Lease Renewal Clause
in Your Lease
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Statutes verified against primary state sources
Every statute cited here was read in its published text before this page went live: on the state's own site where that site can be reached, otherwise on a republished copy of the code. Court decisions are quoted from the published opinion and linked to it, so you can read the original yourself.
Primary sourcesNot legal advice
Content verified against primary state statutes before publicationLast updated: October 2026
What it actually means, what Illinois law says, what's specific to Chicago - and exactly what to do. In plain English.
Quick Summary - What You Need to Know
- Covered Chicago buildings: 30, 60 or 120 days' written notice before non-renewal or a rent increase, scaled to your tenure.
- Illinois alone requires no notice when a fixed-term lease reaches its end date.
- Month to month: 30 days' written notice. Week to week: 7 days.
- Year to year: 60 days' written notice before either side ends it.
- The Chicago ordinance does not cover every building. Small owner-occupied buildings are commonly exempt, so confirm yours.
Count it for your dates
30 days before: the last day to act
What it means: Written notice ending the month-to-month tenancy must be given at least 30 days before that day. Applies to you or your landlord ending a month-to-month tenancy. In a covered Chicago building, a landlord not renewing owes 30, 60 or 120 days by tenure under RLTO 5-12-130(j), so this 30-day date can be too late for a landlord's notice. A fixed-term lease reaching its end date needs no notice to quit (735 ILCS 5/9-213); week to week is 7 days; year to year is 60 days (735 ILCS 5/9-205) (735 ILCS 5/9-207). Calendar arithmetic only; check how the section counts days before you rely on a date.
Copy and send: Well before the renewal notice window in your lease opens
Ask about your renewal
Fill in the brackets and keep a copy of what you send.
Understanding the Lease Renewal Clause
This page is for Chicago renters whose lease is ending and who want to know how much warning they get, or owe, about renewal. Start with your tenancy type and your building.
Illinois sets notice periods for month-to-month, week-to-week and year-to-year tenancies, but not for a fixed term reaching its end date. Chicago adds a notice rule for non-renewal in the buildings its ordinance covers. Our notice period calculator helps you count the days.
What renters assume
My lease renews on its own unless someone speaks up, so silence from the landlord means another year.
What is actually true
Under 735 ILCS 5/9-213 a fixed term ends by its own terms, which leaves your lease's renewal paragraph as the document that says whether it rolls over. In a covered Chicago building, the landlord owes 30, 60 or 120 days' written notice before not renewing.
Illinois' 30-day bar covers month-to-month tenancies only; when a fixed term expires, state law asks for nothing at all. Colorado and Washington now require an actual cause to refuse a renewal. Chicago's ordinance is the only thing putting a Chicago renter anywhere near that company.
Lease Renewal Clause Example - What the Wording Looks Like in Chicago, IL
The sample clause below is real lease language - a court quoted it word for word, and then ruled on it. What the judge decided is at the bottom of this block.
Find the equivalent paragraph in your own lease and read the two side by side. The wording will differ; the moving parts rarely do.
A holdover-renewal paragraph from a 1968 New York City Civil Court case - trial level, and quoted here for what the drafting does, not because it is authority in Illinois:
If the tenant continues in possession after the expiration of the term granted herein, then this lease is hereby renewed for a further period of one year and the rent during said period shall be increased $420.00 per year payable by the increase of each monthly payment in the sum of $35.00, unless the parties enter into a new written agreement.
Quoted from the published opinion in Renoir House, Inc. v. Solomon, 58 Misc. 2d 994 (N.Y. Civ. Ct. 1968). Judicial opinions are not subject to copyright; the lease language is reproduced in limited part for commentary under 17 U.S.C. § 107.
What the 4 highlighted phrases mean
“after the expiration of the term granted herein”
What happens after the last day is the whole question, and Illinois answers it in two places. Under 735 ILCS 5/9-213 a tenancy for a certain period ends by its own terms and no notice to quit is necessary; the statute's notice figures attach to periodic tenancies instead - 30 days for month to month under 735 ILCS 5/9-207, 7 days for week to week, and 60 days for year to year under 735 ILCS 5/9-205. Which of those you are in once the term expires is exactly what a clause like this tries to settle in advance.
“for a further period of one year”
A year is a long roll, and it is the shape Illinois's 60-day figure is built around: 735 ILCS 5/9-205 requires 60 days' written notice to end a year-to-year tenancy. In Chicago the ordinance usually answers the timing question first, because RLTO 5-12-130(j) puts the landlord on a 30, 60 or 120 day clock according to your tenure before a renewal can be declined.
“the increase of each monthly payment”
The rent increase is the half of this rule renters most often miss. The Fair Notice rule in RLTO 5-12-130(j) covers a rent increase as well as a refusal to renew: 30, 60 or 120 days' written notice, scaled to how long you have been in the unit. An increase announced late is a timing problem for the landlord, not only a budgeting problem for you.
See the example
“in the sum of $35.00”
A figure written into the lease is what let this tenant plan, and what made the landlord's larger demand fail. Our Illinois record deals with notice and timing rather than the size of an increase, and it records that the state has no statewide just-cause rule, so a landlord outside Chicago may decline to renew for any lawful reason. Inside the city, the ordinance's notice bands are the constraint that actually bites.
