Free Illinois Shared Utilities Disclosure

Required by statute, and by two different ones, which is why landlords often satisfy the wrong one. 765 ILCS 735/1.2, in the Rental Property Utility Service Act, governs the case where the meter in the tenant’s name also serves common areas or other units. 765 ILCS 740/5, in the Tenant Utility Payment Disclosure Act, governs the different case where a master-metered public utility is billed to tenants as a proportionate share. Which section applies turns on how the building is physically metered, not on how the lease is worded. Some buildings trigger both.

Earlier than most Illinois landlords assume. 765 ILCS 735/1.2(a) says no landlord shall rent such a unit unless, before offering an initial lease or a renewal lease, accepting a security deposit, or otherwise entering into an agreement with the prospective tenant to let the premises, the required items are provided. Handing the disclosure over at signing is already late, and taking a holding deposit before it goes out is a violation on the face of the statute. Build it into the application packet rather than the signing packet, and date the tenant’s acknowledgment.

Four things under 765 ILCS 735/1.2(a). A written statement of the specific areas of the building and any appurtenances served by the meter that will be in the tenant’s name and the nature of the utility uses of those areas, including uses not reflected in past billings but that may arise, such as a vacant neighboring unit being re-let, washers and dryers installed in the basement, or the garage being used for mechanics. Copies of the utility bills for the unit for the previous 12 months, unless waived by the tenant in writing. No suggestion or requirement that the tenant collect money from neighbors. And, in writing, the amount of any rent reduction offered.

It does not survive. 765 ILCS 735/1.2(c) provides that any term or condition in a rental agreement between the landlord and the tenant that is inconsistent with the section is void and unenforceable. You cannot contract around the disclosure by having the tenant agree in the lease to carry the common-area load, and a signature obtained after the fact does not cure a disclosure that should have preceded the offer. 765 ILCS 735/1.2(d) adds a useful limit in the other direction: nothing in the section affects the relationship between a utility company and its own customers.

No. 765 ILCS 735/1.2(b) prohibits a landlord from requesting or causing a change from landlord-paid master metered utilities to tenant-paid individually metered utilities, or from landlord-paid to tenant-paid utilities regardless of the metering arrangement, during the term of a lease. The landlord must give a minimum of 30 days notice to each affected tenant before effecting such a change, and for tenants under a lease that notice must be provided no less than 30 days before the lease term expires. The one agreed route the subsection preserves is a written lease amendment subscribed by both parties.

The formula, in writing, in advance. Under 765 ILCS 740/5(a) no landlord may demand payment for master metered public utility services under a proportionate-share lease provision without first providing the tenant a written copy, either as part of the lease or another written agreement, of the formula used for allocating the payments among tenants. The total of payments under the formula for the building as a whole for a billing period may not exceed the sum demanded by the utility. The formula must include all those who use that service and may reflect variations in apartment size or usage, and you must make the bill available on request.

765 ILCS 735/1.4 bars a landlord from causing or requesting utility service to tenants to be interrupted, discontinued or terminated in an occupied building by nonpayment of bills the landlord assumed responsibility for, or by tampering with equipment or lines. Temporary shutoffs are allowed for emergencies such as gas leaks or fire, or for building repairs on 7 days written notice to each affected tenant. 765 ILCS 735/2.1 then gives each residential tenant a 100 percent abatement of the rental obligation for every month, prorated for part months, that service was terminated, plus consequential damages, with added statutory damages where the landlord acted in bad faith.

Both, and in that order. 765 ILCS 735/1.2 and 765 ILCS 740/5 are statewide statutes that bind a Chicago landlord exactly as they bind one in Peoria or Rockford. The Chicago Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance is layered on top for covered city units and carries its own disclosure duties and remedies, and suburban and unincorporated Cook County has a separate ordinance again. Where the two levels differ, the stricter obligation is the one that governs your conduct. Identify the address first, then read the ordinance alongside the statute rather than treating either as a substitute for the other.