What a Skokie lease cannot say: the clauses the law voids, and what you can do if yours has one

A lease is a contract, and most of what it says is up to the two people signing it. Not all of it. Two layers of law take specific clauses out of a Skokie lease: Illinois statutes, which reach every residential lease in the village, and suburban Cook County's Residential Tenant and Landlord Ordinance, whose Sec. 42-804(F) lists twelve provisions a rental agreement “shall not provide” in the buildings it covers. Other pages on this site quote pieces of both where they come up — the late-fee cap, the autopay ban, the Safe Homes Act. This page puts the set in one place, quotes the paragraphs the other pages do not, and adds the state fee law that takes effect on January 1, 2027. The county text was re-fetched and the state sections re-read on ilga.gov on November 15, 2026.

What this page is: the lease clauses that Illinois statutes and the Cook County ordinance take out of a Skokie lease, each quoted from and linked to its official text. It is not legal advice — it reads the texts, not the court decisions applying them, and when a clause in your own lease matters, use the free legal help on our tenant rights page.

Two layers, and which one covers your building

The county ordinance begins from freedom of contract: a landlord and tenant “may include in a rental agreement any terms and conditions that are not prohibited by this Article and other rules of law, including rent, term of the agreement, and other provisions governing the rights and obligations of the parties” (Sec. 42-804(A)). Then comes the list, and after it the sentence that gives the list its force: “A landlord shall not enforce a provision prohibited by section Sec. 42-804.” That sentence has no conditions. A prohibited clause in a covered lease cannot be enforced, whatever was signed; nothing in Sec. 42-804 says the rest of the lease falls with it. Two limits decide whether the list is yours. Time: “The provisions, provided in Sec. 42- 804(F), apply to new rental agreements starting on or after June 1, 2021.” Building: Sec. 42-802 excludes, among other arrangements, “Residential buildings in which occupancy is limited to six (6) units or less and which are owner-occupied”, and a single-family home or condominium unit that is the only unit the owner leases, under further conditions set out on the late-fees page. An owner relying on an exclusion “shall make this exclusion known to prospective tenants in marketing materials”. The state statutes below are different: unless a section says otherwise, they apply to a Skokie lease whether or not the county ordinance does, and each section's own limits are stated where it is quoted. Source: Cook County RTLO, Sec. 42-804 (ordinance text the county posts, dated January 2021) · Cook County RTLO, Sec. 42-802 (exclusions) — same posted text

“The landlord is not responsible for…” — liability waivers, 765 ILCS 705/1 and Sec. 42-804(F)(5)

The oldest rule on this page is a state one, and it reaches every lease. Section 1 of the Landlord and Tenant Act: “every covenant, agreement, or understanding in or in connection with or collateral to any lease of real property, exempting the lessor from liability for damages for injuries to person or property caused by or resulting from the negligence of the lessor, his or her agents, servants or employees, in the operation or maintenance of the demised premises or the real property containing the demised premises shall be deemed to be void as against public policy and wholly unenforceable.” Its one exception, subsection (b), is for “a provision in a non-residential lease that exempts the lessor from liability for property damage” — not an apartment. Read what the section covers: the landlord's own negligence, and that of “agents, servants or employees”, in the unit or the building. It does not make a landlord answerable for a loss no one's negligence caused, which is the gap renters insurance fills. In covered buildings the county adds a broader paragraph: a rental agreement shall not provide that a party “Agrees to the limitation of any liability of the tenant or landlord arising under law or to indemnify the tenant or landlord for that liability or the costs connected therewith” (Sec. 42-804(F)(5)). That one runs both ways — it bars a clause limiting the tenant's legal liability as well as the landlord's. Source: 765 ILCS 705/1 (Landlord and Tenant Act — liability exemptions) · Cook County RTLO, Sec. 42-804 (ordinance text the county posts, dated January 2021)

Giving up rights, notice, a trial or a jury — Sec. 42-804(F)(1), (2), (3), (6), (7)

