Free Illinois Eviction Notice — overview

This Illinois 5-day eviction notice is the Illinois statutory pre-eviction notice under 735 ILCS 5/9-209 for rent default. The tenant must pay the full rent due within 5 days of service OR vacate the premises. Full payment within the cure period defeats the eviction; the tenancy continues. If neither payment nor vacancy occurs, the landlord may file a forcible entry and detainer action.

Generate the Illinois Notice

Complete the fields below to generate an Illinois 5-Day Pay-Rent-or-Quit Notice. State the exact rent due and the payment instructions. Service must comply with 735 ILCS 5/9-211; retain proof of service.

About the Illinois Eviction Notice

The Illinois 5-Day Notice to Pay Rent or Quit is the statutory pre-eviction notice required by 735 ILCS 5/9-209, in the Eviction Article of the Code of Civil Procedure, before a landlord may file an eviction action for rent default. The notice demands payment of the rent due within 5 days; if the tenant pays in full within the 5-day period, the eviction is defeated and the tenancy continues. If the tenant neither pays nor vacates, the landlord may file a forcible entry and detainer action in the appropriate Illinois circuit court. Critical IL-specific considerations: (1) the notice must specify the exact rent due — Illinois courts have invalidated notices that include non-rent charges such as late fees, utilities, or damage charges, particularly in Cook County and Chicago; (2) service must comply with 735 ILCS 5/9-211 — personal service, leaving with a person 12 or older at the premises, or posting if the premises are vacant; (3) accepting partial payment after the notice is served may waive the eviction grounds; (4) suburban Cook County and Chicago impose their own nonpayment-notice requirements that differ from the statewide rule and from each other. Best practice: state the exact base rent due (omit late fees and other non-rent charges); cite 735 ILCS 5/9-209 explicitly; provide clear payment instructions; serve personally where possible and retain a sworn affidavit of service; do not accept partial payment without consulting counsel; consult IL landlord-tenant counsel for Cook County and Chicago tenancies.

Illinois Statutory Requirements

• Statute: 735 ILCS 5/9-209, Eviction Article of the Code of Civil Procedure (renamed from the Forcible Entry and Detainer Article by P.A. 100-173, eff. 1-1-2018)
• Notice period: 5 days from service
• Statutory CURE RIGHT — full payment within 5 days defeats eviction
• Notice must specify exact rent due
• Service per 735 ILCS 5/9-211 — personal, leaving with person at premises, or posting if vacant
• Partial-payment waiver risk — accepting partial payment after notice may waive eviction grounds
• If tenant does not pay or vacate, landlord may file forcible entry and detainer action

Service Methods Permitted in Illinois

• Personal service on the tenant (preferred — 735 ILCS 5/9-211)
• Leave with person of suitable age at the premises (13 years or upwards per 735 ILCS 5/9-211)
• Posting on the premises if no one in possession (vacant unit)
• Certified or registered mail is expressly permitted by 735 ILCS 5/9-211, but only with a returned receipt from the addressee
• Retain affidavit of service — date, time, method, server’s identity; critical for FED case

Common Mistakes (Illinois-Specific)

• Wrong amount on notice — must state exact rent due; including late fees may invalidate notice in some IL counties
• Accepting partial payment after notice may waive eviction grounds
• Premature FED filing before 5 days expire
• Improper service not meeting 735 ILCS 5/9-211 requirements
• No affidavit of service — affidavit is required for FED case
• Including non-rent charges — Illinois courts vary on whether late fees, utilities, etc. count as ‘rent’ for §9-209

Best Practices

• State exact rent due on the notice — base rent only; check Cook County / Chicago rules for late fees
• Cite 735 ILCS 5/9-209 on the notice
• Specify payment instructions (where, how, in what form)
• Personal service preferred — retain affidavit of service
• Wait full 5 days before filing FED action
• Do not accept partial payment after notice without consulting counsel
• Consult IL landlord-tenant counsel for contested cases — Cook County has additional procedural requirements

Related Resources

• Illinois landlord tenant laws
• Illinois habitability laws
• Illinois security deposit laws
• Illinois eviction notice laws
• Illinois late fee laws
• Landlord forms

What Illinois statute creates the five-day notice, and what must the notice say?

The Illinois five-day notice for nonpayment of rent is created by 735 ILCS 5/9-209, in Article IX of the Code of Civil Procedure. That article carries the heading “Eviction” and 9-209 sits in Part 2, “Recovery Of Rent Termination Of Certain Tenancies.” The article was renamed from “Forcible Entry and Detainer” to “Eviction” by Public Act 100-173, effective 1 January 2018, which is the Public Act printed in the current source line under 9-209.

