Free Illinois Rental Application Fee Receipt & Reusable Report Record
Two Illinois provisions matter here and only one is in force. Under 765 ILCS 705/30, in force since 1 January 2025, a landlord may not charge an application screening fee at all where the applicant supplies a qualifying reusable tenant screening report — one prepared in the previous 30 days at the applicant’s own expense, available to you free, and covering all the criteria you consistently use. The widely-quoted $50 cap sits in 765 ILCS 705/35 and does not take effect until 1 January 2027. This page states the rule that binds you today, and the generator prints no fee ceiling, because none applies yet.
Illinois is the state where most published guidance is out of date in one direction or the other, and getting it right requires holding two provisions apart. The first, 765 ILCS 705/30, has been in force since 1 January 2025 and was further amended in August 2025. It is not a cap and does not mention an amount. It creates a situation in which a landlord may charge nothing at all: where a prospective tenant supplies a qualifying reusable tenant screening report, the landlord “may not charge the prospective tenant a fee to access the report or an application screening fee”. The second, 765 ILCS 705/35, contains the $50 figure that circulates widely — and it does not take effect until 1 January 2027. Its published page carries an explicit delayed-effective-date banner and its source line gives the date. So a landlord operating in Illinois today faces a conditional prohibition rather than a ceiling, and an applicant who arrives with a recent report of their own is entitled to be screened without paying you for it. The practical work is therefore not setting a compliant fee amount. It is deciding, and recording, whether a report you have been handed meets the four statutory criteria — because that single determination is what makes charging lawful or unlawful.
Build the record
Fill in the fields below and the generator produces a dated PDF you can print, sign and give to the applicant, keeping a copy for your file. Nothing is stored and there is no charge. Fields you leave blank print as a dash so you can complete them by hand.
Criterion (D) is the one that decides most cases — and it is tied to the criteria you consistently use
Three of the four qualifying criteria are simple facts; the fourth is a judgement about your own practice. Criterion (A) asks whether the report was prepared within the previous 30 days by a consumer credit reporting agency “at the request and expense of a prospective tenant” — a date and a question of who paid. Criterion (B) asks whether it was made directly available to you for use in the rental application process, or provided through a third-party website that regularly engages in that business and complies with State and federal law on the use and disclosure of consumer report information. Criterion (C) asks whether it reaches you “at no cost to access or use”. Criterion (D) asks whether the report ‘includes all of the criteria consistently being used by the landlord in the screening of prospective tenants’. That is where the analysis actually happens, and it repays care. The Act tells you what a reusable tenant screening report must contain to be one at all: it must be written, prepared by a consumer credit reporting agency, must prominently state the date through which its information is current, and must include the prospective tenant’s name, their contact information, a verification of source of income, their last known address, and the results of an eviction history check conducted in a manner and for a period consistent with applicable law on the consideration of eviction history in housing. Notice what that statutory minimum does not name: a credit score, and criminal history. So a landlord whose consistently-used criteria include matters the report in front of them does not cover may find criterion (D) unsatisfied, in which case the bar in (b)(1) is not engaged on the face of the text. But the qualifier is doing real work in the other direction too, and it is the part a landlord should not misuse. The test is the criteria consistently being used — not the criteria a landlord asserts for the first time when a reusable report appears. A criterion adopted to defeat a particular applicant’s report is by definition not one consistently used, and inconsistently applied screening criteria carry fair-housing exposure that has nothing to do with this section. The honest reading is that criterion (D) rewards a landlord who has a stable, written, genuinely applied screening standard, and offers nothing to one who does not. How a court would assess consistency is not addressed by the text, and no case law was researched for this page. Finally, § 705/30(d) removes the objection landlords most often raise: you are not forced to rely on someone else’s report. You may collect and process your own application and run your own additional report — you simply may not charge the applicant an application screening fee for it.
Watch: Illinois Rental Application Fee Receipt explained
Illinois application fee at a glance
Settle this first: is there an Illinois cap on application fees today?
