7 Heat Rules Chicago Landlords Owe Illinois Renters This Winter

A cold apartment in a Chicago winter is more than uncomfortable.

City rules spell out how warm a rental has to be, and Illinois renters may have more say than they realize.

Here’s what Chicago landlords owe you once the temperature drops.

Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Heat rules and tenant remedies are subject to change, so confirm the current heat requirements with the Chicago Department of Buildings.

1. 68 Degrees by Day, 66 at Night

Chicago’s heat ordinance sets two minimum indoor temperatures for apartments heated by a plant that serves more than one unit.

From 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., your unit must stay at or above 68 degrees, the Chicago Department of Buildings says.

From 10:30 p.m. to 8:30 a.m., the minimum drops to 66 degrees.

Those are minimums.

A bedroom that reads 62 degrees at midnight falls short in any building with shared heat.

If a furnace serves only your unit, item 5 covers you.

2. Heat Season Dates

Under Chicago’s municipal code, apartments served by a shared heating plant must have heat from Sept. 15 through June 1 of the following year.

That’s over eight months.

The council amended this section in May 2026, so the dates below follow the current code.

Your landlord can still turn off the heat or run air conditioning during those dates, as long as your unit stays at the required minimum.

3. Habitable Spaces and Bathrooms

Chicago’s heat ordinance requires heat in habitable spaces, toilet rooms, and bathrooms.

The Department of Buildings defines habitable spaces as areas intended for recreation, working, sleeping, eating, or cooking.

Your bedroom and your kitchen both qualify.

Bathrooms and toilet rooms aren’t habitable spaces, but the ordinance requires heat in them anyway.

Closets, hallways, storage areas, and utility rooms have no minimum temperature.

Indoor temperature is measured 3 feet above the floor and at least 3 feet from any exterior wall, with all windows and exterior doors closed.

Take your readings the same way, not just in the room by the thermostat.

Test every room you use.

4. Prompt Heat Repairs

Chicago landlords owe you a prompt repair when heating equipment fails.

That duty comes from the Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance.

It requires landlords to keep the premises in compliance with the municipal code and to make repairs promptly.

The heat minimums are part of that code.

If heating equipment fails when heat is required, the Department of Buildings says that’s an immediate violation of the heat ordinance.

The reason for the lack of heat makes no difference.

Tell your landlord right away when the heat stops, and put that notice in writing.

Copy every notice you send.

5. Permanent Heating Equipment

Chicago’s heat ordinance requires permanent heating equipment capable of keeping a dwelling unit at 68 degrees when it’s 7 below zero outside.

Cooking appliances, water heating equipment, and portable space heaters don’t count toward that requirement.

Fireplaces don’t count either.

If a furnace or heater serves only your unit, the building owner still has to keep that equipment in good working order, the department says.

The owner also has to maintain the windows, doors, and walls that keep the heat in.

Your lease can make you pay the gas or electric bill for that equipment, but the owner still has to provide working equipment.

6. Rent Relief When Heat Fails

When a Chicago landlord fails to supply heat, the Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance gives you three ways to recover the cost.

Written notice comes first.

If your landlord has named an address for notices, you must mail or deliver the written notice there.

After that notice, you can buy reasonable amounts of heat and deduct the cost from your rent once you show your landlord the paid receipts.

You can instead recover damages based on the reduction in your unit’s fair rental value.

In plain terms, that is how much less your apartment is worth without working heat.

If it would rent for $1,200 with heat and $900 without, the gap is $300.

Your third option is substitute housing, and you owe no rent for that period.

You can recover the housing’s reasonable value, up to an amount equal to your monthly rent, prorated.

7. Protection From Retaliation

Chicago landlords can’t retaliate against you for reporting a heat problem because the heat minimums are part of the municipal code.

Under the Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance, a landlord may not knowingly end your tenancy, raise your rent, or cut services over that report.

It also bars threatening a lawsuit for possession or refusing to renew your lease.

Asking your landlord to make repairs the building code requires is protected, too.

Evidence of protected conduct within one year creates a rebuttable presumption of retaliation.

In plain terms, a court starts from the assumption that the landlord retaliated, and the landlord can rebut that with evidence of another reason.

Say you report a cold apartment in November and get a nonrenewal notice in January.

Your report falls inside that one-year window.

If you win, you can recover possession, meaning your right to live in the apartment, or end the rental agreement.

Either way, you can recover two months’ rent or twice your damages, whichever is greater, plus reasonable attorneys’ fees.

Chicago’s code also bars a landlord from forcing you out by interfering with services to your unit, including heat.

Anyone found guilty faces a fine of $200 to $500, and each day counts as a separate offense.

Statewide Retaliation Law

Heat complaints get a second layer of protection from a statewide law, the Landlord Retaliation Act, which took effect on Jan. 1, 2025.

The act also uses a one-year presumption, and it sets a remedy of two months' rent or two times your damages, plus attorney's fees.

Under the act, a landlord's action isn't retaliation if the landlord proves a legitimate reason or started the action before your complaint.

Chicago's heat minimums apply only inside the city, so if you rent elsewhere in Illinois, ask your town what applies to you.

Filing a Heat Complaint

If you don't have adequate heat, you can file a complaint using 311, the Department of Buildings says.

The city's 311 service takes non-emergency requests on its website, in a mobile app, and by phone.

For immediate danger, call 911.

A complaint leads to an inspection and action against landlords who are found to be breaking the law.

Landlords face fines of $500 to $1,000 a day for each violation if they don't supply adequate heat or functioning heating equipment.

At $1,000 a day, 10 days without heat would reach $10,000 for a single violation.

A hearing officer or judge can weigh how well your landlord communicated and what steps your landlord took to limit the harm when setting the fine.

Deadlines for Restoring Heat

Chicago's tenant ordinance sets two deadlines for restoring heat, and both start with your written notice.

Once 24 hours pass after your notice without a fix, you may withhold rent that reflects your unit's reduced value.

A failure that lasts more than 72 hours after your notice lets you end your rental agreement by written notice.

The landlord must then return your prepaid rent, security deposit, and interest.

You must hand over the unit within 30 days after the 72 hours end, or your notice counts as withdrawn.

The ordinance bars withholding and termination when the utility provider's inability to supply service caused the failure.

None of these remedies apply if a deliberate or negligent act by you, a family member, or a person you let on the premises caused the problem.

Housing Excluded From the Tenant Ordinance

Chicago's heat minimums apply in houses, apartments, and hotel rooms.

The rent remedies and retaliation protections above come from the Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance, which doesn't cover every kind of housing.

Units in owner-occupied buildings with six units or fewer are excluded.

Even there, the ordinance's ban on cutting off services to force a tenant out, heat included, still applies.

If you rent a room in a hotel, motel, inn, or roominghouse, the ordinance doesn't cover you until you've stayed 32 or more continuous days and pay monthly rent.