The operative sentence is short. 735 ILCS 5/9-209 says a landlord or agent may, any time after rent is due, demand payment and notify the tenant, in writing, that unless payment is made within a time mentioned in the notice, “not less than 5 days after service thereof,” the lease will be terminated. Three things follow, statewide in Illinois. Five days is a floor, not a fixed period, so a landlord may give seven or ten days but not four. The clock runs from service, not from the date typed on the form. And the demand must be in writing: a verbal demand satisfies nothing under 9-209.

The statute prescribes no form of words and no dollar figure, but it measures the tenant’s cure against “the amount demanded in the notice,” so the notice must state a sum the tenant can total and pay.

The one sentence Illinois law tells you to print on the notice

735 ILCS 5/9-209 contains a mandatory quoted sentence, and omitting it forfeits the protection the statute exists to give. To keep the notice from being invalidated by a partial payment, the statute says the notice must prominently state: “Only FULL PAYMENT of the rent demanded in this notice will waive the landlord’s right to terminate the lease under this notice, unless the landlord agrees in writing to continue the lease in exchange for receiving partial payment.”

That is statutory language for the whole of Illinois, and the most commonly omitted element of a five-day notice.

What happens if the tenant pays part of the rent inside the five days?

Under 735 ILCS 5/9-209 a partial payment does not invalidate the notice anywhere in Illinois, provided the notice carries the prominent full-payment statement quoted above. The statute says such a notice shall not be invalidated by payments of past due rent “when the payments do not, at the end of the notice period, total the amount demanded in the notice.” The test is arithmetic, applied at one moment: the end of the notice period.

The mirror image is equally firm. 735 ILCS 5/9-209 authorises the landlord to consider the lease ended and sue only “if the tenant does not pay the rent due within the time stated in the notice.” Full and timely payment of the demanded sum removes the statutory basis for filing. That is the Illinois tender rule, and it is why the amount demanded should be a figure the landlord is willing to be paid.

The statute then gives an Illinois landlord one escape hatch and one protection. It permits the landlord to “agree in writing to continue the lease in exchange for receiving partial payment,” in writing being the whole point. And its final sentence provides that collection of past rent due after the filing of a suit for eviction or ejectment “shall not invalidate the suit.” Note the trigger: after the filing. Before filing, taking rent is a different question, and in Chicago a fatal one.

How must an Illinois five-day notice be served, and is posting allowed?

Service is governed by 735 ILCS 5/9-211, which permits exactly four methods statewide: delivering a written or printed copy to the tenant; leaving it with a person “of the age of 13 years or upwards” residing on or in possession of the premises; sending it by certified or registered mail “with a returned receipt from the addressee”; or, where no one is in actual possession of the premises, posting it on the premises.

Two of the four are where Illinois notices fail. The substitute-service age is thirteen or upwards, not twelve and not eighteen, and the recipient must reside on or be in possession of the premises. Posting is not a general fallback: 9-211 permits it only “in case no one is in the actual possession of the premises.” Taping a notice to the door of an occupied Illinois apartment because nobody answered is not service — the most common defect in the process, and fully curable by re-serving and restarting the five days.

How do you prove service, and how do you count the five days?

Proof of service is governed by 735 ILCS 5/9-212 throughout Illinois. Where an officer authorised to serve process makes the demand, the officer’s return is prima facie evidence of the facts stated in it. Where anyone else serves it, the return “may be sworn to by the person serving the same, and is then prima facie evidence of the facts therein stated.” An unsworn note in a file is not that: have the server sign an affidavit giving date, time, address, method and person served.

Counting is governed by 5 ILCS 70/1.11, the general Illinois rule for computing time: a period is computed “by excluding the first day and including the last,” unless the last day is a Saturday, Sunday or statutory holiday, in which case it is excluded too, and if the following day is also a Saturday, Sunday or holiday, that is excluded as well. So the day of service is not counted, the next day is day one, and a period ending on a weekend or holiday runs to the next day that is not. Filing on the fifth day when it fell on a Sunday is a premature filing.

Does a Chicago landlord still use the Illinois five-day notice?

A Chicago landlord serves a five-day notice for nonpayment, but under a materially different cure and waiver regime than the rest of Illinois — and Evanston does not use a five-day nonpayment notice at all. Chicago, suburban Cook County and Evanston each run their own residential ordinance, and they are not interchangeable.

