Chicago's PRO vs. FAIR Ordinance Fight: What Every Property Owner Needs to Know

If you own any rental housing in Chicago, whether that's a condo you lease out, the upstairs unit of your two-flat, or a six-flat you've held for years, two competing ordinances were dropped into City Council this summer, and one of them is likely to rewrite the rules you operate under. The mayor's Protecting Renters Ordinance (PRO), as introduced, would have brought just-cause eviction, relocation fees of $5,000 or more, and a mandatory citywide rental registry to Chicago. A council bloc answered three weeks later with the FAIR Ordinance, a stripped-down rewrite that keeps the registry and drops most of the rest. In September, both sides rewrote their bills. The November update below covers the current texts.

Here is the answer up front, because the headlines are burying it: neither ordinance is law. As of November 2026, both wait for a full City Council vote, nothing about your obligations has changed, and anyone telling you to panic (or to relax) is ahead of the facts. What you should be doing is understanding exactly what each proposal says, because the differences land hardest on the smallest owners, and the fight between them will get resolved with or without your input.

I'm a Chicago landlord-side attorney. I've read the city's official summary and the reporting so far, and this is the debate minus the spin. One caveat an honest lawyer owes you: neither text is final. The November update rests on the substitute texts in the City Clerk's records. The older sections rest on the city's summary and press coverage of the bills as introduced. And unlike the news coverage, I will tell you where I land: FAIR is the better bill, and even FAIR gives away more than I would. My full position is below.

November 2026 Update: What the Current Texts Say

I read both substitute ordinances in the City Clerk's records. The PRO substitute is SO2026-0026554. The FAIR substitute is SO2026-0027202. The Committee on Housing and Real Estate recommended the PRO substitute on September 16. The Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards recommended the FAIR substitute on September 17. On September 23, the full Council deferred both and ordered them published.

If You Live in Your Building (Six Units or Fewer)

Today, the RLTO exempts these buildings from most of its rules. Both substitutes keep that exemption. Each bill then lists the sections that still apply to you. The two lists are different.

Both substitutes delete the old clause that voided an exemption "created to avoid the application of this chapter." The PRO substitute adds a new duty instead. A landlord who claims an exemption must state it on marketing materials, rental applications, and rental agreements.

Every Other Rental, Including Small Investor Buildings

Neither bill exempts a small building the owner does not live in. An investor's two-flat registers like a 50-unit building. The differences are cost and how much you disclose.

PRO charges $20 per unit a year in buildings of one to four units, $40 in buildings of five to 49, and $60 in larger buildings. PRO's registry also collects each unit's monthly rent and the names of anyone holding a 20 percent or greater interest in an entity owner. Both bills fine $100, $250, and then $500 per unit for registry violations. FAIR fines a missed registration only after a seven-day warning.

FAIR adds one more rule. No landlord may hold a habitable unit vacant for over three months to manipulate market rents. Owner-occupied buildings of six units or fewer are exempt. Unlike the rest of FAIR, this rule takes effect on passage and publication.

Timing is still open. An Illinois Answers Project reporter expects little movement before the February 2027 municipal election. He said so on City Cast Chicago on October 28, 2026. That is a forecast, not a rule.

The sections below describe both bills as introduced in June and July. I have left them in place so you can see what changed. A note marks each place where the substitutes differ.

Watch: PRO vs. FAIR in One Minute

Short on time? Here is the whole fight in 35 seconds. Click the video itself to grab a free consult; the details that matter to your building specifically are below.

The Current State of the Law

Before the proposals, orient yourself. Three columns: what binds you today, and what each ordinance would change if it passes. Only the first column is enforceable right now.

And here is where each proposal actually sits in the process. Both bills have cleared committee. Both now wait for a full Council vote:

The politics in one sentence: Mayor Brandon Johnson introduced the PRO on June 29, 2026 as a modernization of the 40-year-old Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance (RLTO); on July 15, sixteen members of the council's Budget Accountability Coalition, the same bloc that rewrote the mayor's budget last December, answered with FAIR, which the mayor describes as his own proposal "copied and pasted" with the key protections removed.

