Illinois legally requires landlords to meet certain “habitability” requirements for all rental properties. This means that they’re responsible for providing a property that meets specific health and safety standards and for fixing issues that violate them.
Illinois Implied Warranty of Habitability
In Illinois, the implied warranty of habitability means that a landlord must provide and maintain a safe and habitable rental property. “Implied” means the requirement applies whether or not the lease agreement specifically says so and even if the lease tries to waive the obligation.
Examples of clear habitability violations include:
- Exposed electrical wiring.
- A pipe leaking human waste.
- A broken front doorknob that won’t lock.
However, the implied warranty of habitability doesn’t guarantee anything at the property will be clean, new or issue-free, so it doesn’t cover things like stained carpet or dents in a wall. It only guarantees basic health and safety. It generally also doesn’t cover damage the renter causes deliberately or negligently.
Landlord Responsibilities in Illinois
Note: Check local city/county laws and ordinances for additional requirements.
| Item | Has To Provide? | Has To Fix / Replace? |
| Air Conditioning / Heating | Only Heating | Only Heating |
| Hot Water | Yes | Yes |
| Kitchen Appliances | No | No |
| Washer & Dryer | No | No |
| Smoke/CO Detectors | Yes | Yes |
| Window Coverings | No | No |
| Light Fixtures | No | No |
| Landscaping | No | No |
| Garbage Removal | Not Addressed | Not Addressed |
| Garbage Pickup | Not Addressed | Not Addressed |
| Mold | N/A | Yes |
| Pest Control | No | N/A |
| Pest Infestations | N/A | Yes |
| Water Leaks | N/A | Not Usually |
| Clogs | N/A | Not Usually |
Landlord Responsibilities for Heating & Air Conditioning in Illinois
Illinois landlords do have to provide heating for rental properties. They don’t have to provide air conditioning.
Are Landlords Required to Provide Air Filter Replacements in Illinois?
Illinois landlords don’t have to replace things like air filters, unless heating equipment won’t work otherwise.
Landlord Responsibilities for Plumbing in Illinois
Illinois landlords must keep plumbing in reasonable working condition.
Are Landlords Required To Provide Hot Water in Illinois?
Illinois landlords must provide and maintain running heated water for rental properties.
Are Landlords Responsible for Fixing Clogged Drains & Toilets in Illinois?
Illinois landlords only have to fix clogs that create a habitability issue.
Are Landlords in Illinois Responsible for Fixing Leaks?
Illinois landlords only have to fix leaks that keep the plumbing from providing essential services like running water to the premises.
Landlord Responsibilities for Kitchen Appliances in Illinois
Illinois landlords don’t have to provide or maintain kitchen appliances such as a dishwasher, stove, oven, microwave, or refrigerator.
Landlord Responsibilities for Electrical Issues in Illinois
Illinois landlords aren’t specifically required to provide electricity, but if there’s electrical service on the premises, it’s illegal for the landlord to deliberately or negligently cause its interruption.
Are Landlords Responsible for Replacing Light Bulbs in Illinois?
Illinois landlords are not responsible for replacing light bulbs or particular light fixtures.
Landlord Responsibilities for Garbage Removal in Illinois
Illinois landlords aren’t required to do specific things related to garbage removal. However, since garbage accumulation on rental property quickly begins to threaten health and safety, the landlord must in most cases provide options for the tenant to store and remove garbage.
Landlord Responsibilities for Landscaping in Illinois
Illinois landlords have no specific obligation to provide landscaping or maintain it with actions like cutting grass. They only have to deal with issues like fallen trees if they interfere with the cleanliness of common areas, violate local codes, or create a hazard to health and safety.
Landlord Responsibilities Regarding Mold in Illinois
Illinois landlords are responsible for most mold issues. While there’s no state requirement for testing, landlords must investigate and fix mold problems since they threaten health and safety.
Landlord Responsibilities Regarding Pests in Illinois
Illinois landlords are responsible for fixing pest issues the renter didn’t cause, including rats, roaches, mice, bed bugs, and ants. There’s no requirement for regular testing, however.
Landlord Responsibilities for Windows & Window Coverings in Illinois
Illinois landlords have no specific responsibility to provide or maintain particular windows and window coverings, except what’s required by local code or basic considerations of health and safety. The landlord has to repair broken windows the tenant didn’t cause, since this is a health and safety issue.
Landlord Responsibilities Regarding Safety Devices in Illinois
Illinois landlords are responsible for ensuring smoke alarms and carbon monoxide (CO) detectors are installed and operational at the beginning of a tenancy. Afterward, maintenance is the tenant’s job.
Are Landlords Responsible for Replacing Batteries of Safety Devices in Illinois?
Illinois landlords do have to replace nonfunctional batteries in safety devices at the beginning of a tenancy. After that, it’s the tenant’s job.
Landlord Responsibilities for Doors & Locks in Illinois
Illinois landlords are responsible for ensuring reasonably secure doors and locks on the property. In Cook County, a non-occupying landlord must rekey the locks before each new tenancy, unless the lease lets the tenant freely rekey.
Landlord Responsibilities for Washers and Dryers in Illinois
Illinois landlords are not required to furnish their rental properties with a working washer and dryer.
Renter’s Rights for Repairs in Illinois
Illinois renters have the right to repairs for issues that affect health and safety, unless they caused the issue themselves. Renters must send repair requests via registered or certified mail, to the landlord’s official or last known address. The landlord gets 14 days after notice for repairs, except in emergencies.