Five of the county's twelve paragraphs concern the courthouse. In a covered building a rental agreement shall not provide that the tenant or the landlord: “Agrees to waive or to forego rights or remedies under this Article, Illinois state law, or federal law” (1); “Authorizes a confession of judgment, or any entry of a judgment by a court without written notice or a trial, for any claim, including but not limited to debts, liabilities, damages, and obligations, arising out of the rental agreement” (2); agrees to a waiver of “any written termination of tenancy notice or manner of service thereof provided under state law or this Article”, or of a summons, copy of the complaint and the other court papers (3); “Agrees to waive the right of any party to a trial by jury” (6); or “Agrees that in the event of a lawsuit arising out of the tenancy the tenant will pay the landlord's attorney's fees except as provided for by court rules, statute or Ordinance” (7). Paragraph (1) is the widest: a clause waiving any right on this site's other Skokie pages that comes from the ordinance, a state statute or federal law is inside it. Paragraph (7) does not ban fee awards; it bans a lease from creating one beyond what a rule, statute or the ordinance already allows. Outside covered buildings this page has less to offer, and says so. The Landlord and Tenant Act, read section by section, has no jury-waiver or attorney's-fee paragraph. Illinois does have a statute voiding a power to confess judgment in a consumer transaction (735 ILCS 5/2-1301(c)), but its definition speaks of goods, consumer services and intangibles; whether it reaches a residential lease is a question this page has found no authority on and does not answer. The notice periods a landlord owes under state law are on the eviction page. Source: Cook County RTLO, Sec. 42-804 (ordinance text the county posts, dated January 2021)

Money clauses in force today: late fees, how rent is applied, autopay, portal fees, the rent office, screening fees

County list, covered buildings: paragraphs (9), (10) and (11) cap a late fee at $10 a month on the first $1,000 of rent plus five percent of the rest, cap an early-payment discount by the same formula, and bar a clause letting the landlord “apply rent payments to a charge other than rent”; paragraph (12) concerns fees above “the reasonable cost of that expense”. All four are quoted and worked through on the late-fees page. State law, every building: a landlord may not require rent by electronic funds transfer or autopay (765 ILCS 705/4, leases executed after January 1, 2024), and a landlord whose payment portal adds a transaction fee must accept a paper check or cash without one (705/3.5, leases executed after January 1, 2025) — both quoted in full on the same page. A third state rule is quoted nowhere else on this site. In a building or complex of 100 or more units with a business office on the premises that keeps regular hours, the landlord “must accept rent payments from a lessee of any of those residential units at that business office during the regularly scheduled office hours and the lessor may not impose any penalty, fee, or charge for making rent payments in this manner that are otherwise considered timely under the lease, but the landlord may refuse to accept payment by cash when rent payments are made in this manner”; and if a lease provision “entered into, extended, or renewed on or after the effective date” (May 31, 2005) conflicts, “then that provision of the lease or other rental agreement is void and unenforceable” (735 ILCS 5/9-218). So a large complex with a staffed office cannot make its portal the only door. Last, at application: a landlord handed a qualifying reusable tenant screening report “may not charge the prospective tenant a fee to access the report or an application screening fee” (765 ILCS 705/30) — the conditions are on the cost-to-move-in page. Source: Cook County RTLO, Sec. 42-804 (ordinance text the county posts, dated January 2021) · 735 ILCS 5/9-218 (Code of Civil Procedure — rent payments at business office; P.A. 94-2, eff. 5-31-05) · 765 ILCS 705/4 — Landlord and Tenant Act, Sec. 4 (payment by electronic funds transfer) · 765 ILCS 705/3.5 — Landlord and Tenant Act, Sec. 3.5 (fee-free means to pay rent) · 765 ILCS 705/30 (Landlord and Tenant Act — reusable tenant screening report, eff. Jan. 1, 2025)

From January 1, 2027: a fee not on page one is not owed, and eleven fees are banned outright — 765 ILCS 705/35

This section is not in force yet. ilga.gov marks it “This Section may contain text from a Public Act with a delayed effective date”, and its source note reads P.A. 104-479, effective January 1, 2027; it “applies to all lease agreements for residential rental property entered into after the effective date”. A lease signed in December 2026 is outside it. For leases signed after that date it does two things. Page one: “All non-optional fees, regardless of whether they are one-time fees or recurring fees, shall be explicitly contained on the first page of a lease agreement. If a fee is not explicitly contained on the first page of a lease agreement, a tenant shall not be liable for payment of such fee.” The same fees must be disclosed “in a clear and conspicuous manner” in the listing or a link from it, and the landlord “must disclose whether utilities are included in rent.” The ban: “No landlord or lease agreement may require the payment by the tenant of any of the following” — an application fee, background check included, “in excess of $50”, unless a third-party check actually costs more, the landlord pays it up front and bills the applicant with receipts within 14 days; a fee ancillary to the application fee that duplicates screening costs; “A fee or fine for modification or renewal of a lease agreement”; a fee for an eviction notice or filing before a court grants an eviction order, though court costs and filing fees remain recoverable; a fee for “after-hours requests for maintenance service”; a fee for contacting the owner or manager about maintenance or the tenancy; a fee for travel to do needed maintenance or safety repairs; a maintenance-hotline fee; “A fee or fine for the routine maintenance and upkeep of the unit”; “A fee or fine for pest abatement or removal where the tenant has in no way contributed to the infestation”; and “A fee or fine for an in-person walk through of the unit at the time of move-in and move-out.” Renaming does not help: “A landlord may not rename a fee or charge to avoid application of this Section.” The exemption is the same shape as the county's but written into state law: the section “does not apply to lease agreements entered into for dwelling units in owner-occupied premises containing 6 units or fewer.” Enforcement is a private lawsuit — a person alleging a violation “may bring a civil action”, and “The court may order injunctive relief, monetary relief, attorney's fees, and costs.” The section sets no dollar penalty of its own. No agency guidance or court decision exists yet for a law not yet in force, and none was read. Source: 765 ILCS 705/35 (Landlord and Tenant Act — rental fee transparency and limitations; P.A. 104-479, eff. Jan. 1, 2027)

