New Chicago RLTO Summary released
Back in March 2024, we discovered something new on the City of Chicago website section dealing with rentals. The link for the Chicago RLTO summary connected to a document that vaguely looked like an RLTO summary. It had all the same information as the prior summary with just a small bit of new information. The summary did not, however, look “real”. There was no City of Chicago seal on the document and it was undated. After a bit of digging, it was discovered that the summary available online was a “draft” of a new version to be released by the City.
Fast forward to April 1, 2024 when I got my hands on what purported to be the official, approved summary. That summary was dated as “Approved by the City of Chicago: July 2020” and “Summary Revised: December 2023”. December 2023? Was this an April fools joke? What about all the leases executed between January 1, 2024 and March 31, 2024?
As I understand it, a number of housing advocates reached out to the City of Chicago about this discrepancy. The new, fully official, version of the Chicago RLTO summary is now live (in both Spanish and English) on the Chicago at this link.
The City of Chicago has added a notation on the website in red text now indicating “Effective as of May 1st 2024:” After inquiry was made as to whether or not this was sufficient or whether or not the City of Chicago would revise the summary to indicate a May 1, 2024 date, the City indicated that they do not intend to do anything further and that they believe what they have done is sufficient.
As such, beginning with all Chicago leases governed by the Chicago Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance as of May 1, 2024, they must have the “new” summary attached. The Chicago Association of Realtors has updated their form lease to reflect this change.
