Free Illinois Domestic Violence Victim Rights Summary — overview

An Illinois Domestic Violence Victim Rights Summary summarizes the housing rights of Illinois tenants who are victims of domestic violence, sexual violence, stalking, or dating violence under the Illinois Safe Homes Act (765 ILCS 750/) and the federal Violence Against Women Act (VAWA, 34 USC §12491). The rights include early lease termination, lock changes within 48 hours, protection from eviction, and confidentiality.

Generate the Rights Summary

Complete the fields below to document the survivor’s assertion of rights under the Illinois Safe Homes Act and VAWA. The form should be delivered to the landlord with supporting documentation (order of protection, police report, medical record, or qualified advocate certification).

About the Illinois Domestic Violence Victim Rights Summary

The Illinois Domestic Violence Victim Rights Summary documents a tenant survivor’s assertion of housing rights under the Illinois Safe Homes Act (765 ILCS 750/) and the federal Violence Against Women Act (VAWA, 34 USC §12491). These statutes provide specific protections for tenants who are victims of domestic violence, sexual violence, stalking, or dating violence — recognizing that housing security and personal safety are interconnected, and that survivors should not be forced to choose between remaining in unsafe housing and homelessness. Illinois Safe Homes Act key provisions: (1) Section 15 — affirmative defense to a rent claim: a survivor who vacates because of a credible imminent threat of domestic or sexual violence at the premises, and who gives the landlord WRITTEN NOTICE prior to or within 3 days of vacating, is not liable for rent for the period after vacating. The Act creates no landlord duty to release the tenant within any number of days; the 3 days is the tenant’s own notice window. A separate limb of Section 15 covers a survivor of sexual violence on the premises, requiring written notice with the date and at least one form of supporting evidence, where the violence occurred not more than 60 days before the notice; (2) Section 20 — lock change: the landlord must change locks within 48 hours of written request + documentation; the survivor pays the reasonable cost; (3) 735 ILCS 5/9-106.2 — protection from eviction: the landlord may NOT evict the survivor solely based on incidents of abuse; (4) Section 30 — confidentiality: the landlord must maintain confidentiality of all abuse-related information except as required by court order; (5) Section 35 — bifurcation: courts may evict the abuser while permitting the survivor to remain. Qualifying documentation for the various rights includes: (a) order of protection (Illinois Order of Protection or Civil No Contact Order); (b) police report filed within prior 60 days; (c) medical record documenting abuse; (d) certification from a qualified victim services advocate (IL Coalition Against Domestic Violence or similar); (e) certification from a healthcare provider or counselor. The level of documentation required varies by which right is being asserted. Federal VAWA (34 USC §12491) provides additional protections for tenants in federally assisted housing (Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher, public housing, project-based Section 8, Section 202, Section 811, USDA Rural Housing). VAWA protections largely parallel the Illinois Safe Homes Act for federally assisted housing tenants. Tenants covered by both Illinois law and VAWA may rely on whichever provides greater protection. Survivor safety considerations: this form contains sensitive information; store securely; do not share with unauthorized parties; do not discuss the matter with the perpetrator; develop a safety plan with a qualified advocate before exercising rights (the abuser may escalate when learning of the survivor’s actions). Resources: Illinois Domestic Violence Hotline 1-877-863-6338; National Domestic Violence Hotline 1-800-799-SAFE (7233); Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence ilcadv.org. If in immediate danger, dial 911.

