{
    "dataset": "Homzora Chicago Retaliation, Lockouts and Void Lease Terms 2026",
    "jurisdiction": "City of Chicago, Illinois",
    "scope": "Sections 5-12-130 through 5-12-160 of the Chicago Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance: the prohibition on lockouts, the bar on retaliation, the lease terms that cannot be enforced, and the notice a landlord must give before an eviction.",
    "the_lockout_provision": "Section 5-12-160 is unusually specific. It names the methods, requires the police to investigate a complaint, makes each day a separate offense, and gives the tenant a civil remedy of possession plus up to two months rent or twice their damages, available whether or not a fine was imposed. It also applies to tenants outside the main coverage of the ordinance, including in owner occupied buildings of six units or fewer.",
    "the_one_year_presumption": "Where a tenant engaged in protected activity within the year before a rent increase, service reduction, eviction threat or refusal to renew, the burden shifts to the landlord to show the action was not retaliatory. That is a meaningful evidential advantage and it is why the date of a repair request or code complaint matters.",
    "void_terms": "Six categories of lease term are void, including any waiver of rights under the ordinance and any agreement that the tenant will pay the landlord attorney fees. A void clause cannot be relied on in court regardless of what was signed.",
    "documented_disagreement": "One published source states that landlords attempting lockouts face fines starting at 500 dollars per day. The ordinance text as quoted by other sources provides for a fine of not less than 200 dollars nor more than 500 dollars, per day. Homzora publishes the range from the quoted ordinance text and records the difference rather than resolving it.",
    "basis": "Compiled from the quoted text of section 5-12-160 and published practitioner and tenant advocacy summaries of sections 5-12-130, 5-12-140 and 5-12-150.",
    "sources": [
        "Chicago Municipal Code section 5-12-160, as quoted in full by published sources",
        "Published practitioner and tenant advocacy summaries of Chicago Municipal Code sections 5-12-130, 5-12-140 and 5-12-150, 2026",
        "Chicagoland Apartment Association excerpt of RLTO 5-12-130"
    ],
    "verified": "2026-09-13",
    "note": "This is not legal advice and does not evaluate any particular tenancy. If you have been locked out, the Chicago Police Department is required to investigate a complaint, and a legal aid organization can advise on the civil remedy.",
    "license": "CC BY 4.0 for the Homzora compilation.",
    "methodology": "https://homzora.co/chicago/guides/methodology/",
    "rows": [
        {
            "provision": "5-12-160",
            "subject": "What a lockout is",
            "what_it_says": "It is unlawful for a landlord, or anyone acting at their direction, knowingly to oust or dispossess a tenant, or to threaten or attempt to, without authority of law. The ordinance names the methods: plugging, changing, adding or removing any lock or latching device, blocking any entrance, removing any door or window, or interfering with services including electricity.",
            "key_figure": "prohibited outright",
            "notes": "There is no exception for nonpayment, for lease expiration, or for frustration."
        },
        {
            "provision": "5-12-160",
            "subject": "Police enforcement",
            "what_it_says": "Where the Chicago Police Department receives a complaint of a violation, the department must investigate and determine whether one has occurred.",
            "key_figure": "police must investigate",
            "notes": ""
        },
        {
            "provision": "5-12-160",
            "subject": "The fine",
            "what_it_says": "Any person found guilty shall be fined not less than 200 dollars nor more than 500 dollars.",
            "key_figure": "200 to 500 dollars",
            "notes": "One published source states fines start at 500 dollars per day. The ordinance text as quoted elsewhere gives a range of 200 to 500. Homzora publishes the range and records the difference."
        },
        {
            "provision": "5-12-160",
            "subject": "Each day is separate",
            "what_it_says": "Each day the violation occurs or continues constitutes a separate and distinct offense, carrying its own fine.",
            "key_figure": "per day",
            "notes": "Which is what makes a sustained lockout expensive rather than a single penalty."
        },
        {
            "provision": "5-12-160",
            "subject": "The tenant civil remedy",
            "what_it_says": "A tenant who establishes a violation is entitled to recover possession of the unit or their personal property, and to recover not more than two months rent or twice the actual damages sustained, whichever is greater.",
            "key_figure": "two months rent or twice damages",
            "notes": "The civil remedy is available regardless of whether a fine was entered against the landlord."
