Illinois rental junk fee ban signed into law

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill into law Friday to ban rental junk fees and require transparency for leases.

Sponsors said renters should not be surprised by charges included in their rent, like fees for after-hours service requests, lease renewals, or routine maintenance.

The law requires all non-optional fees to be explicitly disclosed on the first page of a lease agreement. Tenants will not be liable for the fees if they are not listed on the first page.

"This is actually going to add predictability to the rental market, which is going to be good for my constituents who are renters and also going to be really useful to those that are actually offering rental housing to have a little bit more predictability in terms of what they can and cannot charge," said Sen. Mike Simmons (D-Chicago). "That's going to help us have more affordable housing all across the state."

Republicans said the idea comes from a good place, but they argued the law will have unintended consequences. Some noted there are only 34 affordable and available homes for every 100 extremely low-income rentals.

"I think this bill has some structural blind spots that will hurt the tenants we're seeking to protect," said Rep. Jeff Keicher (R-Sycamore). "Any landlord doing business and running this, especially those that are smaller landlords with one to four properties, their natural inclination is going to be to build these costs into the base rent. Therefore, the tenants are going to be paying additional higher rents month in and month out."

House Bill 3564 passed out of the Senate on a 39-16 vote. It received a 64-40 vote in the House.

The changes will take effect Jan. 1.