Statutory Framework

• Illinois Safe Homes Act 765 ILCS 750/ — housing protections for survivors
• 765 ILCS 750/15 — affirmative defense to rent after vacating (tenant’s written notice due prior to or within 3 days of vacating)
• 765 ILCS 750/20 — lock change within 48 hours
• 735 ILCS 5/9-106.2 — protection from eviction based on incidents of abuse
• 765 ILCS 750/27 — confidentiality of abuse information
• 765 ILCS 750/35 — public housing excluded from the Act
• Illinois Domestic Violence Act 750 ILCS 60/ — domestic violence definitions + Order of Protection
• 720 ILCS 5/12-7.3 — IL stalking statute
• VAWA 34 USC §12491 — federal protections in federally assisted housing

How to Assert Rights

• Develop safety plan with qualified advocate BEFORE notifying landlord
• Obtain qualifying documentation: Order of Protection, police report, medical record, or advocate certification
• Provide written notice to landlord with documentation
• Specify rights being asserted: termination, lock change, eviction protection, etc.
• Track landlord response: 3-day tenant notice window and the 48-hour lock-change deadline
• Retain copies in safe location

Common Mistakes

• Notifying landlord before safety plan in place — abuser may retaliate
• Asserting rights without qualifying documentation — landlord may not be required to comply
• Storing form where abuser may find it — survivor safety risk
• Landlord disclosing abuse information — violates 765 ILCS 750/27
• Landlord retaliating against survivor — prohibited

Best Practices

• Contact qualified advocate FIRST — IL Coalition Against Domestic Violence + local services
• Develop safety plan before exercising rights
• Obtain documentation from qualified source
• Written notice to landlord with documentation
• Retain copies in safe location
• Use VAWA protections for federally assisted housing
• Resources: 1-877-863-6338 (IL) or 1-800-799-SAFE (national); 911 if immediate danger

Related Resources

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

Must an Illinois landlord attach a domestic violence rights summary to every lease?

Yes. Since January 1, 2026, Section 20 of the Summary of Rights for Safer Homes Act (765 ILCS 752/20) requires a landlord or a landlord’s agent to attach a copy of the State summary as the first page of any written residential lease entered into with a tenant, for a new rental or a renewal, and to obtain the signature of each tenant in the acknowledgment of receipt at the bottom of each page of the summary. The Act was created by Public Act 103-1031; every section carries the source note “eff. 1-1-26,” and Section 99 states the date in terms.

This is a new, separate Illinois act, not an amendment to the Safe Homes Act. The Safe Homes Act at 765 ILCS 750 creates the tenant’s substantive rights; the Summary of Rights for Safer Homes Act at 765 ILCS 752 creates the landlord’s paperwork duty. An Illinois landlord is now subject to both.

Which leases does the duty reach?

Written residential leases only. Section 10 defines “tenant” as a person who has entered into a written lease, which is narrower than the Safe Homes Act definition at 765 ILCS 750/10 covering an oral or written lease. An oral Illinois tenancy carries no attachment duty, while the underlying Safe Homes Act rights still apply to it.

Within written leases the reach is broad: Section 20 says “any written residential lease they enter into with a tenant, including for a new rental or renewal.” The Illinois Department of Human Rights states the same operating rule in its compliance FAQ, that landlords and their agents must begin attaching the summary to written residential leases on or after January 1, 2026. A lease signed before that date does not have to be reopened; the renewal of that same tenancy on or after the date does.

The Act contains no exemption section. Its section index runs 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 99, and none of those carves out public housing, small landlords, owner-occupied buildings or short terms. The Safe Homes Act differs here: its Section 35 excludes public housing assisted under the United States Housing Act of 1937, except the tenant-based Housing Choice Voucher program.

May a landlord draft the summary in house?

No. Section 15(a) assigns preparation to the Director of the Illinois Department of Human Rights, Section 15(c) requires the Department to prepare it in consultation with Illinois domestic and sexual violence service providers, and Section 20 requires the landlord to attach “a copy of the summary of this Act.” A landlord-drafted paraphrase, a clause inside the lease body, or a summary placed in a back-of-packet addendum does not satisfy Section 20. The Department publishes the current version and translatable versions of it.