Three more: what you say about the landlord, lopsided termination rights, and the Safe Homes Act

Two county paragraphs fit under no other heading. A covered lease shall not provide that a party “Agrees to a non-disparagement clause that limits any written or oral statements, remarks, or other communications, public or private, directly or indirectly, made by tenants regarding the landlord, property, management, staff” and a long list of affiliates (Sec. 42-804(F)(4)) — a lease in a covered building cannot bar a review or a complaint. And it shall not provide that a party “Agrees that either party may cancel or terminate a rental agreement at a different time or within a shorter time period than the other party, unless such provision is disclosed in a separate written notice” (F)(8) — an uneven termination clause is allowed only if it is disclosed in its own written notice, apart from the lease. The third rule is statewide and one sentence long. The Safe Homes Act lets a tenant facing domestic or sexual violence end rent liability or have the locks changed, and its Section 30 reads: “The provisions of this Act may not be waived or modified in any lease or separate agreement.” What the Act gives, and the one kind of housing it leaves out, is on the breaking-a-lease page. Source: Cook County RTLO, Sec. 42-804 (ordinance text the county posts, dated January 2021) · 765 ILCS 750/30 (Safe Homes Act — prohibition of waiver or modification)

If your lease has one of these clauses: what the texts give you

First, in a covered building the clause is not enforceable — that is the unconditional sentence of Sec. 42-804(G), and it is usually all a tenant needs: the fee above the cap is not owed, the waived notice is still required. Second, money, with two conditions: “If a landlord deliberately uses a rental agreement containing any provision known by the landlord to be prohibited, the tenant may recover actual damages or two (2) months' rent, whichever is greater” — $4,742 at today's average Skokie rent. “Deliberately” and “known by the landlord to be prohibited” are both the tenant's to show, and a stale form lease does not by itself prove either; a landlord who was told in writing that a clause is prohibited and went on using it is a different case. Third, the state rules carry their own consequences: a clause exempting the landlord from negligence is “wholly unenforceable” (705/1); a landlord who requires autopay commits an unlawful practice under the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act (705/4); a conflicting rent-office clause is “void and unenforceable” (9-218); and from 2027 the fee section adds its own civil action. None of the texts requires a tenant to have objected at signing. Free legal help for Skokie tenants is listed on the tenant-rights page. Source: Cook County RTLO, Sec. 42-804 (ordinance text the county posts, dated January 2021) · 765 ILCS 705/1 (Landlord and Tenant Act — liability exemptions)

What a lease may still say — and what this page did not read

Most of a lease is untouched by all of this: rent, term, pets, subletting, a renters-insurance requirement, and who pays which utility are left to the parties, and a clause is not prohibited merely because it is one-sided. One clause the state has recently invited in: under the Security Deposit Return Act, “If a written lease specifies the cost for cleaning, repair, or replacement of any component of the leased premises or any component of the building or common areas that, if damaged, will not be replaced, the lessor may withhold the dollar amount specified in the lease” — but “Costs specified in a written lease shall be for damage beyond normal wear and tear and reasonable to restore the leased premises to the same condition as at the time the lease began” (765 ILCS 710/1(a)). A price list in a lease is therefore lawful; a price list that charges for ordinary wear is not what the sentence allows. The rest of that Act is on the security-deposit page. The limits of this page: it quotes ordinance and statute text only. No court decision applying Sec. 42-804(F) or (G) was read, and what “deliberately” takes to prove is a question courts answer. The Village of Skokie's own code could not be fetched from any host and was not read; if it adds lease rules, they are not here. Subsidized and public housing leases carry federal lease rules on top of these. It is not legal advice. Source: 765 ILCS 710/1 (Security Deposit Return Act — statement of damage) · Cook County RTLO, Sec. 42-804 (ordinance text the county posts, dated January 2021)

Page last updated November 15, 2026 · rent index data through September 2026.