Free Illinois Bedbug Disclosure — overview

An Illinois Bedbug Disclosure documents the landlord’s knowledge of any bedbug history at the rental property at the time of lease signing. While Illinois lacks a statewide bedbug statute, Chicago’s Municipal Code § 7-28-860 imposes specific disclosure and notification requirements. The implied warranty of habitability applies statewide. The form on this page produces a comprehensive bedbug disclosure suitable for use throughout Illinois.

Complete the Disclosure Form

Complete the form below to generate a comprehensive Illinois Bedbug Disclosure. The form produces a multi-page PDF in legal-document format with all sections, signature lines, and tenant acknowledgment. Both parties should sign the printed copy.

About Illinois Bedbug Disclosure

Illinois does not have an explicit statewide bedbug disclosure statute, but Chicago landlords are subject to Municipal Code § 7-28-860, which requires distribution of a City of Chicago bedbug informational brochure and specific notification procedures. Throughout Illinois, the implied warranty of habitability creates a baseline duty to maintain pest-free conditions.

Illinois’s Bedbug Framework

• Chicago landlords: Chicago Municipal Code § 7-28-860 applies
• Statewide: implied warranty of habitability applies
• Best practice lookback: 1 year of prior infestation history
• Chicago: City of Chicago bedbug brochure must be provided
• Treatment within a reasonable time once infestation confirmed

What the Disclosure Covers

• Whether the property has had a bedbug infestation within the lookback period
• Date and treatment status of any prior infestation
• Pest control company used and treatment outcome
• Tenant acknowledgment of receipt

Tenant Reporting Responsibilities

Illinois tenants should report suspected bedbug infestation to the landlord in writing, retain copies of all correspondence, and request prompt action. Chicago tenants have specific notification rights and remedies under Municipal Code § 7-28-860. Outside Chicago, tenants can rely on the implied warranty of habitability and Illinois landlord-tenant common law.

Related Resources

• Illinois habitability laws
• Illinois landlord tenant laws
• Illinois tenant screening laws
• Illinois security deposit laws
• Illinois eviction notice laws
• Habitability laws by state

Does Illinois require a statewide bed bug disclosure?

No. No Illinois statute requires a residential landlord to disclose bed bug history or to hand a tenant a bed bug brochure. Outside Chicago and Evanston, an Illinois landlord has no state-law bed bug disclosure duty at all.

Three checks support that. The only Illinois act carrying the word in its title, the Bedbug Inspection Act, 815 ILCS 309, does not touch landlords: it governs a “merchant” who rents furniture or electronic equipment, requiring inspection of previously rented items before renting them again (815 ILCS 309/10) and treatment if pests are found (815 ILCS 309/15). Rent-to-own furniture, not apartments. The Landlord and Tenant Act, 765 ILCS 705, contains no bed bug disclosure section, and neither does the Security Deposit Return Act, 765 ILCS 710.

Illinois did come close. Public Act 96-1330 added 225 ILCS 235/10.15 to the Structural Pest Control Act in 2010, creating a Bed Bug Subcommittee of the Structural Pest Control Advisory Council. That section carried its own expiration: the current ILCS text reads simply “(Repealed),” with the source note “P.A. 96-1330, eff. 7-27-10. Repealed internally, eff. 1-1-12.”

What the repealed subcommittee actually recommended

The subcommittee’s 2012 report to the Illinois Department of Public Health recommended that the Department produce an informational bed bug pamphlet and that, “After publication, landlords would be required to provide it to new tenants and to existing tenants at the time of lease renewal.” It also said landlords “must disclose to prospective renters whether bed bugs have been found in a unit.” Neither recommendation was ever enacted. If you have read that Illinois requires a landlord bed bug pamphlet, you have read a summary of this report, or of the Chicago ordinance, mislabeled as state law.

What must a Chicago landlord give a tenant, and when?

In Chicago, and only in Chicago, a landlord must give the tenant a bed bug informational brochure prepared by the city department of health before entering into or renewing a rental agreement. The City of Chicago Department of Housing states the duty this way in its Renting Right booklet: for any rental agreement entered into or renewed after the 2013 amendatory ordinance took effect, “before entering into or renewing such agreement, the landlord … shall provide to such tenant the informational brochure on bed bug prevention and treatment prepared by the department of health according to section 7-28-860.”

Two details landlords get wrong. The brochure is a City of Chicago Department of Public Health publication, not an Illinois Department of Public Health one. And the trigger is the lease itself, at signing and at every renewal, not the discovery of an infestation.

Who has to do what once bed bugs are reported?

Outside Chicago and Evanston, the answer comes from the lease and the common-law implied warranty of habitability, not from a bed bug statute. Inside Chicago the duties are written down, and they run both directions.