Two formatting requirements travel with the document and are easy to miss:

• Position. Section 20 requires it as the first page, not a rider at the back. Section 5 states the intent: the summary is to “appear on page 1 of each residential lease.”
• Signatures on every page. Section 15(b) requires signature space at the bottom of each page, and Section 20 requires the landlord to obtain the signature of each tenant there. The Department’s current form runs four pages with printed name, signature and date lines for two tenants at the foot of every page; its guidance is that additional tenants sign each page below or alongside those lines.

Section 15(b) also contemplates electronic leasing: the acknowledgment may be signed “as attached to a paper version of the lease or inserted into an electronic version of the lease.” An e-sign workflow should place the four pages at the front of the signing packet with a signature block routed on each.

What the summary tells the tenant

Section 15(a) names the six Illinois statutes the summary digests: the Safe Homes Act; the Eviction Article in the Code of Civil Procedure; the Illinois Human Rights Act; Section 8-201.6 of the Public Utilities Act on deferral of utility deposits for victims of domestic violence; and the ordinance-preemption provisions at Section 1-2-1.5 of the Illinois Municipal Code and Section 5-1005.10 of the Counties Code, which bar local laws penalizing tenants who contact police or other emergency services. The published form covers those in eight numbered items, and its final page lists free Illinois legal service providers.

One item is a screening question rather than a tenancy question. “Order of protection status” is a protected class defined at 775 ILCS 5/1-103(K-5) of the Illinois Human Rights Act, covering a person protected under an order issued under the Illinois Domestic Violence Act of 1986, Article 112A of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963, the Stalking No Contact Order Act, the Civil No Contact Order Act, or a court of another state. Refusing to rent, refusing repairs or assessing extra fees on that basis is a fair housing exposure independent of the Safe Homes Act.

What happens to an Illinois landlord who does not attach the summary?

The Act carries a private money remedy, and the tenant does not go through any agency to get it. Section 30(a) makes a noncomplying landlord liable to that tenant for the greater of actual damages, if any, not to exceed $2,000, or $100. Section 30(b) adds that a prevailing tenant is also awarded all court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees, and states expressly that “There is no requirement for the tenant to seek relief under this Act through the Illinois Department of Human Rights.” The uncapped fee award, not the damages floor, is the operative risk.

Section 25 decides how the question is proved, and it puts the burden where the paperwork is. Under Section 25(a) the tenant’s signature at the bottom of each page may simultaneously serve as evidence that the landlord fulfilled its obligations for that tenant. Under Section 25(b), failure of the landlord to produce that evidence “creates a rebuttable presumption that the landlord failed to comply.” Retaining the signed pages with the executed lease, per tenant and per renewal term, is the whole of the defence.

Two verified negatives cut in the landlord’s favour. The Department of Human Rights states that failing to comply with the Summary of Rights for Safer Homes Act is not itself a violation of the Illinois Human Rights Act, and that a tenant cannot seek relief for a Safe Homes Act violation through the Department, because the Safe Homes Act does not provide a right to proceed under the Illinois Human Rights Act. The exposure from these two acts is in court, not at the agency.

When may an Illinois tenant end a lease early, and what documentation may a landlord require?

The Safe Homes Act does not give the tenant a statutory notice-and-terminate right; it gives an affirmative defence. Section 15 of the Safe Homes Act (765 ILCS 750/15) is titled “Affirmative defense” and operates in an action brought by the landlord against the tenant to recover rent for breach of lease. The tenancy is not automatically terminated by the notice, but the rent claim for the period after the tenant vacates can be defeated. There are two limbs with different proof requirements.

Limb	Trigger	Tenant notice	Documentation the tenant must supply
765 ILCS 750/15(a)	At vacating, the tenant or a household member was under a credible imminent threat of domestic or sexual violence at the premises	Written notice before, or within 3 days of, vacating, stating the threat as the reason	None specified
765 ILCS 750/15(b)	Sexual violence against the tenant or a household member occurred on the premises and the tenant vacated as a result	Written notice before, or within 3 days of, vacating, stating the reason and the date of the sexual violence	At least one of: medical, court or police evidence; or a statement from an employee of a victim services or rape crisis organization from which services were sought

Under Section 15(b)(3) the sexual violence must have occurred not more than 60 days before the written notice, or, where circumstances such as hospitalization or seeking shelter or counselling prevented earlier notice, as soon thereafter as practicable.

