Illinois Security Deposit Return Letter: Free Template and Generator for Landlords

One rule on older Illinois templates is wrong now. Until January 1, 2024 the Act reached only residential property containing five or more units; it now reaches every residential landlord who takes a deposit. The same amendment added the “right of possession” trigger to the statement clock. This page is for landlords preparing the refund and statement; if you are a tenant looking for a demand letter, this is not that page.

Sample security deposit return letter (Illinois)

Four versions, generated by the same engine as the tool below: a partial refund with itemized deductions, a full refund with no deductions, one where the deductions exceed the deposit, and a Chicago letter, which carries the ordinance’s interest line and its citation. Replace the bracketed placeholders, keep the itemization honest, and review everything before you sign.

Itemized letter with deductions (partial refund)

Full refund letter (no deductions)

When the deductions exceed the deposit

A Chicago letter, with the interest line

Chicago’s ordinance requires interest on a deposit held more than six months, paid with the refund. The generator computes it from your dates, but it writes the figure into the letter only after you have checked it; until then the letter carries a blank for you to fill in, as this sample does. The footer cites the ordinance beside the state Act.

Generate this letter free

The free Illinois deposit tool computes both of your deadlines, applies the shorter local clock where Chicago, Cook County, Evanston or another town has one, does the deduction and interest math, and produces this letter with your facts filled in. No sign-up, no watermark, no charge, and nothing you type leaves your browser.

The two clocks, and which one is yours

This is the Illinois-specific trap. The Act does not give you 45 days to do everything. It gives you 30 days to furnish the itemized statement if you intend to keep any part of the deposit for damage, and it gives you 45 days to return the whole deposit if no such statement is furnished. The two run from different events.

• The statement: 30 days from the LATER of two dates. The date the tenant vacated, or the date the tenant’s right of possession ended, whichever is later. A tenant who moves out on the 10th with a lease running to the 31st has not started your clock until the 31st. That trailing clause was added in 2024, and an unpublished 2026 appellate order applied it to a month-to-month tenant whose notice period ran past the move-out date.
• The full refund: 45 days from the move-out date alone. No “whichever is later” here. If you send no proper statement, or you send it late, the whole deposit is due within 45 days of the day the tenant vacated.
• The balance, once a statement is sent. The Act does not say in words when the money left over after lawful deductions is due. The penalty subsection speaks of returning “the amount of the security deposit due within the time limits provided”, and a court read that as the 45 days in a case with no timely statement. Our reading, labelled as such in the tool: send the balance with the statement, and never later than day 45 after move-out.

(a) Except as provided in subsection (b), a lessor of residential real property who has received a security deposit from a lessee to secure the payment of rent or to compensate for damage to the leased premises may not withhold any part of that deposit as reimbursement for property damage unless the lessor has, 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, furnished to the lessee, by personal delivery, by postmarked mail directed to his or her last known address, or by electronic mail to a verified electronic mail address provided by the lessee, an itemized statement of the damage allegedly caused to the leased premises and the estimated or actual cost for repairing or replacing each item on that statement, attaching the paid receipts, or copies thereof, for the repair or replacement. 765 ILCS 710/1(a)

When the clocks cross. If the right of possession ended more than 15 days after the tenant moved out, day 45 from move-out lands before day 30 from the end of possession. The statute does not say how the two fit together in that case. If you can, send the statement by the earlier date.

If the last day is a weekend or a holiday. Illinois has a general time-counting statute that excludes the first day, includes the last, and carries a last day that is a Saturday, Sunday or statutory holiday to the next day that is none of those (5 ILCS 70/1.11). No Illinois court has applied it to this Act. The tool shows you the strict date as the deadline and the rolled date only as an outer limit. Acting by the strict date is the safe course.

What the statement must contain

An itemized statement of the damage allegedly caused to the premises, with the estimated or actual cost of repairing or replacing each item, and the paid receipts, or copies, attached. Three things follow from the wording. Every line needs an item and a figure: “cleaning and repairs” with one total is not an itemized statement. The receipts go with the statement, not after it, unless the figure is an estimate. And if you did the work yourself, you may charge the reasonable cost of your own labor, so say what you did and how you priced it.

