Lawmakers in Illinois passed several significant new statewide tenant protections during the spring to increase housing affordability and stability for renters across the state. Expected to be signed into law soon by Governor J. B. Pritzker, the new pieces of legislation – “House Bill 4206,” “House Bill 4926,” “House Bill 4768,” and “Senate Bill 3652” – support low-income and marginalized renters by limiting unnecessary rental fees, prohibiting retaliatory evictions, and informing survivors of domestic and sexual violence of their housing rights. With the passage of the state’s new renter protections, Illinois becomes one of five states – including Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, and Rhode Island – to have passed legislation this year addressing excessive rental fees in the private rental market, as well as one of three states – including Minnesota and New Hampshire – to have passed protections for victims of domestic and sexual violence in 2024.
Two of the recently passed bills place limitations on rental fees. Both “House Bill 4206” and “House Bill 4926” amend the state’s “Landlord and Tenant Act” to protect against unnecessary, redundant, or hidden fees. Also known as “junk fees,” these fees are charges paid in addition to rent, which often exacerbate the financial stress already experienced by the lowest-income renters. “House Bill 4206” permits tenants to make rental payments through paper checks or cash when electronic payment methods charge extra fees, while “House Bill 4926” prohibits landlords from charging prospective tenants an application screening fee if they provide a reusable tenant screening report. The report must adhere to certain requirements, including that it be (1) prepared within the last 30 days by a consumer credit reporting agency at the tenant's request and expense; (2) directly available to the landlord or through a reliable third-party website; and (3) free to access by the landlord.
Both pieces of legislation aim to reduce the hidden, nonrefundable costs that contribute to a tenant’s inability to afford rent. Provisions that allow tenants to reuse their tenant screening report can reduce financial burdens for prospective renters, as suggested by research from Zillow’s Consumer Housing Trends Report from 2022, which found that the typical renter submitted two applications during their housing search. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), tenant screening reports cost between $25 and $35, meaning that the apartment search alone can quickly become financially burdensome for the lowest-income renters.
The state’s new protections targeting junk fees in the private rental market are part of a growing wave of actions taken at the federal, state, and local levels to crack down on excessive and arbitrary rental fees. As mentioned above, four other states have passed laws to address junk fees this year, cracking down on fees that arise in the form of excessive security deposit fees, court filing fees in eviction cases, pet fees, late fees for nonpayment of rent, and arbitrary fees charged in the form of “convenience” fees. Meanwhile, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, NLIHC has tracked a total of 14 states and 8 localities that have enacted laws addressing rental fees in its State and Local Tenant Protections Database. While there are currently no federal protections to safeguard against excessive rental fees, the Biden-Harris administration released a fact sheet on actionable steps to target junk fees, including increasing transparency in rental listings. The fact sheet showcases the significant efforts made at all levels of government to increase housing affordability for tenants and protect renter households, who often pay hundreds of dollars in fees per month on top of their base rent.
These bills come at a crucial time for renters in the state, as Illinois faces continuing challenges providing quality, affordable, and available housing for extremely low-income renters. Research from NLIHC’s The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes report finds that only 36 out of every 100 rental units are affordable to individuals whose income is at or below 30% of the area median income (AMI). In Chicago, the wage needed to afford the Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $33, about two times Chicago’s minimum wage of $16.20 for most employers.
Meanwhile, according to NLIHC’s Out of Reach: The High Cost of Housing report, of the more than 1.6 million renter households in Illinois, over 450,000 are extremely low-income (28% of renter households). The report shows that full-time workers must work 82 hours per week at minimum wage to afford a two-bedroom rental home without allocating more than 30% of their income to rent. As more than 70% of extremely low-income renter households must spend over half of their income to afford housing and utility costs, legislation limiting additional financial precarity is imperative for preventing eviction and avoiding homelessness. Such circumstances have had disparate impacts for renter households of color in the state. In 2021, 63% of Black renters in the state were considered to be cost-burdened, or paying more than 30% of their income towards rent, while 51% of white renters were considered to be cost burdened. In localities such as Macon County, McHenry County, and St. Clair County, the difference is far more pronounced.
In addition to limiting excessive fees, the newly enacted tenant protections include a law that establishes protections against retaliatory eviction. Referred to as the “Landlord Retaliation Act,” “House Bill 4768” prohibits landlords from taking retaliatory action against a tenant for reporting complaints and code violations to government agencies, media, or to the landlord. The act adds to existing legislation enforcing quality housing standards, such as the “Residential Tenants’ Right to Repair Act,” which stipulates that a landlord has 14 days to fix a necessary repair if it costs less than $500 or half the rent, whichever is lower.
Under the new law, tenants may also organize a tenant’s union and testify in any court concerning the health and safety of the rental property. Landlords cannot increase rent, decrease services, terminate a lease, or bring a lawsuit against tenants for pursuing any of these actions. If a landlord violates this act, tenants are entitled to legal action, including terminating the lease and receiving back their security deposit, returning to the property if the landlord has dispossessed them, or obtaining up to two months’ rent or twice the damages sustained by the tenant, whichever is greater, along with legal fees.
Retaliatory evictions are particularly harmful to survivors of domestic or sexual violence. The passage of “Senate Bill 3652” helps ensure victims are informed of their rights to stable and safe housing by requiring the Illinois Department of Human Rights to create a summary for survivors informing them of existing state law that protects access to housing. Landlords must include this summary on the first page of the lease. In 2024, Minnesota and New Hampshire passed similar protections for survivors of domestic violence. In Minnesota, “Senate Bill 3492” allows tenants to break their lease early if they are a survivor of domestic violence, while New Hampshire law (passed through “House Bill 261”) also allows tenants to break their lease agreement under similar circumstances, though state law also allows tenants who have faced a disabling illness to terminate their lease as well, so long as the tenant gives 30-days’ notice.
Domestic violence is also linked to homelessness. Victims are often unable to access financial resources, and sometimes their financial credibility has been destroyed as a result of their abuse. Limitations on the availability of safe and confidential housing, and the tendency for landlords to discriminate against survivors, compounds these barriers. These health and economic obstacles particularly affect Black and Indigenous women, making it difficult for them to secure permanent housing and putting them at greater risk of instability.
Sponsored by many members of the Illinois General Assembly, the new protections were advocated for by organizations such as the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and Housing Action Illinois, a coalition of over 180 member organizations championing equitable, quality, and affordable housing and an NLIHC state partner.
Speaking about the passage of the new protections in Illinois, Housing Action Illinois Policy Director Bob Palmer remarked that the “several bills expanding tenant protections passed during the recently completed legislative session demonstrate that Governor Pritzker and the majority of members of our General Assembly understand that having access to affordable, decent, and stable housing promotes the well-being of people and communities in Illinois.”
Learn more about the new renter protections by reading Housing Action Illinois’s legislative wrap-up document here.