What the Mayor's PRO Would Actually Do

The city's own summary describes five components, and each one touches you differently depending on what you own.

November 2026 note: this section describes the PRO as introduced in June. The September substitute removed items 1 and 2. Items 3 to 5 remain. In both versions, the registry text also reaches owner-occupied buildings of six units or fewer. The June text also applied just cause and relocation fees to those buildings.

1. Just Cause: the Real Sea Change

Today, Chicago is a "fair notice" city, not a "just cause" city. When a lease ends, you can decline to renew for any lawful, non-retaliatory reason, as long as you give the notice the RLTO requires: 30, 60, or 120 days depending on how long the tenant has been there. The PRO would replace that with a requirement that you have a valid, enumerated reason to end any tenancy, including simple non-renewal at the end of a lease term. That converts every non-renewal decision from a calendar question into a legal-grounds question, and it is the single biggest change in the package.

2. Relocation Fees: Read the Triggers Closely

This is the piece every homeowner with a rental unit should read twice. As reported when the ordinance was introduced, the PRO's relocation fee, five months' rent or $5,000, whichever is greater, is triggered when a tenant must move because of owner move-in, major repairs, demolition, or the sale of the unit. Those are the four ordinary-life reasons small owners end tenancies. Moving your parents into the upstairs unit? Relocation fee. Selling the condo you've been renting out? Potentially a relocation fee. And the fee climbs to $10,000 or ten months' rent where there's proof a landlord raised the rent significantly more on one unit than another, which means your rent ledger across units becomes evidence.

3. A Mandatory Rental Registry

Every non-owner-occupied rental unit in the city would be registered annually, with tiered fees of $20 to $60 per unit depending on building size. The registry is the enforcement engine for everything else: it tells the city who owns what, and it funds the next item.

4. A New Enforcement Bureau, and 5. Guaranteed Tenant Lawyers

The PRO creates a Bureau of Rental Housing Services inside the Department of Housing to process and investigate rental complaints, and it makes the city's "Right to Counsel" eviction-defense pilot permanent. Translate that pairing: more complaints get investigated, and every eviction you file is more likely to be defended by counsel. If your leases and notices are sloppy, that combination finds out. I defend landlords in RLTO disputes today, when enforcement is mostly private lawsuits. A staffed city bureau changes the volume.

Rounding out the package: security deposits capped at one month's rent (today Chicago has no cap, though the deposit-handling rules are already the most dangerous strict-liability trap in the ordinance), application fees capped at $20, and a ban on fees that lack documented underlying costs.

What the FAIR Ordinance Would Do Instead

The coalition's counter-proposal keeps the modernization framing and removes the provisions landlord and realtor groups objected to most:

November 2026 note: this section describes FAIR as introduced in July, from press reports. The September substitute contains no relocation fee. It caps security deposits at 1.5 months' rent. It requires registration every two years with no fee, and it applies the registry to owner-occupied buildings of six units or fewer.

• No just cause. Non-renewal stays a notice-timing question, as it is today.
• Relocation fees cut way back. As reported, the general $5,000 to $10,000 scheme is out, with a reduced figure of $3,000 or three months' rent surviving only in narrow categories involving nonprofits and owner-occupied buildings of six units or fewer. Tenant advocates describe this as eliminating relocation fees outright; the sponsors describe it as right-sizing them. Until the ordinance text is parsed, both descriptions are campaign slogans.
• Registry, minus the fees. FAIR keeps a citywide rental registry but drops the mandatory per-unit fees and exempts certain owner-occupied, nonprofit, and subsidized properties.
• Fees allowed if honest. Instead of banning "junk fees," FAIR permits fees that are disclosed in writing, itemized, and reasonably related to an actual cost. Application fees cap at $50 instead of $20.
• Lockout fines actually go up. Here's a detail almost nobody has noticed: FAIR sets illegal-lockout fines at $2,500 to $5,000 per violation plus $1,000 a day. That makes $2,500 the floor, where the mayor's version sets $2,500 as the ceiling. Whichever ordinance passes, the era of the casual lock change is over. It already should be: self-help lockouts are the easiest landlord case a tenant's lawyer will ever win.