If the lessor utilizes his or her own labor to repair or replace any damage or damaged items caused by the lessee, the lessor may include the reasonable cost of his or her labor to repair or replace such damage or damaged items. If estimated cost is given, the lessor shall furnish to the lessee, delivered in person or by postmarked mail directed to the last known address of the lessee or another address provided by the lessee, paid receipts, or copies thereof, within 30 days from the date the statement showing estimated cost was furnished to the lessee, as required by this Section. 765 ILCS 710/1(a)

A dollar amount the lease specifies. Since 2018 a written lease may fix the cost of cleaning, repairing or replacing a component, and the landlord may withhold that figure, but only if it is for damage beyond normal wear and tear and reasonable to restore the unit to its lease-start condition. The statement must reference the amount and include a copy of that part of the lease. Whether the clause about components that “if damaged, will not be replaced” limits this to common areas or reaches every component is unsettled; the tool does not resolve it.

What a paid receipt is. A Chicago court applying the city ordinance’s identical words held that a photocopy of a check the payee never cashed is not a paid receipt (Boyer v. Buol Properties, 2014 IL App (1st) 132780). A paid invoice, a receipt from the vendor, or a cleared payment record is.

Estimates start a second 30-day clock

You may state estimated costs, and most landlords do when the repair is not finished by day 30. But the estimate is a promise: the paid receipts, or copies, must be furnished within 30 days of the date the statement showing the estimate was furnished, delivered in person or by postmarked mail. Email is not listed for this step. Receipts served three days late have cost a landlord the entire deposit, and the court said good faith does not justify a failure to comply with the time limits.

One safety net exists. If, through no fault of your own, you cannot produce receipts, subsection (b) lets you give instead an itemized list of the cost of repair or replacement, any other evidence you have of the cost, and a verified statement of the specific reasons you cannot produce the receipts. The 2026 appellate court was clear that this does not extend the timelines of subsection (a): the statement itself is still due on day 30.

How to send the letter and the money

The statement may be furnished by personal delivery, by postmarked mail directed to the tenant’s last known address, or by electronic mail to a verified email address the tenant provided. The receipts that follow an estimate, and a full refund where no statement is sent, go by personal delivery or postmarked mail only; the Act is silent on how a balance sent with a statement travels, and sending it the same way is the safe practice. The Act’s use of “postmarked mail” suggests the postmark date is what counts, but no Illinois case has decided it, so keep proof of the date you posted each item.

by personal delivery, by postmarked mail directed to his or her last known address, or by electronic mail to a verified electronic mail address provided by the lessee 765 ILCS 710/1(a)

You never wait for a forwarding address. Illinois is the opposite of Texas here, where the duty is suspended until a written forwarding address arrives. Send to the last known address, which may be the unit the tenant just left. The sentence below protects you only from damages or penalties that result from the tenant’s failure to give an address; it does not pause the clocks.

If the lessee fails to provide the lessor with a mailing address or electronic mail address, the lessor shall not be held liable for any damages or penalties as a result of the lessee's failure to provide an address. 765 ILCS 710/1(a)

If you get it wrong, you return the whole deposit

Two very different consequences sit in this Act, and conflating them misstates your risk in both directions. The forfeiture is strict: if anything is kept for damage and the statement or the receipts are late or missing, you must return the entire deposit, even where the damage was real, and your remedy is to sue the tenant for the damage separately. An appellate court applied that in September 2026, in a decision that may still change, to a landlord who sent its itemization about three months after the deadline and had the trial court’s finding of real damage in hand; the tenants got all $953 back. Two limits are open: the courts have put a good-faith withholding for something other than damage outside the rule, and where receipts cannot be had through no fault of yours the Act lets other evidence stand in for them. The doubling is not strict: it needs a court finding that you refused to supply the statement or supplied it in bad faith, and that you also failed to return the amount due on time.

(c) Upon a finding by a circuit court that a lessor has refused to supply the itemized statement required by this Section, or has supplied such statement in bad faith, and has failed or refused to return the amount of the security deposit due within the time limits provided, the lessor shall be liable for an amount equal to twice the amount of the security deposit due, together with court costs and reasonable attorney's fees. 765 ILCS 710/1(c)

What the doubling is measured on. “Twice the amount of the security deposit due” is the part wrongfully kept, not the whole deposit: an appellate court read “due” as what remained owing and doubled a $259.90 withholding, not the $709 deposit. Bad faith is a question of fact, and courts ask whether the landlord engaged in vexatious, unreasonable or outrageous conduct; once it is found the tenant’s attorney fees are mandatory. The tenant bears the burden of proving the Act was not followed. (Ikari v. Mason Properties, 314 Ill. App. 3d 222 (2000); Verhaeg v. McElligott, 2026 IL App (5th) 250731, a September 2026 decision that may still change.)

If the rental is in Chicago, suburban Cook County or Evanston

Local ordinances stack on top of the Act and several are stricter. Where both apply, the earlier deadline governs, and the local penalties need no bad faith at all.

