The Landlord Lens - Chicago Wants to Rewrite the Rules for Landlords

Episode Date: September 18, 2026

Chicago is considering major changes to its landlord-tenant laws, and the fight between renters and property owners is heating up. In this episode of Landlord Lens, we break down the competing PRO and FAIR proposals, what they could mean for rental property owners, and why both sides say the future of housing affordability is at stake.From renter protections and relocation assistance to rental registries and new requirements for landlords, we examine what’s actually being proposed, what has changed, and the arguments coming from both sides of Chicago’s housing debate.

We're zooming into Chicago where Mayor Brandon Johnson proposed a renter protection bill. It doesn't surprise me that landlords are organizing where the primary thing is just get rid of the just cost. Hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of Landlord Lens. And today we're going to talk about the latest fight between landlords and renters in a municipality. And that municipality is Chicago. Got that right, John. We're zooming into Chicago where Mayor Brandon Johnson recently proposed or is pushing for a renter protection bill that is going to pretty massively overhaul landlord-tenant relationship law. I think it's called Protect Renters Ordinance, right? Yes, sir. Protect Renters' ordinance. It rolls off the tongue. And what's awesome about pro is there's actually a counter-movement amongst the landlords in Chicago. And that is called Fair. And fair stands for fair and accountable Illinois rental ordinance.

Let's talk about what's in pro because it's actually a bunch of stuff that has passed in California and municipalities out there in New York. So let's talk through them. Yeah, it's not new. But I think the biggest one that hits the hardest out of all the elements of pro is the just cause requirement for non-renewal and an eviction. Yes. and it really bothers me reading through some of this information because it instead of saying non-renewal, they say eviction. Yes. Like in every case.

Yes. As though a non-renewal is the same as an eviction. But yeah, basically they have this requirement of fault. So if the tenant is at fault for all the normal stuff, non-payment, illegal stuff, other material violations of the lease, if they're at fault, then you can process an eviction or go through a non-renewal if you can demonstrate that and no problem. But if that tenant is not at fault, guess who's on the hook for paying for their move? Yeah, the landlord is on the hook for real reallocation. Yes. Right.

$3,000 to $10,000. Yeah, it's not a small amount. And I think while there are other elements of pro, like caps on different rental fees, statewide rental registry, right, which cities are loving to get into place. A new body that's like a regulatory body managed by the municipality that's purely dedicated to rental housing management. Yes, and they're expanding tenant legal assistance is another one. Yep. But I think it really just comes down to this just cause element at the end of the day, because as a landlord, you have a lease, right, with your tenant. That tenant signs that lease. And let's

say you're doing your typical 12 month. You don't want it to go to month to month. What's crazy as a landlord and I think as a tenant, reaching the end of that lease is just the end of a contractual agreement. Yep. Right. It's. certainly doesn't feel like an eviction. No. And if these were to pass, you can't just let the lease end without giving the tenant the opportunity to renew at similar terms, right? And if you don't want them to renew, you better have a pretty damn good reason why you

don't or you're going to be paying a pretty hefty fine. Yes. Yes. A very good reason that now you basically are being put in this spot where you've got a be documenting everything and the burden of documentation now that gets shifted in a case like this where this much money is at risk onto the landlord really makes the actual day-to-day management of a tenant in residency super onerous like what a pain yeah and it also i think if you have to document every single document and look for every single material lease violation

uh that's going to create a pretty lousy relationship between you and your tenant yeah from that from that perspective, which I think is so unfortunate. And John, let's walk through a couple of the things that aren't just cause, and therefore you would have to pay for relocation. Yes, and we should go in order of ridiculousness. All right. So I think number one, most ridiculous thing that would cause you to pay for relocation is you want to move into the property yourself or you want a family member to move into the property

yourself. No can do. Yeah, you cannot end a lease, right, or not renew a lease just because you want to live in your own property. Yeah, pretty ridiculous. It's almost like the tenant has more of a claim to your property than you do. It isn't like it. It is if this were to pass really the case from that perspective. I can't imagine paying upwards of $10,000 to move into my own house.

