Utilities in Skokie rentals: who pays, and what a shutoff costs

In Skokie the utility questions — who pays, what happens when the landlord's master account goes delinquent, whether your meter can quietly cover the hallway — are answered by two Illinois acts almost nobody cites and one county ordinance section that reaches further than the rest of the ordinance, though not, as this page used to say, with no exceptions. The Rental Property Utility Service Act requires a landlord who owes for utilities to pay “in a timely manner so as not to cause an interruption,” and when they don't, hands the tenant a dollar-for-dollar right to pay the utility and subtract it from rent. The Tenant Utility Payment Disclosure Act forbids billing tenants more than the building's actual utility bill. And the Cook County RTLO treats a landlord cutoff as a lockout: possession back, plus a money remedy the ordinance measures against two months' rent or twice the actual damages. Every rule below quotes its source — the statutes as posted on ilga.gov and the ordinance text the county posts (dated January 2021) — and prices it at today's Skokie rents.

What this page is: who must pay for each utility in a Skokie rental, when a bill can lawfully be shifted to the tenant, and what shutoffs and billing games cost — each rule linked to its official source and priced at today's actual Skokie rents. It is not legal advice — when it matters, read the linked source or use the free legal help on our tenant rights page.

"Timely" is the statute's word: landlord-paid utilities must stay on

765 ILCS 735/1 attaches to any agreement, "either written or verbal": where a landlord is required to pay for water, gas, or electrical service, "the landlord shall pay for the services to ensure that the services are available to the tenant throughout the term of the lease and shall pay for the services in a timely manner so as not to cause an interruption of the services" — read live and quoted verbatim today. Section 1.4 closes the back door: no landlord may cause service in an occupied building to be "interrupted, discontinued, or terminated" — whether by nonpayment of bills the landlord assumed (master metering counts as assuming them by implication) or by tampering with equipment or lines. The only shutoffs the Act permits are genuine emergencies like a gas leak or fire, and repair shutoffs on 7 days' written notice to each affected tenant. Source: 765 ILCS 735/1 · 765 ILCS 735/1.4

If the landlord stops paying: pay the utility, subtract it from rent — no cap

When a landlord fails to pay, Section 1 gives the tenant — or the tenants together, where one meter serves several units — two options: terminate the lease, or pay the utility to keep service on. The reimbursement rule is one sentence with no ceiling: any sums the tenant pays that the landlord was required to pay "may be deducted from the rent due." Unlike the repair-and-deduct rights on our repairs page, with their $500 and half-a-month caps, this is the actual bill, dollar for dollar. The Act adds three more tools: the utility must immediately restore service once the arrears are paid; a tenant may instead put the bill in their own name going forward (with the credit references or deposit the Illinois Commerce Commission's rules require of any new customer); and where a whole building is at stake, tenants or the utility itself may petition the court to appoint a receiver who collects the rents and pays the utility directly (Section 2). Two more sentences of the Act matter. The pay option exists “if the nonpayment jeopardizes the continuation of the service” — it is for keeping the service on, not for prepaying a bill that is merely late — and ending the lease under Section 1 “does not absolve the landlord or tenant from any obligations that have arisen under the lease prior to its termination”. And Section 4 closes the obvious loophole: a landlord “shall not increase rent paid by the lessees or tenants of the building in order to collect all or part of the amount lawfully deducted for utility service pursuant to this Act.” Source: 765 ILCS 735/1 · 765 ILCS 735/2 · 765 ILCS 735/4

The red-paper notice — the tell that the landlord's account is in trouble

In buildings with 3 or more apartments, the utility company cannot disconnect for the landlord's nonpayment until it has notified every tenant, and Section 3 dictates the notice down to the paper stock: at least 10 days before the shutoff date; the dollar amount the landlord owes and the average monthly bill; a statement of the tenants' rights to pay-and-deduct or to seek a receiver; and the name and phone number of a legal services agency where tenants can get free help. A posted notice must be "of a conspicuous size, on red paper, and in at least 14 point bold face type" — and a landlord who alters, defaces, or removes it commits a Class C misdemeanor, a warning the notice itself must carry. A red sheet in the lobby is not decoration: it is the statutory signal that the pay-and-deduct machinery above has armed, with the exact dollar figures printed on it. Source: 765 ILCS 735/3

Your meter can't quietly feed the hallway

Section 1.2 prohibits renting a unit where the tenant's own utility account covers common areas, other units, or areas used by anyone outside the tenant's household — unless, before the lease is offered or a deposit accepted, the landlord clears four hurdles in writing: (1) a written statement of exactly which areas the tenant's meter serves, including uses that haven't shown up in past bills but might (the statute's own examples: "the rental of a neighboring unit that has been vacant, the installation of washers and driers in the basement, or the use of the garage for mechanics"); (2) copies of the previous 12 months of utility bills, unless the tenant waives them in writing; (3) no suggesting or requiring the tenant to collect money from the neighbors whose usage lands on the bill; and (4) a written statement of the rent reduction, if any, offered to compensate. Mid-lease switches are banned too: no change from landlord-paid to tenant-paid during a lease term, a minimum of 30 days' notice before any change, and for lease tenants only at renewal or by a written amendment both sides sign. Any lease term inconsistent with the section is void. Source: 765 ILCS 735/1.2