The limits on the landlord are equally definite. Under Section 15(b) the tenant chooses among the listed evidence categories, so a landlord may not insist on a police report specifically, on an order of protection, or on a particular agency’s letter; under Section 15(a) the statute lists no documentation at all. Section 30 of the Safe Homes Act provides that the Act “may not be waived or modified in any lease or separate agreement,” so an Illinois lease clause requiring a police report, imposing an early termination fee on a Safe Homes Act departure, or shortening the notice window is unenforceable.

The Act does not forgive arrears. Section 15(c) states that nothing in the Act is a defence against an action for rent for a period before the tenant vacated and gave notice, and Section 15(b) repeats that nothing in that subsection defends an eviction for failure to pay rent before notice and vacating. Rent accrued before the notice remains collectible.

What must an Illinois landlord do when a tenant requests a lock change?

An Illinois landlord has 48 hours. Section 20(b) of the Safe Homes Act provides that once the landlord has received notice of a lock-change request and one accepted form of evidence, the landlord shall within 48 hours change the locks or give the tenant permission to change them, and, if the landlord changes them, make a good faith effort to give the tenant a key not more than 48 hours after the change. The request must come in writing from all tenants who signed as lessees, and the evidence required depends on who the threat comes from.

• Threat from a person who is not a lessee. Notice must be accompanied by at least one of: medical, court or police evidence of domestic or sexual violence; or a statement from an employee of a victim services, domestic violence, or rape crisis organization from which the tenant or a household member sought services.
• Threat from a person who is a lessee on the same lease. Notice must be accompanied by a plenary order of protection under Section 219 of the Illinois Domestic Violence Act of 1986 or Section 112A-19 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963, or a plenary civil no contact order under Section 215 of the Civil No Contact Order Act, granting the tenant exclusive possession. An emergency or interim order does not meet this test. The requesting tenant does not need the other lessee’s written consent when such an order is supplied.
• Oral leases. Section 20(a)(2) requires the plenary order granting exclusive possession in every oral-lease lock-change request, whoever the threat comes from.

Three provisions protect the landlord. Section 20(b)(1) permits a fee for the expense of changing the locks, capped at the reasonable price customarily charged for changing a lock. Section 20(c) provides that a landlord who changes locks or allows a change under the Act is not liable to any third party for damages resulting from a person being unable to access the dwelling. Section 25(c) provides that the Section 25 remedies are the sole and exclusive remedies for lock-change violations, which forecloses add-on theories.

Section 25 runs both ways. A landlord who acts to prevent a complying tenant from changing the locks faces injunctive relief plus fees and costs, and under Section 25(b-1) a landlord who changes the locks and misses the 48-hour key obligation is liable for the tenant’s resulting damages. A tenant who changes the locks without making a good faith effort to give the landlord a key within 48 hours is liable for damage that landlord access would have prevented in an emergency, and must use locks of similar or better quality fitted in a workmanlike manner.

Do these rights stop a nonpayment or holdover eviction in Illinois?

Not on their own. The eviction defence lives in the Code of Civil Procedure at 735 ILCS 5/9-106.2, not in the Safe Homes Act, and it turns on what the demand for possession is based on. Under Section 9-106.2(a) it is an affirmative defence if the court finds the demand is based solely on victim status as defined in Section 10 of the Safe Homes Act, on stalking as defined in the Criminal Code of 2012, or on dating violence; on an incident of actual or threatened violence of those kinds; or on criminal activity directly relating to that violence engaged in by a household member, guest or other person under the tenant’s control and directed against the tenant or household member.