Ald. Nicole Lee (11th), a FAIR sponsor, put the coalition's case plainly: "I have a big fear right now that the ordinance, as it is introduced, is going to really raise rents." The mayor's response: the sponsors "took 98 percent of essentially of what I proposed, copied and pasted, but took out key components." Both things can be true, which is why this fight is about the handful of provisions above, not the other 98 percent.

My Position: FAIR Should Pass, and Even FAIR Leans Tenant

[ATTORNEY REVIEW: This position was written in July about the bills as introduced. The September PRO substitute dropped just cause and relocation fees, two of the reasons given below. Justin to confirm the position still stands.]

Neutral explainers are useful, but you hire a lawyer for judgment, so here is mine. Between these two bills, I endorse FAIR. It preserves the notice-based non-renewal system that lets an owner exit a bad tenancy without a courtroom-grade evidentiary showing. It does not charge you five months of rent for the act of selling your own building or moving your family into it. And it does not pair a mandatory registry fee with a new enforcement bureau funded by that same fee. If you own rental property in this city and your alderman asks where you stand, FAIR is the answer.

Now the second half, because my endorsement is not a love letter: FAIR is still a tenant bill. It keeps a citywide registry of rental owners, and a free registry is a fee schedule waiting for the next budget crisis. Its everything-is-allowed-if-disclosed fee rule invites litigation over whether each of your charges is "reasonably related to an actual cost," with your ledger as Exhibit A. Its lockout fines start at $2,500 per violation, which is above the ceiling in the mayor's own bill. And under the reported version, the surviving relocation fee lands on nonprofits and small owner-occupied buildings, the owners least able to absorb it. FAIR is the mayor's ordinance with the sharpest edges filed down. Filed down beats sharp, and that is the most that can honestly be said for it.

So my advice comes in two parts. Support FAIR as the vehicle that stops just cause, because just cause is the provision that changes what it means to own rental property here. Then tell your alderman the registry and the fee-litigation trap need work in committee. One is a fight worth having. The other is a fight worth winning.

The Owner-Occupied Exemption: Now Answered

If you live in your two-flat, three-flat, or six-flat and rent out the rest, you sit inside the RLTO's most important carve-out. Owner-occupied buildings of six units or fewer are exempt from most of the ordinance. In July, nothing the city had published said whether the PRO kept that exemption. The texts answer it. The June PRO kept the exemption but applied just cause and relocation fees to these buildings anyway. The September substitutes keep the exemption and drop both. Both substitutes still put these buildings in the rental registry, without a fee. PRO reaches further: its deposit cap, fee limits, and Tenant Bill of Rights also apply to you. The November update has the full list, and the two drafting questions I am still watching.

What Happens Next, and What Doesn't

Procedurally, both substitutes cleared committee in September, and the Council deferred both on September 23. Politically, this is round two of a fight that started when the Budget Accountability Coalition rejected the mayor's budget in December 2025 and passed its own. Sixteen aldermen signed FAIR at introduction, and the substitute lists 22 sponsors. Passage takes 26. Nobody has a public majority, which usually means the version that eventually passes looks like neither introduced ordinance. The September substitutes already moved toward each other. Just cause and relocation fees are out of both. The open differences are the registry, fee limits, and deposit caps.

What doesn't happen next: any change to your current obligations. Until council votes and an effective date arrives, the law of the land is the RLTO as it stands. That means fair-notice deadlines, the security-deposit strict-liability regime, the lockout ban, and the ordinary Illinois eviction process.

What Smart Owners Are Doing Right Now

Not panicking, and not sleeping. Four moves that make sense no matter which ordinance passes:

I represent property owners only. My Chicago landlord attorney page covers evictions at a $1,600 flat fee, RLTO defense, and leases.

