Illinois Rental Junk Fee Rules for Landlords

Quick answer for Illinois landlords

The short version: the new Illinois rental fee rules apply to covered residential lease agreements entered into on or after January 1, 2027. Landlords should use the remaining preparation period to audit listings, lease templates, application charges, renewal procedures, maintenance fees, and property-management systems.

• All non-optional one-time and recurring fees must appear on the first page of the lease.
• Non-optional fees must also be clearly and conspicuously disclosed in the rental listing or an accompanying web link.
• Some charges are prohibited completely and cannot be saved simply by disclosing them.
• Rental application fees, including background checks, are generally capped at $50, subject to a specific third-party background-check exception.
• Covered landlords cannot charge lease-renewal fees, certain maintenance-related fees, or fees for move-in and move-out walkthroughs.
• Dwelling units in owner-occupied premises containing 6 units or fewer are excluded from Section 35.

The biggest mistake will be treating this as a lease-only update. A landlord can correct page one of the lease and still have an outdated fee in the listing, application portal, accounting system, maintenance platform, or instructions given to a property manager.

What changes on January 1 2027

Illinois Public Act 104-0479 adds Section 35 to the Landlord and Tenant Act. The provision creates a statewide framework for rental fee transparency and places direct limits on several charges commonly associated with applications, renewals, maintenance, and move-in or move-out procedures.

The original legislation carried an earlier effective date, but Illinois later changed that date to January 1, 2027. For landlords, August 2026 is therefore preparation time. There is no reason to wait until the end of December to find out that five active lease templates and three listing feeds use different fee structures.

The Illinois rental fee transparency law applies to residential rental lease agreements entered into after the effective date, subject to the statutory exemption discussed below.

The difference between a disclosed fee and a prohibited fee

The new law is much easier to understand if landlords separate fees into two different categories. One category involves charges that may exist but must be properly disclosed. The other involves charges that Section 35 does not permit the landlord or lease agreement to require at all.

Some mandatory fees are primarily a disclosure issue

If a charge is non-optional and otherwise lawful, it must be built into the new disclosure structure. That means it needs to appear on the first page of the covered lease and be clearly disclosed in the rental listing or accompanying web link.

Other fees are prohibited regardless of disclosure

A landlord cannot take a prohibited fee, put it in bold type on page one, and make the problem disappear. Disclosure does not make a prohibited charge legal. The first question is always whether Section 35 permits the charge at all. Only then does the disclosure analysis become useful.

Practical rule: first determine whether the fee is allowed. If it is, determine whether it is non-optional and therefore needs to appear consistently in the listing and on the first page of the lease.

Fees Illinois landlords can no longer charge

Section 35 does not use a vague instruction telling landlords to avoid unreasonable charges. It identifies specific fee categories. That makes the first compliance exercise relatively concrete: pull the current fee schedule, identify what each charge actually pays for, and compare the substance of the charge with the statutory list.

For covered leases, the law prohibits the following:

• Rental application fees above $50, including background checks, unless the charge qualifies for the separate third-party background-check exception.
• Ancillary application fees or fines intended to duplicate tenant-screening costs or cover expenses unrelated to tenant screening.
• Fees or fines for modifying or renewing a lease agreement.
• Fees or fines for an eviction notice or filing an eviction action before an eviction order is granted. The statute separately preserves the landlord's ability to recover court costs and filing fees.
• Fees or fines for after-hours maintenance requests.
• Fees for contacting the owner or property manager about maintenance, service requests, lease questions, or other matters directly related to the tenancy.
• Travel fees tied to necessary maintenance work or safety repairs.
• Maintenance hotline or service-call fees for maintenance, service, or tenancy-related questions.
• Routine maintenance and upkeep fees.
• Pest abatement or removal fees where the tenant did not contribute to the infestation.
• Fees for an in-person walkthrough of the unit at move-in or move-out.

The audit should focus on what a fee actually pays for rather than the accounting label attached to it. A charge that performs the same function as a prohibited fee does not become safer merely because the property-management software calls it something different.