The word “solely” carries the section. A demand for possession grounded in unpaid rent, or in expiry of the term, is not based solely on victim status, and Section 9-106.2 does not reach it. Exposure arises where the record shows the possession action was in fact triggered by the violence or by the police response to it. Section 9-106.2(b) requires the tenant asserting the defence to supply at least one form of evidence: medical, court or police records, or a statement from an employee of a victim service organization or a medical professional from whom services were sought.

The statute preserves four landlord positions expressly:

• Proceed against the perpetrator alone. Section 9-106.2(c) permits an action solely against a tenant, household member or lessee who perpetrated the violence.
• Proceed against the whole household on an imminent-threat showing. Section 9-106.2(d) permits an action against the entire household, including the survivor, where continued tenancy would pose an actual and imminent threat to other tenants, household members, the landlord or their agents at the property.
• Proceed where the survivor committed the criminal activity. Section 9-106.2(e) removes the defence in that case.
• Bar a non-resident from the premises. Section 9-106.2(f) lets the landlord bar a person who is not a tenant, lessee or household member by written notice to the tenant that inviting the barred person onto any portion of the premises may be treated as a breach of the lease, whether or not the lease says so. Section 9-106.2(g) allows notice to the barred person orally, in writing, or by conspicuous posting at the main entrance, after which entry is criminal trespass to real property under Section 21-3 of the Criminal Code of 2012 and a tenant’s invitation is void.

Section 9-106.2(a)(4) qualifies the bar-notice route: it supplies a defence where the demand rests on subsection (f) and the survivor did not knowingly consent to the barred person entering, or a valid court order permitted that entry.

What may an Illinois landlord do with the documentation a survivor provides?

Very little, and the restriction is aimed squarely at landlord-to-landlord reference checks. Section 27(a) of the Safe Homes Act (765 ILCS 750/27) provides that a landlord may not disclose to a prospective landlord that a tenant or household member exercised rights under the Act, or any information provided in exercising those rights. Section 29 sets the price: a landlord who discloses in violation of Section 27 is liable for actual damages up to $2,000 resulting from the disclosure, and a successful tenant may be awarded reasonable attorney’s fees and costs.

• Section 27(b) lifts the prohibition in civil proceedings brought under the Act, and where disclosure is required by law.
• Section 27(c) allows the victim, or the parent or legal guardian of a victim, to waive the prohibition by consenting in writing. Verbal consent is not enough.
• Section 27(d) provides that furnishing evidence under Section 15 or Section 20 does not waive any confidentiality or privilege between the victim and a third party. A police report or counsellor’s statement handed to a landlord to support a lock change stays privileged as against everyone else.

In ordinary operations that means a Safe Homes Act departure should not be characterised as a lease break, an abandonment or a balance owed on any reference given to a prospective landlord, and supporting documentation should be held apart from the general tenant file. Because Section 30 bars waiver or modification in any lease or separate agreement, a lease clause purporting to authorise disclosure of this material in advance has no effect.

Section map of the Illinois provisions

Citation	Section heading in the statute
765 ILCS 752/15	Summary of Illinois housing protections and acknowledgment of receipt form
765 ILCS 752/20	Disclosure of summary to tenants and obtaining acknowledgment of receipt
765 ILCS 752/25	Evidence of attachment of summary and delivery of summary to tenants
765 ILCS 752/30	Failure to comply with the Act’s requirements
765 ILCS 750/15	Affirmative defense
765 ILCS 750/20	Change of locks
735 ILCS 5/9-106.2	Penalty for violation of lock-change provisions
765 ILCS 750/27	Nondisclosure, confidentiality, and privilege
765 ILCS 750/29	Nondisclosure violation penalty
765 ILCS 750/27	Prohibition of waiver or modification
765 ILCS 750/35	Public housing excluded
735 ILCS 5/9-106.2	Affirmative defense for violence; barring persons from property