        },
        {
            "provision": "5-12-160",
            "subject": "It applies even outside the ordinance",
            "what_it_says": "Lockouts are illegal even where a tenant is not otherwise protected by the RLTO, including in owner occupied buildings of six units or fewer.",
            "key_figure": "no exemption",
            "notes": "One of only two RLTO protections that reach tenants outside the main coverage, the other being the notice requirements."
        },
        {
            "provision": "5-12-150",
            "subject": "What retaliation covers",
            "what_it_says": "A landlord may not increase rent, decrease services, threaten eviction or refuse to renew a lease in response to protected tenant activity.",
            "key_figure": "four named responses",
            "notes": ""
        },
        {
            "provision": "5-12-150",
            "subject": "Protected activities",
            "what_it_says": "Complaining to a government agency about code violations, filing a complaint about habitability, requesting repairs in good faith, joining a tenant union or similar organization, testifying in a court or administrative proceeding about the condition of the premises, and exercising any right or remedy provided by law.",
            "key_figure": "seven categories",
            "notes": ""
        },
        {
            "provision": "5-12-150",
            "subject": "The one year presumption",
            "what_it_says": "Where there is evidence of protected conduct within one year before the alleged retaliation, the burden falls on the landlord to prove their actions were not retaliatory.",
            "key_figure": "one year",
            "notes": "The presumption does not apply where the protected activity began after the alleged retaliatory act."
        },
        {
            "provision": "5-12-150",
            "subject": "Tenant remedies",
            "what_it_says": "A defense to any retaliatory action including an eviction, the right to recover possession, the right to terminate the lease, and damages of not more than two months rent or twice the damages sustained, whichever is greater, plus reasonable attorney fees.",
            "key_figure": "two months rent or twice damages",
            "notes": "Where the tenant terminates, the landlord must return all security deposits, interest and prepaid rent."
        },
        {
            "provision": "5-12-150",
            "subject": "Time limit",
            "what_it_says": "A tenant has five years to sue for a violation, counting from the day the violation occurred.",
            "key_figure": "5 years",
            "notes": ""
        },
        {
            "provision": "5-12-140",
            "subject": "Lease terms that are void",
            "what_it_says": "A rental agreement may not contain a waiver of RLTO rights, remedies or obligations, an authorization to confess judgment, an agreement limiting the liability of either party, a waiver of written termination notice or its manner of service, a waiver of the right to trial by jury, or an agreement that the tenant will pay the landlord attorney fees.",
            "key_figure": "six prohibited terms",
            "notes": "The clause itself is void and the landlord cannot rely on it in any court proceeding."
        },
        {
            "provision": "5-12-140",
            "subject": "Compared with Georgia",
            "what_it_says": "Chicago bars an agreement that the tenant will pay the landlord attorney fees outright. Georgia takes a different approach at O.C.G.A. 44-7-2(c), permitting such a clause only where it is reciprocal and voiding it entirely where it is not.",
            "key_figure": "different approaches",
            "notes": ""
        },
        {
            "provision": "5-12-130",
            "subject": "Nonpayment notice",
            "what_it_says": "A landlord must serve a five day written notice demanding payment. A tenant who pays the back rent plus any court filing fees before a judge enters an order of possession may stay.",
            "key_figure": "5 days",
            "notes": "On a second nonpayment within twelve months the tenant still receives a five day notice, but published sources describe the right to cure as more limited."
        },
        {
            "provision": "5-12-130",
            "subject": "Skipping the notice",
            "what_it_says": "A landlord who omits the five day notice or serves it improperly will have the eviction case dismissed.",
            "key_figure": "case dismissed",
            "notes": ""
        },
        {
            "provision": "5-12-130",
            "subject": "Tenant breach other than rent",
            "what_it_says": "Where there is material noncompliance by a tenant, the landlord may deliver written notice specifying the acts or omissions, stating the agreement terminates on a date not less than ten days after receipt, unless the breach is remedied within that period.",
            "key_figure": "10 days",
            "notes": ""
        }
    ]
}