Where the unit is	Rule for a nonpayment notice	Notice period	What ends the landlord’s ability to evict on that notice
Illinois generally, outside a municipality with its own residential ordinance	735 ILCS 5/9-209	Not less than 5 days after service	Payment of the full amount demanded within the time stated in the notice
City of Chicago	Chicago Municipal Code 5-12-130(a) and 5-12-130(g)	5 days written notice	Tenant paying full back rent plus the landlord’s court filing fees before a judge issues an eviction order; and separately, the landlord accepting the late rent at all
Suburban Cook County under the county ordinance	Cook County Code Sec. 42-809(A)(1)	5 days from receipt of the notice	Cure within the five days, plus a one-time right to pay and stay under Sec. 42-805(F) before an eviction order issues
City of Evanston	Evanston City Code Title 5, Chapter 3	10 days, per the City of Evanston’s own published guidance	Tenant paying the full amount owed during the ten-day period, which the City states the landlord must accept

Chicago: five days, but acceptance of late rent ends it

In Chicago, covered units fall under the Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance at Municipal Code Chapter 5-12, and the City’s own published ordinance summary states the rules. Under 5-12-130(a), if the tenant fails to pay rent the landlord, after giving five days written notice, may terminate the rental agreement — but the Chicago tenant may remain in the unit in good standing by paying the full back rent and the landlord’s court filing fees before a judge issues an eviction order. That right is one-time: the City states a Chicago tenant who uses it and later receives a second nonpayment notice has only the five days to pay.

The provision that surprises Chicago landlords is 5-12-130(g), which the City’s summary states plainly: if the landlord accepts the late rent, the landlord may not evict the tenant. That is a hard stop, and it does not resemble the statewide rule, under which a partial payment leaves a properly worded 9-209 notice standing. Chicago’s coverage exclusions apply first, at Municipal Code Chapters 5-12-010 and 5-12-020.

Suburban Cook County: a different ordinance with a different trigger

Outside Chicago, unincorporated Cook County and suburban municipalities without their own landlord-tenant ordinance fall under the Cook County Residential Tenant and Landlord Ordinance, Cook County Code Chapter 42, Article XIII, effective 1 June 2021. Sec. 42-801(D) states it regulates residential buildings within Cook County “excluding those cities, villages, and incorporated towns that maintain promulgated regulations” establishing the rights and obligations of both tenant and landlord. Chicago and Evanston both maintain such regulations, so neither is governed by the county ordinance.

For nonpayment, Sec. 42-809(A)(1) provides that the landlord may deliver a written notice of intention to terminate, served in compliance with state law, and if the tenant does not materially comply within five days of receipt, the landlord may file. Two wrinkles follow. The five days run from receipt rather than service, so evidence of actual receipt matters in suburban Cook County, though service itself still follows 735 ILCS 5/9-211. And Sec. 42-804(F)(11) prohibits any rental agreement provision letting the landlord apply rent payments to a charge other than rent, “including but not limited to utilities, fines, late fees or other charges” — so a suburban Cook County landlord cannot absorb a payment into fees and then call the rent demand unsatisfied.

Sec. 42-805(F) then gives the suburban Cook County tenant a one-time right to pay and stay at any time before an eviction order issues, by paying unpaid rent plus the landlord’s filing fees and service-of-process costs, but not attorney fees. If the tenant pays, the ordinance states the court shall vacate any eviction order and dismiss the case — where 735 ILCS 5/9-209 says post-filing collection does not invalidate the suit.

Evanston: this is not a five-day jurisdiction for nonpayment

Evanston runs its own Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance at Title 5, Chapter 3 of the Evanston City Code, amended by the City Council on 22 July 2024 and effective 1 January 2025. On the City of Evanston’s own ordinance page, the City’s answer to what a landlord should do when a tenant does not pay rent is to serve a ten-day written notice for the rent owed; if the tenant does not pay in full within ten days the landlord may proceed to eviction court, and the City states the landlord must accept the full amount owed during that period. A five-day nonpayment notice served on an Evanston unit is therefore the wrong instrument. That figure comes from the City’s published guidance rather than the ordinance text, so confirm it against Title 5, Chapter 3 before serving — and apply the same caution to any other Illinois municipality running its own ordinance, since Cook County Sec. 42-801(D) tells you such places exist without naming them.

What actually happens when the five days run out?

Nothing automatic. Expiry of an Illinois five-day notice is a precondition to filing, not an eviction. 735 ILCS 5/9-209 says only that the landlord “may consider the lease ended and commence an eviction or ejectment action without further notice or demand.” Possession comes from a court.