If the issue isn’t fixed, the renter can repair and deduct, or report health and safety violations to local authorities for further action. Renters aren’t allowed to withhold rent payments or break the lease, in most cases.
Sources
- 1 Pole Realty Co. v. Sorrells, 84 Ill. 2d 178, 182 (Ill. 1981)
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“[A] warranty of habitability is to be implied in leases of single-family dwellings as well as in leases of multiple-unit dwellings, and a breach of the warranty may be pleaded when the lessor in a forcible entry and detainer suit claims rent is due. A tenant will legitimately have the same expectations that a single-family dwelling will be fit to live in as he would have in the case of a structure with multiple dwelling units.”
Source Link - 2 Prairie State Legal Services, Renter’s Handbook 27 (Jan. 2021 ed.)
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No statute or case enumerates precise requirements for habitability in Illinois. However, guidance provided by a prominent tenant advocacy group articulates the general expectations: “Generally, ‘livable condition’ means that the unit you are renting should be free from housing code violations. If you are living in an area that does not have a housing or building code, the unit you are renting should at least have heat, hot and cold water, no leaks in the roof, and a solid structure; be free from bugs, rats and mice; and be safe from hazardous conditions.” Prairie State Legal Services, Renter’s Handbook 27 (Jan. 2021 ed.) Note that landlords need not pay for repair where “the condition was caused by the deliberate or negligent act or omission of the tenant, a member of the tenant’s family, or another person on the premises with the tenant’s consent.”
Source Link - 3 765 ILCS 735/1.4 (2022)
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“No landlord shall cause or request utility service to tenants to be interrupted, discontinued, or terminated in an occupied building (i) by nonpayment of utility bills for which the landlord has assumed responsibility by agreement or by implication (such as where the utilities are master metered) or (ii) by tampering with equipment or lines.”
Source Link - 4 Spanish Court Two Condo. Ass'n v. Carlson, 979 N.E.2d 891, 901 (Ill. App. Ct. 2012)
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“Without making any definitive remarks on factual scenarios not before us, since that is not our place here, we note that, for example, overgrown bushes and unrepaired sidewalk cracks may rarely constitute a material breach.”
Source Link - 5 425 ILCS 60/3(a) (2022)
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Requirements are detailed in the statute, but smoke detectors are required in all dwellings without exception: “Every dwelling unit or hotel shall be equipped with at least one approved smoke detector in an operating condition.”
Source Link - 6 430 ILCS 135/10(a) (2022)
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“Every dwelling unit shall be equipped with at least one approved carbon monoxide alarm in an operating condition within 15 feet of every room used for sleeping purposes.” 430 ILCS 135/10(a) (2022) Case by case exceptions are allowed, as approved by the local building commissioner; see 430 ILCS 135/20 (2022).
Source Link - 7 425 ILCS 60/3(d) (2022)
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“It shall be the responsibility of the owner of a structure to supply and install all required detectors. The owner shall be responsible for making reasonable efforts to test and maintain detectors in common stairwells and hallways. It shall be the responsibility of a tenant to test and to provide general maintenance for the detectors within the tenant’s dwelling unit or rooming unit, and to notify the owner or the authorized agent of the owner in writing of any deficiencies which the tenant cannot correct. …The tenant shall be responsible for replacement of any required batteries in the smoke detectors in the tenant’s dwelling unit, except that the owner shall ensure that such batteries are in operating condition at the time the tenant takes possession of the dwelling unit.”
Source Link - 8 765 ILCS 705/15 (2022)
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“After a dwelling unit has been vacated and on or before the day that a new lessee takes possession of the dwelling unit, the lessor shall change or rekey the immediate access to the lessee’s individual dwelling unit. …The provisions of this Section do not apply if the lessee has obtained the right to change or rekey the dwelling unit lock pursuant to a written lease agreement. …The provisions of this Section do not apply to an apartment rental in an apartment building with 4 units or less when one of the units is occupied by the owner or the rental of a room in a private home that is owner-occupied. This Section applies only in counties having a population of more than 3,000,000.”
Source Link - 9 765 ILCS 742/5 (2022)
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“If a repair is required under a residential lease agreement or required under a law, administrative rule, or local ordinance or regulation… the tenant may notify the landlord in writing by registered or certified mail or other restricted delivery service to the address of the landlord or an agent of the landlord as indicated on the lease agreement.”
Source Link - 10 765 ILCS 742/5 (2022)
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“If the landlord fails to make the repair within 14 days after being notified by the tenant as provided above [that the tenant will deduct for a repair amounting to the lesser of $500 or half monthly rent] or more promptly as conditions require in the case of an emergency, the tenant may have the repair made in a workmanlike manner and in compliance with the appropriate law, administrative rule, or local ordinance or regulation. Emergencies include conditions that will cause irreparable harm to the apartment or any fixture attached to the apartment if not immediately repaired or any condition that poses an immediate threat to the health or safety of any occupant of the dwelling or any common area.”
Source Link - 11 765 ILCS 742/5 (2022)
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The sole statutory remedy at the statewide level for a failure to repair is the repair-and-deduct remedy specified in 765 ILCS 742/5 (2022). For more expensive repairs, the tenant has very limited options. Rent withholding is occasionally permitted by courts but is not a consistent or dependable remedy. As such, the tenant’s only other reliable option is to report violations to the government, since this is a protected act under 765 ILCS 720/1 (2022).
Source Link