• Chicago. Return the deposit, less lawful deductions, with the ordinance’s interest, within 45 days after the tenant vacates; deliver or mail the itemized damage statement with copies of the paid receipts within 30 days; receipts after an estimate within 30 days of the statement; seven days after a tenant’s fire or casualty termination notice. Breaking any of the deposit rules costs two times the deposit plus interest, and the Illinois Supreme Court has called the duty absolute. The ordinance does not reach an owner-occupied building of six units or fewer; state law still does. (Chicago Mun. Code 5-12-010, 5-12-020, 5-12-080, 5-12-081, 5-12-082, 5-12-170, 5-12-180)
• Suburban Cook County. Thirty days after the tenant vacates for the deposit less lawful deductions, with the damage statement and paid receipts in the same 30 days, in every suburb without a qualifying ordinance of its own. Two times the deposit plus attorney fees for a failure under the cap, installment or return subsections; the codified text joins the three with “and”, the County reads it as any one of them, and no court has decided it. (Cook County Code 42-101, 42-102, 42-103, 42-111, 42-114)
• Evanston. Twenty-one days after the tenant vacates for the itemized written notice and the money due, delivered together, tied with Northlake for the shortest general deadline we have read in Illinois. The notice needs specific dollar amounts: an appellate court held that “TBD” is not an itemization. Breaking the return rule costs the money due plus twice the amount wrongfully withheld, plus attorney fees. (Evanston City Code 5-3-1, 5-3-2, 5-3-5-1)

Northlake gives 21 days for the money and 30 for the statement; Mount Prospect requires certified mail or personal service; Urbana restates the pre-2018 state rule (in person or by mail, no email) and DeKalb the current one, each in its own code. The Illinois tool applies each when you choose the town, and the Chicago deposit law guide covers the city’s rules in full.

If the property changed hands

The deposit follows the property. On a sale or other transfer, other than to a lienholder, the new owner becomes liable to the tenant for the deposit, including any statutory interest, and for prepaid rent, and the seller stays jointly and severally liable. State law sets no notice deadline for an ordinary sale; Chicago and Cook County add transfer notices of their own, and a buyer at a foreclosure sale who receives the deposits must post a written notice on each unit’s main entrance within 21 days.

In the event of a sale, lease, transfer or other direct or indirect disposition of residential real property, other than to the holder of a lien interest in such property, by a lessor who has received a security deposit or prepaid rent from a lessee, the transferee of such property shall be liable to that lessee for any security deposit, including statutory interest, or prepaid rent which the lessee has paid to the transferor. Transferor shall remain jointly and severally liable with the transferee to the lessee for such security deposit or prepaid rent. 765 ILCS 710/1.1

Who this covers

Since January 1, 2024 the Return Act covers every landlord of residential property who takes a deposit, whatever the number of units. The old five-unit threshold is gone. (765 ILCS 710/1(a); P.A. 103-224) Leasing a mobile home, or a lot, from the owner of a park of five or more homes is a different act with a 15-day damage list and a one-month cap, and this page does not cover it.

About this page

Every passage quoted above is the wording of the Illinois Compiled Statutes as published by the Illinois General Assembly, read against that source rather than against a summary, and re-checked weekly by an automated watch. How we verify the law explains the process and what a “last verified” date does and does not promise. This is general information that cites the statute, not legal advice, and Orygn LLC is not a law firm. For advice about your situation, talk to a licensed Illinois attorney.

Sources

• 765 ILCS 710/1 (the Security Deposit Return Act, section 1)
• 765 ILCS 710/1(a): the 30-day statement and the later-of trigger
• 765 ILCS 710/1(a): the 45-day full refund
• 765 ILCS 710/1(a), (b): the itemized statement, own labor, estimates and receipts
• 765 ILCS 710/1(c): the double penalty and its two conditions
• 765 ILCS 710/1.1: liability after a sale or transfer
• Verhaeg v. McElligott, 2026 IL App (5th) 250731: the whole deposit, and what refusal requires
• Mallah v. Barkauskas, 130 Ill. App. 3d 815 (1985): late receipts, good faith no excuse
• Ikari v. Mason Properties, 314 Ill. App. 3d 222 (2000): the penalty base and bad faith
• Chicago Mun. Code 5-12-010, 5-12-020, 5-12-080, 5-12-081, 5-12-082, 5-12-170, 5-12-180
• Cook County Code 42-101, 42-102, 42-103, 42-111, 42-114
• Evanston City Code 5-3-1, 5-3-2, 5-3-5-1
• The Illinois security deposit tool and full cited rules
• The same rules as machine-readable JSON