• Filing. Under 735 ILCS 5/9-106(a) the case starts on a complaint in the circuit court for the county where the premises sit, describing them with reasonable certainty and alleging that the defendant unlawfully withholds possession. 9-209 and 9-106(f) both permit a rent claim to be joined.
• Do not name a minor. Under 735 ILCS 5/9-106(b) to (e), as amended by Public Act 104-317 effective 1 January 2026, an Illinois eviction complaint may not name a minor as a defendant, and one that does “shall be dismissed in its entirety against all defendants,” with the file sealed under 735 ILCS 5/9-121 and refiling fees not waived.
• If the tenant cannot be served. 735 ILCS 5/9-107 allows constructive service by posting and mailing, or by publication and mailing, once a summons is returned unserved and the required affidavit is filed.

The fatal mistake here is accepting a payment after the period expires without deciding, in writing, what it is for. Statewide the safe harbours in 735 ILCS 5/9-209 are narrow: a written agreement to continue the lease in exchange for partial payment, and collection after the suit has been filed. A payment taken after expiry but before filing sits outside both. In Chicago it is starker still, because 5-12-130(g) provides that a landlord who accepts the late rent may not evict.

Which tenant defences actually defeat an Illinois nonpayment case?

Most Illinois nonpayment cases that fail, fail on the notice rather than the rent. 735 ILCS 5/9-106(f) allows the defendant, under a general denial, to offer “any matter in defense of the action,” limited to matters germane to the distinctive purpose of the proceeding. In a nonpayment case those cluster in four places.

• Defective notice or service. Fewer than five days from service under 735 ILCS 5/9-209; substitute service on someone under thirteen or not residing on or in possession of the premises, contrary to 735 ILCS 5/9-211; posting where somebody was in actual possession; mail service with no returned receipt from the addressee; no sworn return under 735 ILCS 5/9-212; or a filing made before the period computed under 5 ILCS 70/1.11 had run. Each is provable from the landlord’s own paperwork, which is why it succeeds.
• Acceptance of rent. Statewide, 735 ILCS 5/9-209 protects the landlord only where the notice carries the prominent full-payment sentence and the payments do not total the amount demanded by the end of the notice period, or where collection occurred after filing. In Chicago, Municipal Code 5-12-130(g) bars eviction where the landlord accepts the late rent. In suburban Cook County, Sec. 42-805(F) gives a one-time pay-and-stay that requires the court to vacate an eviction order and dismiss.
• Retaliation, under a statute that changed recently. The Retaliatory Eviction Act at 765 ILCS 720 was repealed by Public Act 103-831; the governing Illinois statute is now the Landlord Retaliation Act, 765 ILCS 721, effective 1 January 2025. Under 765 ILCS 721/5 a landlord may not knowingly terminate a tenancy, bring or threaten a possession suit, raise rent, cut services or refuse to renew because the tenant in good faith complained of code violations, requested required repairs, joined a tenants’ union, testified about the condition of the premises, or “exercised any right or remedy provided by law.” Under 765 ILCS 721/20 protected conduct within the preceding year creates a rebuttable presumption of retaliation, answered under 765 ILCS 721/15 by proving a legitimate, non-retaliatory basis or that the action began first. For an Illinois landlord that is a documentary problem: a ledger showing the arrears predate any complaint is what rebuts the presumption.
• Condition of the premises. Under the Residential Tenants’ Right to Repair Act, 765 ILCS 742/5, where a required repair costs no more than the lesser of the statutory cap or half the monthly rent, an Illinois tenant who gives written notice by registered or certified mail may, if the landlord does not repair within fourteen days, have the work done and deduct the paid bill from rent; 765 ILCS 742/10 excludes public housing, condominiums, cooperatives and owner-occupied property of six or fewer units. A valid deduction reduces the rent actually due, and therefore the amount a five-day notice may lawfully demand. Chicago Municipal Code 5-12-110 gives covered Chicago tenants their own withholding and repair-and-deduct routes after a written fourteen-day request, and Cook County Sec. 42-806(A) lets suburban Cook County tenants withhold an amount reflecting the reduced value of the premises after an unremedied fourteen-day notice.

None of this makes self-help available. 735 ILCS 5/9-101 prohibits entry except where allowed by law and, even then, requires it be peaceable; Chicago prohibits lockouts outright under its ordinance; and Cook County’s anti-lockout prohibition at Sec. 42-813 reaches even units otherwise excluded from the county ordinance by Sec. 42-802.