Yeah, it would be absurd. It would be wild. Next, I think on the list is you need to make substantial renovations that need to be done with a vacant unit. Yeah, got to pay for that too. Oh, and not for the renovations, I mean, for the tenant to move. Yes, you got to pay for the tenant to move out so that you can upgrade the property, which to me is wild because it's just going to create this environment where no one's doing these substantial improvements to these properties that a lot of times is necessary, especially if you rented out a unit for a couple of decades, right?

You want to get in there, you want to really improve it, or if it's a single-family property, you can't have anyone in it to do different renovations, and that's not possible. Yes. And it's going to make some weird considerations for investors in Chicago, too, because they're going to look at a property and say, how long has the tenant been there? And if you say, like, seven, eight years, they're going to say, that sounds like it's going to be a $10,000 bill for me if I want to fix up this unit and raise the rent. Exactly.

Purchasing a property now that is occupied, has. as a whole lot of new strings attached. One of the things that has been super common in my own portfolio is if you're purchasing a occupied property, make sure you know when the lease end dates are. So that when those leases are up, we could actually do the renovations that we wanted to make sure that we were raising the bar

in terms of the quality of the place. Exactly. And now that's a lot harder to do. Absolutely. So other things that don't count as just cause, and therefore would have you paying is, let's say you want to sell the property, you want to take it off the rental market,

or let's say you want to demolish it, which I think is an interesting item to add in there, that there's a property that is in such a state that you want to demolish it, and you can't do it because there's a tenant in it and you can't end that lease. Yes. Now, I mean, in theory here in some of these, you might think, well, okay,

now whatever you wanted to do to that unit's now $7 to $10,000 to $10,000 more expensive. And yeah, that is how people are going to look at it, but you'd be surprised how much, that amount of money can change the spreadsheet decision for an investor. And I think when you, when you zoom out and look at the entire municipality to which these laws will apply, you got to start wondering just how much development are we going to miss out on if this goes into effect. Yeah, absolutely. And I think the other thing is we're talking about this range that

you might have to pay to relocate this tenant. Well, that's based on how long they've been in the unit and some other attributes of the unit. But I have and seen actually a strict formula. So I'm not actually sure how one even comes up with that. And I'm going to go ahead and guess that there's going to be some onerous process to even get that calculation done. So you can go ahead and end that lease and take any of these actions. And so, yeah, it doesn't surprise me that landlords are organizing and they've put forward this fair ordinance where, as I read, the primary thing is just get rid of the just cause. Yeah. Right? That's the main thing.

Yeah, I mean, they remove some of the teeth from the other stuff, right? Like, I think they don't want an additional office built to regulate rental housing, which makes sense. I think the rental registry that was considered had an annual fee that they, in their proposal, they removed, and then a little less information about the landlord in it. And, yeah, I think the other one, though, was more aggressive was for lockouts, which makes a lot of sense. basically the pro had an idea in there that every lockout that was illegal could be penalized against the landlord. And Fair says yes, do that. That makes perfect sense and actually make it worse.

Like the dollar about go higher, make the fine bigger, which makes a lot of sense. And it's a good way, I think, to win support that, hey, good landlords don't like bad landlords either. Yeah, exactly. So it'll be extremely interesting to see how this continues to. play out. I'm hopeful, you know, in the case of most of these things, that the landlords are able to organize and actually come to a good compromise, which both protects tenant rights, but also acknowledges rental properties as a landlord's property, right? Which I think when you're also stuck in a situation and you can't even elect to not renew someone, right, when you have a

contract in place that you're upholding as the landlord, you're upholding as the tenant, but that can't reach a natural end, is really wild to me. Yes, it is wild. And I, you know, you might be positive here. I'm a little pessimistic because, I mean, it's Chicago and Illinois and California's already done it. Denver did it. Yep.

New York City's doing it. Like, Chicago feels like the next domino to fall there as pessimistic as that sounds. And so I don't know if the compromise is going to fall on the right side of just cause. Yeah, but fair is a pretty good tagline. So they got to have a chance. That's true. That's true. They're fighting back a little more with a little more political zest than I think the other folks. Well, if you're a landlord in Chicago and maybe you're even part of the group that's put forward fair, please sound off in the comments.

Let us know your position. TurboTenant is the all-in-one platform for landlords to manage their rental properties. From vacancy to tenancy, we have you covered with industry-leading. tools and expert advice. Landlord better from anywhere for free at turbotenant.com.