Photo by Max Vakhtbovych on Pexels
Moving & Settling InRights most Chicago tenants never find out they had until they have lost the deposit.
Save this checklist
Save all 10 places to MyCheck
Check them off as you visit.
Most Chicago leases are covered by the Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance, and most tenants find out what it says only after something has gone wrong. The ordinance is unusually strong — it puts hard deadlines on the landlord and attaches real penalties when they are missed — but almost none of it happens automatically. You have to ask.
This list is the things worth doing at signing, during the tenancy and on the way out, in that order. The deposit items are first because they carry the heaviest penalty: get the deposit handling wrong and the ordinance entitles the tenant to two times the deposit plus interest.
A caveat that matters: the ordinance does not cover every unit — owner-occupied buildings of six units or fewer are the main exclusion — so confirm your building is covered before relying on any of it. Checked against the City of Chicago's own pages on 19 September 2026. This is a checklist, not legal advice; for a dispute, talk to a tenants' rights organisation or a lawyer.
The city publishes a plain-language summary that landlords are required to attach to leases covered by the ordinance. If it is not there, that is your first signal about how the rest of the tenancy will be run.
The ordinance excludes some units — owner-occupied buildings of six units or fewer being the common one. Everything else on this list depends on the answer, so establish it before you need it.
It must carry the owner's name, the date received and a description of the unit, and be signed by whoever took the money. Ask at the moment you hand it over — chasing it later is the hard version.
In the lease or in other writing within 14 days of receiving the deposit, the landlord must name the financial institution holding it. The deposit has to sit in a federally insured, interest-bearing Illinois account and may not be mixed with the landlord's own money.
Enjoying this list?
Save the entire Chicago checklist to MyCheck so you don't lose it.
Interest is owed each year on a deposit or prepaid rent held more than six months, paid in cash or credited against rent. The rate is set annually by the City Comptroller and published — check it rather than accept a figure.
Not an ordinance requirement — the reason it is on this list is the itemised damages statement below. Dated photographs of every room, taken before the first box arrives, are what turn a deposit dispute from your word against theirs.
The ordinance's remedies for a landlord who fails to maintain the unit run on notice and on time elapsed, so a text or an email with a date is worth more than a phone call. Keep the thread.
3 places left.
Keep this checklist in MyCheck and track which ones you've visited.
A separate, newer ordinance governing how much notice a landlord must give before raising rent or ending a tenancy — the notice scales with how long you have lived there. Worth knowing before you get a letter, not after.
Before any damage can be deducted from the deposit, the landlord must give an itemised statement within 30 days of the day you vacate. No statement inside 30 days undercuts a deduction made afterwards.
Where a landlord fails to meet the deposit requirements, the ordinance awards the tenant two times the security deposit plus interest. Knowing the number is most of the leverage in getting a deposit back without a fight.
Start this checklist
Keep your 10 ticks
Ticks here live in this browser. Save the list to MyCheck and they follow you.
Thirteen things to sort out after you move to Chicago, in deadline order, each linking to the official page that sets the rule.
Eight Chicago cafés and roasters, ordered from the Loop outward so the list can be walked in sections.
Ten Chicago restaurants, from Lou Malnati's and Portillo's to Alinea and Manny's Deli.
Ten well-known Chicago landmarks and museums for a first visit, ordered so they can be done on foot and by train.
USCIS case updates, checklists and reminders in one free account, on the web, iPhone and Android.
