Half the Blogs Have This New Fee Law Wrong. Don't Be Half the Blogs.
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Illinois passed a statewide rental fee law, and property-management blogs raced to write it up. A lot of them got the single most important detail wrong: when it actually starts.
If you own units in Chicago, this one reaches you too. Chicago landlords are Illinois landlords, and this law sits on top of everything the city already asks of you. So it is worth getting the facts straight from a source that read past the headline.
- Illinois HB 3564, signed as Public Act 104-0479, is the Rental Fee Transparency and Limitations Act — it amends the Illinois Landlord and Tenant Act (765 ILCS 705).
- Effective date is January 1, 2027, not July 2026 as several write-ups claim.
- Application and background-check fees are capped at $50 (with narrow exceptions).
- Bans fees for lease modification or renewal, and fees for after-hours maintenance requests.
- Every non-optional fee must appear on page one of the lease. A fee that is not on page one is a fee the tenant is not liable for.
- Small-landlord carve-out: does not apply to owner-occupied buildings of six units or fewer.
“A new law with the wrong start date in your calendar is worse than no calendar at all.”
Dweller IQ
No, It Did Not Start in July 2026
This is the mistake making the rounds. HB 3564 moved through the legislature in 2025, and an early read had it starting mid-2026. A follow-up trailer bill reset the clock. The version that governs you takes effect January 1, 2027. Any checklist telling you the rules are already live is running months ahead of the actual law.
That gap matters. It means you have a real window to fix your lease and your fee schedule on your own timeline, instead of scrambling because a blog scared you into thinking the deadline already passed.
What Actually Changes
The law — codified into the Illinois Landlord and Tenant Act at 765 ILCS 705 — goes after fees the way a lot of tenants wish someone would. Four concrete pieces:
- Application and background-check fees are capped at $50. A landlord may not charge more, subject to narrow statutory exceptions. Anything above $50 today needs to come down before the effective date.
- Lease-modification and lease-renewal fees are banned. No more “renewal admin” or “lease amendment” line items.
- After-hours maintenance-request fees are banned. A tenant reporting a broken furnace at 9 p.m. cannot be charged for the timing of the call.
- Utilities disclosure is mandatory. The lease agreement or unit listing must state whether utilities are included in the rent.
And it reworks how a move-in fee and a security deposit can coexist, because a fee the tenant cannot see is a fee the tenant may not have to pay.
The Disclosure Rule Is the Sneaky One
The piece most landlords will underestimate is the disclosure requirement. Under 765 ILCS 705, every non-optional fee — one-time or recurring — must appear on page one of the lease agreement. Not page three. Not in an addendum. Page one. A tenant is not liable for any non-optional fee that is not on page one. That turns a sloppy lease template into forfeited revenue, quietly, without a single argument.
Who the Law Does Not Reach
There is a small-landlord carve-out worth knowing. The Rental Fee Transparency and Limitations Act does not apply to owner-occupied buildings of six units or fewer. If you live in your own 2-flat, 3-flat, or 4-flat, the state fee caps and disclosure rule do not reach you — but you still sit under Chicago's RLTO fee rules, which are separate and stricter in some places.
If you want to know which of your fees survive this law and which quietly become uncollectable, that is exactly the kind of thing Dweller IQ is built to answer, and our guide to which fees a Chicago landlord can legally charge shows where that line already sits today.
Why the Runway Is a Gift, Not a Reason to Wait
An effective date in 2027 feels far away, which is exactly why most landlords will do nothing until December of that year. The ones who use the runway will quietly audit their fee schedule, clean up their lease, and never think about it again. The ones who wait will be rewriting leases under a deadline, which is how mistakes get signed.
You do not have to become a statute expert. You just have to know which of your line items the law actually reaches, and fix those before the date that is real, not the one half the internet invented.
Key Takeaways
- HB 3564 is now Illinois Public Act 104-0479 — the Rental Fee Transparency and Limitations Act, codified at 765 ILCS 705.
- Effective January 1, 2027 — not July 2026 as many blogs claim.
- Application and background-check fees capped at $50.
- Lease-modification, lease-renewal, and after-hours maintenance-request fees are banned outright.
- Every non-optional fee must appear on page one of the lease — anywhere else and the tenant is not liable.
- Utilities-included status must be disclosed in the lease or the listing.
- Small-landlord carve-out: does not apply to owner-occupied buildings of six units or fewer.
- Chicago landlords are covered because the law is statewide — on top of Chicago's own RLTO fee rules.
Common Questions
January 1, 2027. Public Act 104-0479, codified at 765 ILCS 705. Several write-ups say mid-2026 — that reflects an earlier version of the bill that was superseded before enactment.
$50, with narrow statutory exceptions. Any application or background-check charge above $50 will be unlawful once the law takes effect on January 1, 2027.
Fees or fines for lease modification or renewal, and fees for after-hours maintenance requests. Both categories are prohibited regardless of what the lease says.
On page one of the lease agreement. Every non-optional fee — one-time or recurring — must appear on page one. A tenant is not liable for any non-optional fee that is not on page one, even if it is buried elsewhere in the lease.
Yes. HB 3564 is statewide, so Chicago landlords are covered on top of Chicago's own RLTO fee rules. Where the two conflict, the stricter one governs.
Partially. The law does not apply to owner-occupied buildings of six units or fewer. It does apply to all other Illinois residential rentals.
