Illinois security deposit law
Your landlord is on a clock, and most tenants never find out it exists. Here is what the statute actually says - quoted, with a link so you can read it yourself.
30 days after you vacate, a covered landlord must furnish an itemized statement of damages with receipts or estimates. If no statement is furnished, the full deposit must be returned within 45 days.
- Itemization
- Required, with paid receipts or, where work is not yet done, written estimates.
- If they get it wrong
- Twice the amount of the security deposit due, plus court costs and reasonable attorney's fees, where the landlord refuses to supply the statement or supplies it in bad faith.
- Statute
- 765 ILCS 710/1
The part most people miss
Check the size of the building first. This Act only reaches landlords with five or more units. In a smaller building you are outside it - though a local ordinance may still cover you, and Chicago's is significantly stronger than the state Act.
within 30 days of the date that the lessee vacated the leased premises or within 30 days of the date the lessee's right of possession ends, whichever is later
765 ILCS 710/1(a)
Where that leaves you
Work out the date you handed back possession, then count. If the deadline has passed and nothing arrived, that fact alone carries weight under Illinois law - read the statute above and see where you stand.
If you are still living there, or about to move out, the most useful thing you can do takes fifteen minutes. Nearly every dispute reduces to a single question - was that damage there before you were - and the person holding dated photographs is the one who wins it.
Check your exact timeline for Illinois
Other states
How this was sourced: IMPORTANT: two independent statute sources both omitted the five-unit scope clause when summarised. Threshold confirmed against a Housing Action Illinois legislative fact sheet, 19 Aug 2026. Re-read the opening clause of 710/1 directly before publishing.