After months of detailed negotiations, a Residential Tenant Landlord Ordinance (RTLO) was adopted by the Cook County Board during their Jan. 28 meeting. Most of the law is set to go into effect June 1, 2021, however the anti-lockout provision goes into effect immediately.

REALTORS® opposed the ordinance but were able to obtain many changes to make it better. Some of the main details of the new regulations include:

• Six units or fewer, owner occupied buildings are exempt.
• Single family home, or single condominium unit is exempt if it is not owned or managed by a company. The owner or family member must have resided in the property within the last 12 months.
• Move in fees are allowed if they are reasonably related to the landlords cost for the tenant moving into the unit.
• Tenant notification of possible bedbugs is required within 48 hours.
• A $10 cap on late fees will only apply to rents $1,000 or below (instead of $1,500). A 5 percent fee applies to the late rent above $1,000.
• Lease renewal notice shortened from 90 days to 60 days.
• Eased restrictions on the storage of abandoned property.
• “Right to cure” provision: 2 business days allowed for housing provider to correct security deposit administrative errors.
• “Right to cure” provision: 2 business days allowed for housing provider to correct failure to attach the summary of the ordinance.
• Tenant must let the landlord know of their “right to cure” for oversight in processing the security deposit or failure to attach the summary ordinance.
• Security deposit return time lengthened to 30 days (instead of 21 days).

The new law will apply to all of Cook County except for the city of Chicago, city of Evanston and village of Mount Prospect which already have tenant protection ordinances.