What a shared-meter violation is worth: 100% of the misbilled service, trebled if knowing (735/1.3)

Section 1.3 is the remedy for Section 1.2. A tenant “shall be entitled to recover damages from the landlord for the utility bills rendered in the tenant's name as a result of the landlord's violation of this Act and which the landlord has not paid to the utility company.” The burden runs in two steps: “Upon proof by the tenant that the tenant was billed an amount for service not attributable to the unit or premises occupied by the tenant, the landlord shall be liable to the tenant for 100% of those utility bills” — and that figure “shall be reduced by whatever percentage of use that the court finds that the landlord has established to have been attributable to the unit or premises the tenant occupied during the period that the violation continued.” Two multipliers sit on top: “The court may treble the damage award when the court finds that the landlord's violation of this Act was knowing or intentional”, and “The tenant may also recover costs and fees, including attorneys fees, if the amount awarded by the court for utility service is in excess of $3,000.” The claim can be brought on its own or “by a counterclaim in any action brought by the landlord against the tenant” — which is to say, inside an eviction case — and the Act's remedies “do not limit or supersede any remedies the tenant may have under a lease, contract, or the laws, including the common law, of this State.” Source: 765 ILCS 735/1.3 · 765 ILCS 735/1.2

“Proportionate share” leases need a written formula that adds up — and the RTLO's own disclosure rules

Master-metered buildings that bill each tenant a share of the building's utility bill answer to the Tenant Utility Payment Disclosure Act, a statute with one operative section: no landlord may demand a proportionate-share payment without first giving the tenant the allocation formula in writing, “either as part of the lease or another written agreement” — and “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 public utility.” Utilities cannot be a profit line: “The formula shall include all those that use that public utility service and may reflect variations in apartment size or usage”, and the landlord “shall also make available to the tenant upon request a copy of the public utility bill for any billing period for which payment is demanded.” The Act does not forbid an all-in rent: “Nothing herein shall preclude a landlord from leasing property to a tenant, including the cost of utilities, for a rental which does not segregate or allocate the cost of the utilities.” The RTLO adds a pre-lease layer of its own, in Sec. 42-805(B). The landlord “shall disclose to the tenant whether the landlord or tenant bears the responsibility for payment of the cost of a utility for the dwelling unit”. Where the tenant pays the utility company directly, “the utility service shall be individually metered to the dwelling unit” and the lease must state “the annual cost of service from the utility providing the primary service during the previous twelve (12) months, if known”. Where the tenant pays the landlord for a utility, the lease must state that annual cost, and a landlord who did not own the unit or pay that bill last year “may satisfy this requirement by providing cost of service for a similar dwelling unit, if known, or disclose to the tenant that the utility costs are unknown to the landlord.” What the ordinance does not do is attach a remedy to that paragraph. The two-business-day cure-and-terminate step this page used to describe belongs to other disclosures in Sec. 42-810 — the owner's identity, bed bugs, the summary attachment — and the ordinance's general remedies in Sec. 42-806 speak of a landlord “not in material compliance with the rental agreement or with section 42-805” after a 14-day written notice. This page has read no case applying them to a missing utility figure. Source: 765 ILCS 740/5 · Cook County RTLO — ordinance text as posted by the county (PDF, dated January 2021), Sec. 42-805(B), Sec. 42-806(A)–(C)

A threatened shutoff must be disclosed before you sign — Sec. 42-810(C), with its own remedy

Separately from the cost figures, the ordinance makes a landlord disclose, in writing, before a lease is signed or renewed, “Any notice of intent by the municipality or any utility provider to terminate water, gas, electrical, or other utility service to the dwelling unit or common areas. The disclosure shall state the type of service being terminated, the intended date of termination, and whether the termination will affect the dwelling unit, common areas or both.” The same paragraph covers code violations cited in the previous 12 months. Its remedy is written out, and it is not a two-business-day cure: “If the landlord fails to comply with section 42-810(C), the tenant may terminate the rental agreement by written notice. The written notice shall specify the date of termination no later than 30 days from the date of written notice. In addition, if a tenant, in a civil legal proceeding against an owner or landlord, establishes that the landlord has violated this section, the tenant shall be entitled to recover one (1) month's rent or actual damages, whichever is greater, and reasonable attorney's fees.” One month of today's Skokie average is $2,371. And among the lease clauses the ordinance voids is the one that matters when a landlord bills utilities: a provision under which the tenant “Agrees that a landlord may apply rent payments to a charge other than rent, including but not limited to utilities, fines, late fees or other charges” (Sec. 42-804(F)(11)) — a rent payment is rent, and a disputed utility charge cannot be peeled off the top of it to manufacture a shortfall and a 5-day notice. Source: Cook County RTLO — ordinance text as posted by the county (PDF, dated January 2021), Sec. 42-810(C), Sec. 42-804(F)(11)

