Chicago, IL — landlord and rental rules

The Rent Control Preemption Act bars any Illinois municipality from enacting rent control. No local ordinance can impose a cap while it stands.

Dormant, not dead: repeal bill HB1118 died in committee in January 2025 and was absent from the 2026 session. A long hold should treat preemption as a policy that can be withdrawn, not as a property right.

Chicago has no just-cause requirement yet. Two competing ordinances — PRO and FAIR — are heading to a Council vote.

PRO would additionally require relocation payments and LLC beneficial-ownership disclosure. Which version passes changes the exit for a small building, so track it before a long hold.

Unit counts

Up to 12 units

The Fair Notice Ordinance requires 30, 60 or 120 days' notice of a rent increase or a non-renewal, by how long the tenant has been in place.

A long-tenured below-market tenant takes four months to notice and months more to remove. That is the real lag between buying and repricing the rent roll.

Under6 months

30 days

Six months to three years

60 days

Over three years

120 days

An eviction in Cook County runs roughly 5 to 7 months, against about 10 weeks in neighbouring DuPage County.

The county line, not the state line, is where this changes. Two otherwise identical buildings a few miles apart carry materially different downside on a non-paying tenant.

Typical duration

5–7 months

Under the Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance, a security deposit violation carries damages of twice the deposit plus attorney's fees.

Standard local practice is a non-refundable move-in fee instead of a deposit, which sidesteps the statute rather than trying to comply with it perfectly from out of state.

Damages

2× the deposit, plus fees

Cook County reassesses on a triennial cycle that puts the City of Chicago in 2027, and the assessor treats a recent purchase price as evidence of market value.

From tax year 2026 the assessor applies a 'loaded cap rate' — taxes are added as a load rather than deducted as an expense — which raises assessed value on income-approach properties. Underwrite the post-2027 bill, not the seller's current one.

Next chicago reassessment

2027