The new $50 application fee rule

Application fees deserve their own review because the statute provides both a general limit and a narrow exception. For covered properties, a rental application fee, including background checks, generally cannot exceed $50.

A landlord may charge more than $50 for a third-party background check, but only if the statutory conditions are satisfied. Those conditions are operational, which means the screening workflow matters just as much as the amount shown on the application form.

• The actual third-party background-check service must cost more than $50.
• The landlord must pay that third-party cost upfront.
• The applicant must be billed within 14 days of the background-check service.
• The bill must include receipts from the third-party background-check provider.

If the landlord does not submit the bill and receipts within the 14-day period, the third-party background-check fee is waived. The statute also states that this fee cannot be used as the basis for an eviction action during the first year of the lease.

A screening platform charging the landlord $64 does not automatically justify a flat $75 “application and administration fee.” The exception is tied to the actual third-party background-check cost and the statute's billing and receipt requirements.

This is also a good point to review whether the application process complies with Illinois rules governing reusable tenant screening reports. Fee compliance rarely sits inside only one statute or one form.

What must appear on the first page of the lease

One of the clearest changes is the first-page rule. All non-optional fees, whether one-time or recurring, must be explicitly contained on the first page of a covered lease agreement. If a fee is missing from that first page, the statute says the tenant is not liable for paying it.

In practice, the first page is becoming a fee-control page rather than merely a cover page. Before a lease template goes live, landlords should compare that page with the listing, application process, property-management system, and actual charges expected during the tenancy.

Items worth checking include:

• every mandatory one-time charge;
• every mandatory recurring charge;
• mandatory service or amenity fees that are otherwise lawful;
• technology or administrative charges that are actually required rather than optional;
• whether utilities are included in rent;
• whether any fee listed on page one is separately prohibited by Section 35.

Updating the first page is also a natural time for broader lease and contract review, particularly where different buildings or management companies have accumulated different versions of the same agreement.

What rental listings need to disclose

The new framework starts before the applicant signs anything. Section 35 defines a listing as an advertisement or written notice conveying that a property is for lease and including the rental price. Non-optional fees must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously in that listing or in an accompanying web link at the time the listing appears.

The law also requires disclosure, in a lease agreement disclosure or unit listing, of whether utilities are included in rent. For landlords using multiple marketing channels, that turns listing consistency into a real compliance issue.

A practical audit may therefore include:

• the landlord's own property website;
• property-management software feeds;
• broker-prepared rental listings;
• major third-party apartment and rental platforms;
• individual unit landing pages;
• PDF or email advertisements containing a rental price.

Those are workflow examples, not a statutory list of named platforms. The important point is that a fee disclosed only after an applicant has already responded to an advertised rental price can create a very different record from a fee disclosed clearly when the property is first marketed.

Why renaming a charge does not solve the problem

Section 35 closes one of the easiest attempted workarounds. A landlord may not rename a fee or charge to avoid application of the statute. That language makes the function of the charge more important than whatever wording appears next to it in the resident ledger.

For example, changing a prohibited lease-renewal fee into a “renewal processing charge” does not meaningfully change what the tenant is being required to pay for. The same concern can arise with labels such as “resident support fee,” “maintenance communication fee,” or “turnover walkthrough fee” if the underlying charge falls within a prohibited category.

Substance matters more than creative naming. This is why the fee audit should include ledger codes and software descriptions, not just the public-facing lease.

Which landlords are exempt

The exemption is specific. Section 35 does not apply to lease agreements for dwelling units in owner-occupied premises containing 6 units or fewer. It is not a general exemption for anyone who describes themselves as a small landlord.

Two pieces therefore matter together: the premises must fall within the unit-count threshold, and the premises must be owner-occupied. A landlord should confirm the actual property structure before relying on this exception rather than assuming ownership of a small portfolio is enough.