A landlord cutoff is a lockout: what Sec. 42-813 says, the four things it does not reach, and who it covers

The ordinance's lockout section does not use the summary's phrase “heat, utility or water service”; its own list is longer. A landlord, “or any person acting at the direction of the landlord, shall not oust or dispossess, or threaten or attempt to oust or dispossess, any tenant from a dwelling unit without authority of law” — among other ways — “by interfering with the services to the dwelling unit, including but not limited to electricity, gas, hot or cold water, plumbing, heat, telephone service, or internet”, or “by the removal or incapacitating of appliances or fixtures, except for the purpose of making necessary repairs”. Cutting the internet counts; so does pulling the stove. Then come the words this page used to leave out — “The foregoing shall not apply where” — and four situations: a landlord who “acts in compliance with the eviction laws of Illinois pertaining to forcible entry and detainer and engages the Sheriff of Cook County to forcibly evict a tenant”; one who “interferes temporarily with possession only as necessary to make needed repairs or inspection and only as provided by law” — the exception that matters for utilities, since a boiler can lawfully be off for the hours a repair takes; the state's distress-for-rent procedure for personal property; and a unit the tenant has abandoned under Sec. 42-809(B)(2). As for who is protected: the county's summary says the section “applies to every residential rental unit. There are no exceptions.” The ordinance is narrower, and still wide. Sec. 42-802(C): “The anti-lockout prohibition contained in section 42-813 applies to all dwelling units in Cook County that are otherwise excluded by paragraphs 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8 of this section” — which does include the owner-occupied building of six units or fewer and the single-family or condo rental that the ordinance's repair remedies skip, but not paragraphs 1, 2 and 4: transient hotel guests; residents of care facilities, shelters, dormitories and religious institutions; and co-op shareholders. An ordinary Skokie apartment, two-flat or rented condo is covered either way. The section also came first: the ordinance's effective-date line puts the rest of the Article at June 1, 2021 and the lockout provision “immediately upon adoption”. Source: Cook County RTLO — ordinance text as posted by the county (PDF, dated January 2021), Sec. 42-813(A), Sec. 42-802(C) · Cook County RTLO — the county's plain-language summary (PDF, May 2021)

What a cutoff costs the landlord: Sec. 42-813(B), quoted — and why this page no longer calls it a floor

Sec. 42-813(B): if a tenant “in a civil legal proceeding against the landlord, establishes that the landlord has violated section 42-813, the tenant shall be entitled to recover possession of the dwelling unit and personal property. In addition, the tenant shall recover an amount equal to not more than two (2) months' rent or twice the actual damages sustained by the tenant, whichever is greater, and reasonable attorney's fees.” Two months of the average Skokie rent is $4,742 today (the average is $2,371; the table below runs the figure for each ZIP). The sentence reads two ways — “not more than” is a cap, “whichever is greater” a floor — and this page has read no court decision choosing between them, so it does not call the figure a minimum. The county's summary states the remedy as “twice the actual damages or 2 months' rent, whichever is greater” and leaves the words “not more than” out; until today this page followed the summary. What is not in doubt is the first half: possession and property back, and attorney's fees. When service fails for a reason other than a landlord's act — a boiler that died, not a bill that lapsed or a valve the landlord closed — the lockout section is the wrong tool and Sec. 42-806(D) is the right one: a written notice “specifying the service to be restored”, then, “If the landlord fails to correct the condition within 24 hours after being notified by the tenant”, withholding a reasonable amount, buying the service and deducting it against paid receipts, damages and attorney's fees, or substitute housing up to the monthly rent; and after “more than 72 hours”, the right to end the lease by written notice. The ordinance's own caveat, Sec. 42-806(D)(3): those remedies are off “if the condition was caused by the inability of a utility supplier, or internet provider to provide service, unless the landlord caused the inability of the utility supplier” — which is exactly the case the pay-and-deduct statute above exists for. Our repairs page has the full ladder. Source: Cook County RTLO — ordinance text as posted by the county (PDF, dated January 2021), Sec. 42-813(B), Sec. 42-806(D) · Cook County RTLO — the county's plain-language summary (PDF, May 2021)

