This On-line guide trouble shooting section explains what your rights are under Chicago’s Landlord-Tenant Ordinance, in accordance with the following conditions.

Buidling Security: Locks

The Ordinances contained in this booklet apply to ALL residential rental units in Chicago EXCEPT for these:

• buildings of 6 or fewer units where the landlord lives in the building (but the Ordinance does apply if the landlord does not live there);
• hotels, motels, rooming and boarding houses (but the Ordinance does apply if you rent on a monthly basis and have lived there for at least 32 days);
• hospitals, school dormitories, shelters, employees’ housing and nonresidential properties;
• co-ops and condominiums (but the Ordinance does apply if you rent one of these units).

Building Security: The Law

This section explains what your rights are under Chicago’s Municipal Code — “Security Devices in Residential Buildings.” This ordinance applies to ALL rental units in Chicago EXCEPT for:

• owner-occupied dwelling units;
• housing accommodations in a hotel, motel, inn, tourist house, rooming or boarding house, hospital, convent, monastery, extended care facility, asylum, not-for-profit home for the aged, temporary overnight shelter, transitional shelter, or in a dormitory owned and operated by an elementary school, high school, institution of higher learning; and
• a dwelling unit in a cooperative occupied by the holder of a proprietary lease.