A Chicago lease agreement is a written contract in which a landlord rents a home in Chicago to a tenant for a set term and a set rent. Use the free form below to create the FormsPal Illinois Chicago residential lease agreement online, then print it, sign it and download it as a PDF.
Last Updated: October 2026. This guide is reviewed and updated regularly to reflect current Illinois law. If you notice an error or outdated information, please contact us.
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The Chicago lease agreement form is a FormsPal template for renting an apartment or house in Chicago, Illinois. It records the lease term, the monthly rent, any security deposit and the people who will live in the rental. It also has the landlord's details and signature lines for each tenant and landlord. The FormsPal template is a fillable PDF with 198 fields, and you can complete it online in about 20 minutes.
The form covers these parts of a Chicago lease:
As a general practice, check whether the City of Chicago has its own landlord and tenant rules. If it does, read them alongside this lease before you sign it.
Need a different lease than this Chicago lease agreement? Browse all rental lease agreement templates or see the Illinois rental lease agreement templates for the rest of the state.
| Document Name | Chicago Residential Lease Agreement Form |
| Other Names | Chicago Apartment Lease, Chicago Rental Lease |
| Relevant Laws | Illinois Compiled Statutes 735 ILCS 5/9-205, 740 ILCS 80/2 and 765 ILCS 710/1, and 42 U.S.C. § 4852d |
| Avg. Time to Fill Out | 20 minutes |
| # of Fillable Fields | 198 |
| Available Formats | Adobe PDF |
To fill out the Chicago lease agreement, work through the form from the first page to the last. Page 2 holds the lease terms and the parties, page 3 holds the disclosures and page 5 holds the signatures. The other pages need only your initials in the footer. You can answer the questions in the online builder above or download the PDF and fill it in with our PDF editor.
The screenshots under each step show the FormsPal Illinois Chicago residential lease agreement template filled with sample entries in blue, so you can see where each answer goes. The names, addresses, dates and amounts are examples only.
Under 765 ILCS 710/1, a landlord who wants to keep part of a security deposit for property damage must send the tenant an itemized statement of the damage. The statement is due within 30 days of the date that the lessee vacated the leased premises or within 30 days of the date the lessee's right of possession ends, whichever is later. If no statement and receipts are furnished, the landlord must return the deposit in full within 45 days of the date that the lessee vacated the premises.[3.1]
The statement works like this:
A circuit court can hold a landlord liable for twice the amount of the deposit due, together with court costs and reasonable attorney's fees. This follows a finding that the landlord refused to supply the itemized statement or supplied it in bad faith, and failed or refused to return the deposit due within the time limits.[3.1]
A sale of the building does not wipe out the deposit. When a landlord who holds a deposit or prepaid rent sells or otherwise transfers the property, these rules apply:
The written notice a landlord must give to end an Illinois tenancy depends on the type of tenancy. Where the tenant holds over without a special agreement, a landlord can end a week-to-week tenancy with 7 days' notice in writing. A landlord can end any other tenancy of less than one year in the same way with 30 days' notice in writing. For a year-to-year tenancy, 60 days' notice in writing is enough to end it at the end of the year.[1]
For the 30-day rule, the statute reads:
In all cases of tenancy for any term less than one year, other than tenancy from week to week, where the tenant holds over without special agreement, the landlord may terminate the tenancy by 30 days' notice, in writing, and may maintain an action for eviction or ejectment.
Illinois law does not let a court action be brought on a lease for a term longer than one year unless the lease, or a memorandum or note of it, is in writing.[2] Federal law adds a lead paint disclosure for older homes, and the Chicago lease agreement form handles it with tick-boxes on page 3.
Under 42 U.S.C. § 4851b, target housing means any housing constructed prior to 1978, with the exceptions the statute lists.[4] For that housing, the landlord must give the tenant a lead hazard information pamphlet and disclose any known lead-based paint or lead-based paint hazards. The landlord must also provide any lead hazard evaluation report that is available.[5]
Illinois law sets a 30-day window for a landlord's itemized deposit statement and a 45-day deadline to return the deposit in full if no statement is furnished.[3.1] Written notice periods run 7, 30 or 60 days depending on the type of tenancy.[1] A lease for a term longer than one year has to be in writing.[2]
A landlord who wants to keep part of the deposit for property damage must send an itemized statement of the damage. It is due within 30 days after the tenant moves out or the tenant's right of possession ends, whichever is later. If no statement and receipts are furnished, the landlord must return the deposit in full within 45 days after the tenant moved out.[3.1]
A circuit court can hold the landlord liable for twice the amount of the deposit due, plus court costs and reasonable attorney's fees. This applies when the landlord refused to supply the itemized statement or supplied it in bad faith, and failed to return the deposit due within the time limits.[3.1]
Where a tenant holds over without a special agreement, a landlord can end a tenancy of less than one year that is not week-to-week by giving 30 days' notice in writing.[1]
The written notice a landlord must give depends on the type of tenancy:
A lease for a term longer than one year has to be in writing. Illinois law does not let a court action be brought on such a lease unless the lease, or a memorandum or note of it, is in writing.[2]
For housing constructed prior to 1978, federal law requires the landlord to give the tenant a lead hazard information pamphlet and to disclose any known lead-based paint or lead-based paint hazards.[5]
The new owner becomes liable to the tenant for the security deposit, including statutory interest, or for the prepaid rent. The previous owner stays jointly and severally liable with the new owner for the same amount.[3.2]
General information, not legal or tax advice.
Unless noted otherwise, the sources below are from the Illinois Compiled Statutes.