Read the date first. This is 1968, and a trial-level New York City Civil Court decision, so it carries little precedential weight - one trial judge reading one lease, not a rule laid down by an appellate court. Treat it as an illustration of a clause shape, never as controlling authority, and check current New York law before relying on any part of it. What the court did: it called paragraph 14 “crystal clear and unambiguous” and read it as an option the tenant exercises simply by staying in possession, at a fixed increase the lease itself named. The tenant held over and refused to sign a new agreement, so the lease was extended for a year at $292 a month, and the landlord's written notice raising the rent above that figure was “completely ineffectual.” The court also held that General Obligations Law § 5-905 did not let the landlord negate the option: that statute exists to protect tenants from automatic-renewal clauses that bind them unless they give advance notice to quit, not to defeat a renewal clause that runs the tenant's way. Petition dismissed, final judgment for the tenant.
How this state's law treats this clause
One court, one lease, one state. That answer is not automatically yours, and your lease may be worded to land differently. Use this to know what to look for and what to ask - your state's tenant hotline or a local tenant attorney can answer it for your document.
Illinois Law on Lease Renewal Clause
- Under 735 ILCS 5/9-213, a tenancy for a certain period ends by its own terms and no notice to quit is necessary.
- 735 ILCS 5/9-207 requires 30 days' written notice for month-to-month and 7 days for week-to-week tenancies.
- 735 ILCS 5/9-205 requires 60 days' written notice to end a year-to-year tenancy.
- The Illinois sections we read set no statewide just-cause rule, so a landlord outside Chicago may decline renewal for any lawful reason.
Sources include 735 ILCS 5/9-207 - statutes change; verify the current text for your situation.
Illinois sets its renewal timing by the kind of tenancy you hold.
- Fixed term (735 ILCS 5/9-213). A tenancy for a certain period ends by its own terms, and no notice to quit is necessary when it does.
- Month to month (735 ILCS 5/9-207). 30 days' written notice. Week to week takes 7 days. Time the notice against your rental period rather than counting from today.
- Year to year (735 ILCS 5/9-205). 60 days' written notice to end the tenancy.
The Illinois sections we read set no statewide just-cause rule for renewal. In a building Chicago's ordinance covers, the city notice rule below applies on top of these periods. Statutes change, so check the current text of 735 ILCS 5/9-207 before you count a day.
What's Specific to Chicago
Figures are the state rule, or the stronger city ordinance where one exists. Verify the current law for your own situation before relying on it.
Chicago's Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance, RLTO 5-12-130(j), as amended by the 2020 Fair Notice Ordinance, requires 30, 60 or 120 days' written notice before a landlord declines to renew or raises the rent. The longer you have lived in the unit, the more notice you are owed.
The RLTO does not cover every building, and small owner-occupied buildings are commonly exempt, so confirm your unit is covered before you rely on it.
A fair clause names the date your notice is due and holds both sides to it, so nobody can claim you missed a window.
In a covered building the landlord owes 30, 60 or 120 days' written notice by tenure. A lease promising less does not override the ordinance.
A new term at a rate set later leaves you nothing to weigh. Chicago requires the same notice for a rent increase as for non-renewal.
A line saying you leave at term end with no further notice collides with the Fair Notice rule in a covered Chicago building.
Sources
The law this guide relies on, and where to read it. Statutes change, so confirm the current text before you act on it.
- 735 ILCS 5/9-207, read on codes.findlaw.com. FindLaw marks its copy of this section current as of January 1, 2025; Illinois publishes the official text at www.ilga.gov, which refuses connections from our build machine.
Red Flags to Watch Out For
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Auto-renewal with no exit window
The lease rolls into a full new term unless you cancel by a date buried deep in the text. Get that deadline confirmed in writing before you sign.
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A non-renewal notice shorter than your tenure
In a covered building, check the delivery date against the 30, 60 or 120 days' owed for how long you have lived there.
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One-sided notice deadlines
You owe months of notice to leave while the landlord owes none to refuse renewal. A fair clause runs the same clock in both directions.
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Thirty days used on a year-to-year tenancy
30 days is the month-to-month figure in 9-207. Year to year is 60 days under 9-205. Match the count to your tenancy.
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Fee for declining to renew
A charge just for not signing another term. Under 9-213 a fixed term ends by its own terms, with no notice to quit necessary.
Your Rights as a Chicago Tenant
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30 days on month to month
735 ILCS 5/9-207 requires 30 days' written notice to end a month-to-month tenancy, and 7 days for week to week.
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60 days on year to year
735 ILCS 5/9-205 requires 60 days' written notice to end a year-to-year tenancy.
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Chicago's tenure-based notice
RLTO 5-12-130(j) requires 30, 60 or 120 days' written notice before non-renewal or a rent increase, scaled to how long you've rented.
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Your fixed term ends on its date
Under 735 ILCS 5/9-213 a tenancy for a certain period ends by its own terms, and no notice to quit is necessary.
What To Do - Step by Step
Find your renewal deadline
Search the lease for renew, renewal or automatic. Put the notice deadline on your calendar the day you sign.
Count your Chicago notice days
Confirm your building is RLTO-covered, then work out whether your tenure entitles you to 30, 60 or 120 days' notice.
Ask early, in writing
Before your notice window opens, email your landlord asking whether a renewal is being offered and at what rent. Save the reply.
Save every notice you receive
Photograph any non-renewal or rent-increase notice with its delivery date. That date decides whether the ordinance was met.
Answer the offer in writing
If you're staying, accept in writing and get the signed renewal back before your deadline passes.
Call a Chicago tenant hotline
The Metropolitan Tenants Organization runs a free hotline. Legal Aid Chicago and Lawyers' Committee for Better Housing help income-eligible renters at no cost.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Lease Renewal rules near Illinois
The same clause in the nearest states we cover.
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