• Get your non-compliant tenant out now, under the rules you have, not the rules that are coming. Today, a tenant who will not pay or will not follow the lease can be removed on notices and proof you already have, and a non-renewal requires no stated reason at all, only correct timing. The June PRO would have made that removal a just-cause case, with a possible relocation check attached. The September substitute dropped both, but drafts can change again before a vote. Every problem tenancy you are tolerating is cheaper to end under current law than under any version of what is coming. Your reason must be lawful and non-retaliatory and your notice timing must be right, so do it correctly, but do it now. Start with my flat-fee eviction service or the free notice forms in the eviction resource center, and have the case moving before the committee does.
• Book an RLTO compliance audit before the enforcement wave, not after. Every version of this debate ends with more enforcement, more tenant lawyers, and a registry with your name on it. The owners who get hurt in a new-enforcement era are the ones carrying old compliance debt: the missing deposit receipt, the unattached RLTO summary, the lease form last updated when Rahm was mayor. This is exactly what my flat-fee RLTO compliance audit is for: I go through your lease, deposit handling, disclosures, fees, and notice forms against the current ordinance and both pending bills, and you get a punch list instead of a lawsuit. I defend RLTO claims for a living. The audit exists so you never become one.
• Keep your rent increases uniform and documented. The June PRO's $10,000 enhanced relocation fee turned on proof that one unit's rent rose "significantly more" than another's. The September substitute dropped that fee, but its registry would collect each unit's rent. Whatever passes, a clean, consistent, documented rent history across your units is cheap insurance.
• If an owner move-in or a sale is already in your plans, understand the current notice rules and do it correctly. The fair-notice periods (30, 60, or 120 days by length of tenancy) are the law now, and blowing them already costs money.
• Watch the effective date, not the headline. Ordinances phase in. When either version passes, the questions that matter are which provisions apply to existing leases, when the registry opens, and what the first enforcement wave targets. That's when to call your lawyer. Ideally one who was tracking this before it passed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Protecting Renters Ordinance law in Chicago?

No. The PRO was introduced in City Council on June 29, 2026, and FAIR on July 15, 2026. Committees recommended substitute versions of both in September. The full Council deferred both on September 23, 2026. Neither has passed, and current RLTO rules remain fully in effect.

Does Chicago have just-cause eviction right now?

No. Under current law a Chicago landlord may decline to renew a lease for any lawful, non-retaliatory reason, provided the RLTO's fair-notice deadlines are met: 30, 60, or 120 days depending on length of tenancy. The PRO as introduced in June would have required just cause. Its September substitute removed that requirement, and FAIR never had one.

Would I really owe a relocation fee for selling my rental unit?

Not under either current text. The June PRO required a fee of $5,000 or five months' rent when a tenant had to move for an owner move-in, major repairs, demolition, or a sale. The September PRO substitute removed relocation fees, and the FAIR substitute has none. Current law has no such general relocation fee. The final text, if either passes, controls.

What is the FAIR Ordinance?

FAIR is a counter-proposal introduced July 15, 2026 by sixteen members of the City Council's Budget Accountability Coalition. Its September substitute is SO2026-0027202. It keeps notice-based non-renewal and has no relocation fee. It creates a free rental registry, renewed every two years. It caps application fees at $50 and security deposits at 1.5 months' rent. It raises illegal-lockout fines to $2,500 to $5,000 per violation.

Which ordinance is better for Chicago landlords?

FAIR, and it is not close. FAIR keeps notice-based non-renewal, strips the broad relocation-fee scheme, and drops mandatory registry fees. I endorse FAIR over the PRO while being candid that FAIR still expands regulation: the registry survives, the disclosed-fee rule invites disputes, and lockout fines go up. Support it, and push for amendments in committee.

What should Chicago landlords do before either ordinance passes?

Use the window. Resolve problem tenancies now, while non-renewal requires only proper notice and evictions run on today's proof standards. Audit your leases and deposit practices for RLTO compliance, document rent increases consistently across units, and track the committee process for amendments and effective dates.