Illinois Landlord Entry Rules, Including Chicago and Cook County

Illinois has no statewide law that sets a notice period for landlord entry, so check local ordinances before relying on your lease. In Chicago and most of suburban Cook County, local ordinances require at least two days' notice before a non-emergency entry, presume entry between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. is reasonable, and require notice within two days after an emergency entry. Those local rules cannot be waived in the lease, and some buildings, including owner-occupied buildings with six or fewer units, are exempt.

Which rules apply to your rental

Start with the unit's location, then check whether the building is exempt (next section).

The Cook County ordinance covers rentals anywhere in the county except cities and villages that have their own comprehensive landlord-tenant ordinance. Chicago, Evanston, and Mount Prospect had those ordinances when the county rules took effect on June 1, 2021, so a landlord there follows the city ordinance instead.

Chicago's rules may change. The mayor's proposed Protecting Renters Ordinance and a rival proposal, the FAIR ordinance, would both rewrite the RLTO. The City Council deferred both on September 23, 2026, and its record showed no later vote as of this review. Check the current ordinance before you rely on the figures here after a vote.

Which buildings are exempt

Chicago's RLTO does not cover:

• Units in owner-occupied buildings with six or fewer units.
• Hotel, motel, inn, bed-and-breakfast, and rooming house units until the tenant has stayed 32 or more continuous days and pays monthly rent.
• Hospitals, shelters, school dormitories, and student housing run by a college.
• A unit occupied by a buyer before closing, or by a seller after closing.
• Housing for an employee whose occupancy depends on the job.
• A co-op unit occupied by a holder of a proprietary lease.

A rented house or condo in Chicago owned by someone who does not live in the building is covered.

Cook County's RTLO has the same owner-occupied exemption for buildings with six or fewer units, plus similar hotel, institutional, employee, contract-buyer, and co-op exemptions. It adds one Chicago does not have: a single-family home or a single condo is exempt when all four of these are true:

1. It is the only unit the owner leases.
2. The owner or an immediate family member lived there for at least one month in the 12 months before marketing it.
3. The owner, not a management company, manages it.
4. The owner is not a corporation.

If your suburban Cook County unit is exempt, the RTLO requires you to say so in your marketing and on the application before you accept any application, credit check, or holding fee. Both ordinances deny the exemption when a rental agreement is set up to avoid the ordinance. In an exempt unit, the lease governs entry if no other local entry rule applies.

Notice, hours, and allowed reasons in Chicago and Cook County

Under both ordinances, a tenant may not unreasonably refuse entry, after proper notice, for these purposes:

• Necessary or agreed repairs, decorations, alterations, or improvements.
• Necessary or agreed services.
• Inspections authorized or required by a government agency. Cook County also allows general inspections of the unit.
• Showing the unit to buyers, lenders, workers, or contractors.
• Showing the unit to prospective tenants, but only in the last 60 days of the current lease.
• Checking whether the tenant is following the lease.

Give notice at least two days before the entry. Chicago allows notice by mail, telephone, written notice to the unit, or another method designed in good faith to reach the tenant. Cook County calls for written notice and lists the same delivery methods. When repairs to common areas or other apartments may require entry, you can send one general notice to every tenant who might be affected.

Enter at a reasonable time. An entry between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., or at any other time the tenant expressly requests, is presumed reasonable. Neither ordinance limits how often you may enter, but both bar using the right of access to harass the tenant, and repeated demands for entry that have that effect are a violation.

When you can enter without notice

Both ordinances let you enter without notice or consent in an emergency, such as a fire, a gas leak, or water coming through a ceiling. You must then tell the tenant about the entry within two days after it. Cook County requires that notice to be in writing.

Chicago adds a second exception: practical necessity, when repairs or maintenance elsewhere in the building unexpectedly require access to the unit. A leak into the unit below that traces to plumbing reachable only from the tenant's unit is one example. The same after-the-fact notice within two days applies. For how to judge whether a situation is a real emergency, see when you can enter a rental in an emergency.

What happens when entry goes wrong

If the tenant refuses lawful access. In Chicago, you can ask a court for an order compelling access, or end the lease by giving written notice that it will terminate no fewer than 10 days after the tenant receives the notice unless the tenant allows access, and you can recover damages. In suburban Cook County, you can seek a court order or terminate the lease and recover damages plus reasonable attorney's fees. Ending the lease still requires a court case to remove a tenant who stays; see the Illinois eviction process.

If you enter unlawfully or harass the tenant. The tenant can seek a court order stopping the conduct or terminate the lease, subject in Chicago to section 5-12-110(a)'s notice process. The Chicago tenant must give written notice describing the violation and setting a termination date at least 14 days after you receive it, allowing you that time to remedy the breach. If you do not remedy it, the tenant must return possession within 30 days after that deadline; otherwise the notice is withdrawn and the lease continues. In Chicago, the tenant can also recover up to one month's rent or twice the actual damages, whichever is greater. Example: with rent of $1,800 and $300 in actual damages, twice the damages is $600, so the cap is $1,800. In suburban Cook County, section 42-808 sets the same one month's rent or twice damages amount plus reasonable attorney's fees, and section 42-805 allows up to two months' rent for the same conduct, so plan on the higher figure.

In Chicago, a landlord or tenant who sues under the ordinance and wins also recovers court costs and reasonable attorney's fees, so losing a tenant's lawsuit costs more than the damages figure.

If your lease tries to waive these rules. A lease clause giving you entry at any time without notice is a waiver of tenant rights under the ordinance, and both ordinances make it unenforceable. If you try to enforce such a clause in Chicago, section 5-12-140 lets the tenant recover two months' rent. In Cook County, a landlord who knowingly uses a lease with a prohibited clause owes the tenant two months' rent or actual damages, whichever is greater.

Entry rules in the rest of Illinois

The Illinois Landlord and Tenant Act has no section on landlord access, and no other state statute sets a notice period or entry hours. Check your city or village's entry rules first; where no local entry rule applies, your written lease is the main source of your right to enter. A lease that says nothing about entry leaves you without a stated right to point to for routine visits, so get the tenant's agreement to each one.

Write an entry clause that complies with applicable local rules and states:

1. The purposes for entry, such as repairs, inspections, and showings.
2. The notice period, meeting any local minimum.
3. How you will deliver notice (text, email, phone, or a note at the door).
4. The hours allowed by local law. Urbana sets reasonable hours at 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends, unless you and the tenant agree otherwise.
5. Emergency entry without notice, with notice to the tenant afterward.

Illinois courts treat every lease as including a covenant of quiet enjoyment, the landlord's promise not to disturb the tenant's possession. It is breached by an actual or constructive eviction, meaning the landlord removes the tenant or makes the home unusable enough that the tenant leaves, and the tenant does not have to prove you meant to force them out. See the landlord's duty of quiet enjoyment for how that claim works. Many entries are for repairs, and the Illinois maintenance and repair rules set the deadlines that often drive when you need access.