Question	Illinois, statewide	In Chicago
Brochure at lease signing	Not required by statute	Required before signing and before each renewal, MCC 7-28-860
Deadline to start treatment	No statutory deadline	Pest control services by a pest management professional within 10 days, MCC 7-28-830(c)
Tenant’s duty to report	No statutory deadline	Written notice to the landlord within 5 days of finding or reasonably suspecting an infestation, MCC 7-28-850(a)
Recordkeeping	Not required by statute	Written record of measures performed, with reports and receipts, kept 3 years and open to city inspection, MCC 7-28-830(a)(2) and (b)(2)

The Chicago landlord’s side, MCC 7-28-830

• Provide pest control services by a pest management professional until no evidence of bed bugs can be found and verified, in the unit and, in a multiple rental unit building, in the building.
• Inspect and, if necessary, treat the units on either side of the affected unit and the units directly above and below it, repeating that pattern until no further infestation is detected.
• Keep the three-year written record open to inspection by authorized city personnel, including the departments of health and buildings.
• Send the tenant written notice before inspection or treatment setting out the tenant’s responsibilities and the specific preparations required (MCC 7-28-850(c)).

The Chicago tenant’s side, MCC 7-28-850

• Notify the landlord in writing within 5 days of finding or reasonably suspecting bed bugs, including unexplained recurring bites suspected to be bed bug bites.
• Not interfere with inspections or treatments, and grant access at reasonable times after reasonable written notice.
• Make the preparations the pest management professional recommends, and dispose of personal property the professional says cannot be treated or cleaned.
• Enclose personal property in a plastic bag before moving it through any common area.

That tenant section does not apply in an assisted living or shared housing establishment, or a similar arrangement, where the establishment must assist with activities of daily living or mandatory services; there, the landlord makes the preparations. The ordinance takes those definitions from the Illinois Assisted Living and Shared Housing Act, 210 ILCS 9/10.

Is there a penalty for skipping the disclosure?

Statewide, there is no penalty, because there is no statewide duty to breach. Nothing in the Illinois Compiled Statutes attaches a fine, a rent abatement, or a private right of action to a missing bed bug disclosure. A tenant outside a home rule ordinance has to argue habitability or breach of the lease.

In Chicago, the enforcement teeth sit mostly in the anti-retaliation subsection. Under MCC 7-28-830(e), a landlord may not terminate a tenancy, raise rent, decrease services, sue or threaten to sue for possession, or refuse to renew because the tenant in good faith complained about bed bugs, asked for pest control, or testified about an infestation. The tenant may then recover possession or terminate the agreement and recover two months rent or twice the damages sustained, whichever is greater, plus reasonable attorneys’ fees. Evidence of protected tenant conduct within the prior year creates a rebuttable presumption that the landlord’s conduct was retaliatory.

Can bed bug treatment be charged against the security deposit?

Charging bed bug extermination to a departing tenant’s deposit is the riskiest move in this area, and it is getting riskier. Under the Security Deposit Return Act, 765 ILCS 710/1, a lessor withholding any part of a deposit for property damage must give the tenant an itemized statement of the damage and the estimated or actual cost of repair or replacement, with paid receipts attached, within 30 days after the tenant vacates or the right of possession ends, whichever is later. Miss that and the full deposit is due within 45 days. A circuit court finding that the lessor refused the statement, or supplied it in bad faith, and failed to return the deposit on time exposes the lessor to twice the deposit plus court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees.

A statewide fee restriction is also coming. 765 ILCS 705/35, added by Public Act 104-479 effective January 1, 2027, bans a list of tenant charges. Item (c)(10) is “A fee or fine for pest abatement or removal where the tenant has in no way contributed to the infestation.” It does not apply to leases for dwelling units in owner-occupied premises of six units or fewer, and it lets a tenant sue for injunctive relief, monetary relief, attorney’s fees and costs. Because the ban turns on whether the tenant contributed to the infestation, a signed move-in disclosure fixing the unit’s bed bug status on day one is the document that decides that argument later. That is the reason to use this form even where no statute compels it.

What does Evanston require, separately from Chicago?

In Evanston, the city’s own Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance adds a bed bug item to the landlord’s pre-lease disclosures. The City of Evanston lists, among what a landlord must disclose to prospective tenants before signing, “any building code violations in the last year, any known lead hazards, any pending foreclosure, and how to detect, report, and remediate bedbugs.” That is an information disclosure at lease signing, separate from Chicago’s brochure duty. Neither extends beyond its own city limits, and neither is state law. A landlord holding buildings in more than one Illinois municipality should check each local code, because home rule units set their own bed bug rules on top of a statewide disclosure floor that is currently empty.