and-deduct remedy. Send written notice describing the problem. If the landlord does not fix it within 14 days, you can hire someone to make the repair and subtract the cost from rent. The deduction is capped at $500 or half of one month’s rent, whichever is greater.⁶

Essential services move on a much faster clock. If heat, running water, hot water, electricity, or gas fails, you give the landlord written notice, and they have 72 hours to restore service. If the deadline passes, you can find substitute housing at the landlord’s expense or terminate the lease outright.⁶

Put every request in writing, keep copies, and photograph the problem. Landlords sometimes respond to a repair-and-deduct notice by filing for eviction over the withheld rent, and your documentation is the defense.

Landlord Entry

Your landlord must give at least two days’ notice before entering for non-emergency reasons like inspections, repairs, or showings. Notice can come by phone, mail, or any method reasonably designed to reach you. Entry is limited to 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. unless you agree otherwise.⁷

Genuine emergencies like fires or major water leaks allow immediate access. Repairs elsewhere in the building that unexpectedly require entry into your unit also skip the standard notice period.

If a landlord enters without permission, enters unreasonably, or harasses you with repeated entry demands, you can get a court order to stop it or end the lease, and recover at least one month’s rent or your actual damages, whichever is greater.⁷

Notice Before Rent Hikes or Non-Renewal

The Fair Notice Ordinance, approved by the City Council in July 2020, requires longer advance notice before a landlord ends a lease or raises rent. The required period depends on how long you have lived in the unit:⁸

More than six months but less than three years: 60 days’ written notice.
Three years or more: 120 days’ written notice.

This applies whether you have a written lease or a month-to-month arrangement. It does not apply to evictions for nonpayment or lease violations. For tenancies of six months or less, the ordinance does not set a specific period, and the standard 30-day notice under Illinois law for month-to-month tenancies generally governs.⁸

Lockouts Are Illegal

No landlord in Chicago can remove you without a court order. The RLTO bans every form of self-help eviction: changing locks, removing doors, shutting off utilities, or hauling your belongings out.⁹

If it happens, you can recover up to two months’ rent or twice your actual damages, whichever is greater, plus reasonable attorney fees. The Chicago Police Department is required to investigate lockout complaints. A landlord found in violation can be fined $200 to $500 per day the violation continues.⁹

This protection reaches even units otherwise excluded from the RLTO, including owner-occupied buildings of six units or fewer. There is no legal lockout in Chicago.¹

Retaliation

A landlord cannot terminate your tenancy, raise your rent, cut services, or threaten a lawsuit because you reported code violations, contacted the media or a community group, requested repairs, joined a tenants’ union, or testified in court about the unit’s condition.¹⁰

If retaliation happens anyway, you can recover up to two months’ rent or twice your actual damages, whichever is greater, plus attorney fees. If you engaged in any protected activity within the year before the landlord’s action, courts presume the action was retaliatory, and the landlord must prove otherwise.¹⁰

Who Cannot Be Turned Away

Federal law bars discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status, and disability. Chicago adds protections for source of income, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, age (over 40), ancestry, parental status, and military status, among others.¹¹

Source of income matters most in practice. A landlord cannot refuse you solely because your income comes from Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8), Social Security, veterans’ benefits, or other government assistance. Complaints go to the Chicago Commission on Human Relations.

Assistance Animals

An assistance animal, under federal law, is not a pet. It is an animal that works, assists, or provides emotional support for a person with a disability. Landlords must make reasonable accommodations for assistance animals even where a no-pets policy is in place, and they cannot charge pet deposits or fees for them.¹²

If your disability and need are not obvious, the landlord may ask for documentation from a healthcare provider. The accommodation can only be denied if the specific animal poses a direct threat, would cause significant property damage, or would impose an undue burden. A blanket no-animals policy is not, by itself, a valid reason to deny.¹²

Military Deployment

If you receive deployment or permanent change of station orders, the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act lets you end a residential lease early without penalty. Give the landlord written notice with a copy of your orders. The lease ends 30 days after the next rent payment is due following delivery of notice. Notice must be hand-delivered, sent by certified mail with return receipt, or shipped through a private carrier like FedEx or UPS.¹³

Do not sign any lease clause waiving SCRA rights. The RLTO already makes waivers of tenant rights unenforceable, which adds a second layer of protection.

Where to Go for Help

Start with a written demand to your landlord that cites the specific RLTO section they violated. If that does not resolve things, call 311 to request a building inspection for code violations, or contact the Department of Housing for questions on deposits and landlord obligations. Discrimination complaints go to the Chicago Commission on Human Relations. Community groups like the Metropolitan Tenants Organization run hotlines that can walk you through your options before you file anything in court.

1
American Legal Publishing. Municipal Code of Chicago 5-12-020 – Exclusions
2
American Legal Publishing. Municipal Code of Chicago 5-12-080 – Security Deposits
3
City of Chicago. Security Deposit Interest Rates
4
American Legal Publishing. Municipal Code of Chicago 5-12-140 – Rental Agreement
5
American Legal Publishing. Municipal Code of Chicago 5-12-070 – Landlord’s Responsibility to Maintain
6
City of Chicago. Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance
7
American Legal Publishing. Municipal Code of Chicago 5-12-050 – Landlord’s Right of Access
8
City of Chicago. Know Your Rights – Fair Notice Ordinance
9
American Legal Publishing. Municipal Code of Chicago 5-12-160 – Prohibition on Interruption of Tenant Occupancy
10
American Legal Publishing. Municipal Code of Chicago 5-12-150 – Prohibition on Retaliatory Conduct by Landlord
11
City of Chicago. Ordinances and Protected Classes
12
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Assistance Animals
13
Military OneSource. Military Clause – Terminate Your Lease Due to Deployment or PCS