Some clauses in your lease do nothing — except get you in trouble.

Plenty of normal-looking lease language is flatly void in Chicago. A court won’t enforce it — that part you might expect. Here’s the part that stings: simply including certain prohibited clauses can expose you, even if you never tried to use them. The clause you copied from an old lease “just in case” can be the thing that costs you.

The usual suspects — and why they backfire:

1. Rights-waivers are dead on arrival. Any clause where the tenant “waives” their RLTO protections is void. You can’t contract out of the ordinance, no matter how clearly it’s written or how willingly it’s signed. The clauses to pull →

2. “Tenant pays all my legal fees” usually backfires. One-sided attorney’s-fee clauses are frequently unenforceable here — and the ordinance can flip the script, putting you on the hook for the tenant’s fees in the disputes that matter most.

3. Automatic forfeitures and “self-help” are landmines. Clauses that let you seize property, lock out, or “win automatically” without process are exactly what the law voids — and leaning on one tends to create liability, not save you the trouble.

4. The mere presence of a banned clause can be the violation. This is the one people miss. For certain clauses, including them in a lease you know contains them can itself trigger remedies — separate from whether you ever enforced them.

5. Generic templates are where this comes from. Most void clauses arrive by copy-paste: a national lease form, the last landlord’s document, a clause carried forward for a decade. “I’ve always used this lease” is how the problem quietly compounds across every unit.

Hall of shame: “I’ve used this lease for years.” — years of quietly carrying a clause that works against you.

Reader Q: A Rogers Park landlord asks, “I downloaded a lease template online — am I covered?” Maybe not: generic templates are where most void clauses come from. Whether yours are clean is a check-your-lease answer.

Which of your clauses are void — or risky just to keep in the document — comes down to your exact lease language. That’s the part a newsletter can’t see. It’s what Dweller IQ is for.

The Fine Print is plain-language general guidance, not legal advice — verify against the current ordinance or your attorney before acting on your specific situation.