When it's the gas or electric company, not the landlord: Illinois's winter rules

Everything above is about a landlord's account or a landlord's act. When the account is yours and the bill is behind, the Public Utilities Act sets the winter rules (each section read on ilga.gov on September 27, 2026). First, the calendar: from December 1 through March 31, no electric or gas utility may disconnect a residential customer — or a master-metered apartment building — for nonpayment where gas or electricity is the primary source of space heating or runs the heating equipment, unless it has first offered a deferred payment arrangement spreading the past-due amount over at least four months, with a down payment of no more than 10% of what is owed, together with the option of a levelized plan for future bills and a list of agencies that help with utility bills — and the customer has refused or failed to enter one (220 ILCS 5/8-206(a)). Before a winter disconnection the utility must also reach the customer or an adult in the home by phone, by a visit or by first-class mail, and then let six business days pass (8-206(b), (c)). Second, two groups are protected for the same four months with no payment-plan condition attached: participants in the state's energy assistance program under Section 6 of the Energy Assistance Act (8-206(k)), and service members or veterans who have notified the utility (8-206(l)). Third, the thermometer: where gas or electricity is the only source of space heating, disconnection for nonpayment is prohibited on any day when the National Weather Service forecast for the following 24 hours includes 32 degrees Fahrenheit or below, and on the day before a weekend or holiday with that forecast — a protection the section extends to "all tenants of mastermetered apartment buildings" (8-205(a)). The same section bars disconnection at a forecast of 90 degrees or above where the service is the only source of cooling (8-205(b)). And from November through March, a utility that supplies gas or electricity for heating must give written notice before any cutoff — mailed at least 8 days ahead or delivered 5 days ahead — and notify the local health department 24 to 48 hours before it happens (8-202). None of this cancels the debt: the winter rules delay a disconnection and put a payment plan on the table; the bill remains. Help paying it runs through many of the same doors as help with rent, on our rental-assistance page. Source: 220 ILCS 5/8-206 · 220 ILCS 5/8-205 · 220 ILCS 5/8-202 · 305 ILCS 20/6 (Energy Assistance Act)

Correction, October 7, 2026: until today this page called Sec. 42-813 “the RTLO section with no exceptions” and said it “applies to every rental with no exceptions”, and it quoted the county summary's words — “heat, utility or water service” and “applies to every residential rental unit. There are no exceptions” — as the ordinance's. The ordinance's own text lists four situations the section does not reach, and Sec. 42-802(C) extends it to five of the eight excluded categories, not all eight. The page also priced the cutoff remedy as “the RTLO floor for a landlord utility cutoff”, “at least two months' rent”; Sec. 42-813(B) reads “not more than two (2) months' rent or twice the actual damages sustained by the tenant, whichever is greater”, and this page no longer calls it a minimum. And it said a tenant who does not get the utility-cost disclosures “after a 2-business-day notice may be able to end the agreement”: the ordinance attaches that two-business-day step to other disclosures (Sec. 42-810(D), (F) and (I)), not to the utility-cost disclosure in Sec. 42-805(B) or the shutoff-notice disclosure in Sec. 42-810(C), whose remedy is quoted below. The Illinois statute sections quoted on this page were re-read today, section by section, and did not change; two sections the page had skipped (735/1.3 and 735/4) are now quoted.

What a landlord shutoff is worth at today's Skokie rents, by ZIP

The average Skokie rent is $2,371/month as of September 2026 (how we compute this). Running two months' rent — the figure Sec. 42-813(B) names next to twice the actual damages, quoted above — at each ZIP's current average:

Read the last column as a scale, not a promise: it is two months' rent at that average — the figure the remedy names next to twice the actual damages, plus attorney's fees — and whether it is a ceiling or a minimum is discussed above, not a prediction about any particular case. Documentation decides cases: the shutoff dates, the bills, the notices (photograph them), and every message about who was supposed to pay.

Honest caveat: these are smoothed market averages (Zillow's ZORI index — methodology), not your lease. The remedies run on your actual rent, whatever it is — the table shows the scale at typical Skokie rents.

If the utility fight is part of a bigger one

Utility disputes rarely travel alone: when the service failed because something broke rather than because a bill lapsed, the repairs page has the deadlines and temperatures — including the essential-services ladder; the other winter question — who clears the snow and ice off the stairs, the walks, and the sidewalk — is on the snow-and-ice page; a shutoff aimed at making you leave is the illegal-eviction playbook — how eviction lawfully works here, including the lockout ban; the utility clauses worth reading before you sign are on the move-in cost page; help with an overdue bill runs through many of the same programs as help paying rent; and if the building's economics are the real problem, each ZIP's current average (60077, 60076) says what leaving costs. And if the rent is paid with a Housing Choice Voucher, the utilities you pay yourself are not just a bill — they are a dollar figure the housing authority adds to the rent before it is measured against the payment standard; the utility-allowance page has the schedule.

First published July 30, 2026 · Page last updated October 18, 2026 · rent index data through September 2026.