Local law remains important as well. Section 35 permits local governments to regulate tenant fees, but the local rules must restrict fees at least as much as the state provision. Chicago and suburban landlords should therefore continue to account for any applicable local requirements rather than treating the state rule as the only possible layer of rental property compliance.

A fee audit landlords can run before 2027

A spreadsheet of charges is a better starting point than a legal memo if the goal is finding actual problems. List every amount an applicant or tenant might be required to pay, identify the reason for the charge, and then trace where that amount appears from advertising through the end of the tenancy.

Do not treat the third column as permission to keep every fee. Each charge should first be compared with the prohibited-fee list. Only an otherwise permissible charge should move to the disclosure analysis.

The property management workflow is part of the audit

A perfectly revised lease can still fail to control what actually happens. Many rental businesses rely on several systems at once, and each system may contain its own fee logic. That makes implementation a larger task than replacing a PDF.

Common gaps worth checking include:

• a property-management platform that automatically adds an old fee;
• a renewal template that still includes a processing charge;
• a rental listing that advertises base rent without a mandatory recurring fee;
• a screening platform that collects charges independently from the landlord's application form;
• a maintenance portal that automatically applies a service-call fee;
• accounting software containing obsolete fee codes;
• staff members circulating an older PDF version of the lease;
• the landlord's website and third-party listings showing different total mandatory charges.

This is where recurring compliance review can be more useful than fixing documents one at a time. The objective is to create one controlled fee structure that management, leasing, accounting, and maintenance teams all use consistently.

What landlords should update before January 1

There is enough lead time to test the new process before covered leases begin using it. A landlord managing several properties should use that time to identify where charges originate, who can change them, and which public-facing materials depend on automated data feeds.

The pre-2027 review should include:

• all active residential lease templates;
• the structure of the first lease page;
• rental listing templates and advertising feeds;
• website fee disclosures;
• application forms and applicant payment screens;
• third-party screening vendor pricing and invoices;
• lease-renewal workflows;
• maintenance portals and after-hours procedures;
• accounting and resident-ledger fee codes;
• property-manager and leasing-staff instructions;
• the owner-occupied exemption where it may apply;
• applicable Chicago, Cook County, or other local requirements.

The goal is not simply to delete charges. It is to make advertising, screening, leasing, billing, renewal, maintenance, and property management use the same compliant fee structure. That consistency also makes later lease enforcement cleaner because the landlord is enforcing obligations that were properly structured from the beginning.

What a violation can turn into

Section 35 provides a private civil-action mechanism. A person alleging a violation may bring an action in a court of competent jurisdiction, and the statute permits the court to award injunctive relief, monetary relief, attorney's fees, and costs.

That changes the economics of what may initially look like a minor billing disagreement. A relatively small fee can become part of a larger dispute once a plaintiff seeks monetary relief, an order stopping a practice, and fee shifting. The practical concern becomes larger still if the same fee appears in a standardized lease or software rule used across multiple tenancies.

The best response is prevention rather than trying to defend a fee after the billing record has already been created. Owners managing multiple properties, fee schedules, or third-party systems can have the current workflow reviewed while there is still time to change it cleanly.

FAQ

Where old fee schedules create the real risk

The most obvious prohibited charge is not necessarily the fee most likely to create a problem. The real risk is often an old rule that survives somewhere after the landlord believes the update is finished. The new lease looks correct, but an accounting code still adds a maintenance charge. The website is updated, but an apartment platform receives an older pricing feed. The application form is fixed, but a screening vendor still collects a bundled amount.

By January 2027, the strongest compliance position is not a patched lease. It is one fee structure used consistently from the first rental advertisement through application, signing, monthly billing, renewal, maintenance, and move-out. When every system tells the same story, both compliance and later dispute resolution become much easier to manage.

Sources

1. Illinois General Assembly - Public Act 104-0479
2. Illinois Landlord and Tenant Act - 765 ILCS 705
3. Illinois General Assembly - Public Act 104-0514, effective date amendment