No — not until 1 January 2027. The $50 figure comes from 765 ILCS 705/35, whose source line reads “P.A. 104-479, eff. 1-1-27” and whose published page carries the banner “This Section may contain text from a Public Act with a delayed effective date”. What binds you now is 765 ILCS 705/30, which is not a cap at all — it is a total bar on charging in one defined situation
When you may not charge anything
where the applicant supplies a reusable tenant screening report meeting all four criteria in § 705/30(b)(1): (A) prepared within the previous 30 days by a consumer credit reporting agency “at the request and expense of a prospective tenant”; (B) made directly available to you, or provided through a qualifying third-party website; (C) available to you “at no cost to access or use”; and (D) includes “all of the criteria consistently being used by the landlord” in screening
What you may still do
collect and process an application, and run your own additional report — § 705/30(d) preserves that expressly, “as long as the prospective tenant is not charged an application screening fee for this additional report”. You may also require the applicant to state that there has been no material change to the information (§ 705/30(b)(2))
What is coming, and when
from 1 January 2027, § 705/35 adds a $50 ceiling on an application fee including background checks, exceeded only where a third-party check actually costs more, the landlord fronts the cost, and bills the applicant with receipts within 14 days — otherwise the fee is waived. It exempts owner-occupied premises of six units or fewer and bars renaming a fee to avoid it
What is in force now, and what arrives on 1 January 2027
IN FORCE — 765 ILCS 705/30, reusable tenant screening report. Source line: “P.A. 103-840, eff. 1-1-25; 104-417, eff. 8-15-25.” It defines an “application screening fee” as “a request by a landlord for a fee to cover the costs of obtaining information about a prospective tenant”. Where a qualifying reusable report is supplied, the landlord may not charge a fee to access it or an application screening fee. The landlord may require a statement that there has been no material change (b)(2); may still process an application and run an additional report without charging for it (d); and a conflicting local policy is resolved in favor of whichever provides greater protections to prospective tenants (c). NOT IN FORCE UNTIL 1 JANUARY 2027 — 765 ILCS 705/35, rental fee transparency and limitations. Source line: “P.A. 104-479, eff. 1-1-27”, under a delayed-effective-date banner. When it arrives it will require all non-optional fees to appear on the first page of a lease, failing which the tenant is not liable for them; ban a rental application fee including background checks above $50, except where a third-party check actually costs more, the landlord pays that cost upfront, and bills the applicant with receipts within 14 days — with the fee waived if that billing is late; ban a range of other charges including fees for lease renewal or modification, for eviction notices before an order is granted, for maintenance requests and routine upkeep; bar renaming a fee to avoid the section; exempt lease agreements for dwelling units in owner-occupied premises containing six units or fewer; and allow a civil action with injunctive and monetary relief, attorney’s fees and costs. None of that binds you today.
How to handle an Illinois application fee today
Write down the criteria you consistently use, before the question arises
Criterion (D) is measured against the criteria “consistently being used” by you. That is impossible to demonstrate without a standing written screening standard, and a landlord who improvises criteria when a reusable report appears has both failed the test and created a fair-housing problem. This is the single highest-value step on the page.
Ask whether the applicant has a reusable screening report before you take any money
The bar in § 705/30(b)(1) operates on charging. Once you have taken a fee from an applicant who in fact supplied a qualifying report, you have charged a fee the section did not permit. Asking first costs nothing and is the only point at which the outcome is still in your hands.
Test the report against all four criteria, and keep your own note of the answers
Prepared within the previous 30 days by a consumer credit reporting agency at the applicant’s own request and expense; made directly available to you or via a qualifying third-party site; available at no cost to access or use; and covering all the criteria you consistently use. All four, not the best three.
If it qualifies, charge nothing — and run your own report if you want one
§ 705/30(d) preserves your ability to collect and process an application and to obtain an additional report. The prohibition is on charging the applicant for it, not on doing it. Where you rely on the applicant’s report you may also require them to confirm there has been no material change to the information in it.
Do not quote the $50 figure to an applicant, and diarise 1 January 2027
Telling an applicant that Illinois permits up to $50 misstates current law, because § 705/35 of 765 ILCS 705 is not yet in force. That section also brings a first-page lease disclosure duty, a 14-day receipted billing mechanic and a private right of action. Treat it as a change to prepare for, not a rule to apply.
About the Illinois application fee record
The generator above produces a dated record of the application fee decision. It deliberately prints no fee ceiling, because Illinois has none in force; a form quoting the 2027 figure would put a number into a signed document that is not law when the document is signed. What it records instead is the determination that actually matters today: whether the applicant supplied a reusable tenant screening report, the four qualifying criteria, the screening company used, the criteria you consistently apply, the amount taken if any, and the outcome. Where the record says both that a qualifying report was supplied and that a fee was taken, the generated PDF prints a caution saying so, because the two answers together describe a charge § 705/30(b)(1) does not permit. Illinois prescribes no form for any of this; the document is a private record and is not captioned as a statutory form. Nothing is stored and there is no charge.
What a landlord should be able to show under 765 ILCS 705/30
- A standing, written statement of the criteria you consistently use. Criterion (D) is measured against it, and it cannot be reconstructed after the fact.
- Whether the applicant supplied a reusable tenant screening report. This is the fact the whole section turns on, and it should be recorded either way.
- The date the report was prepared. Criterion (A) requires preparation within the previous 30 days, and a qualifying report must in any event prominently state the date through which its information is current.
- That it was prepared by a consumer credit reporting agency at the applicant’s own request and expense. A report you ordered is not a reusable report for this purpose.
- How the report reached you. Directly, or through a third-party website that regularly engages in the business and complies with State and federal law on the use and disclosure of consumer report information.
- That it cost you nothing to access or use. Criterion (C) is expressed as “no cost to access or use”.
- Whether it covered all the criteria you consistently use. The comparison, and the conclusion you reached from it.
- That no fee was charged where the report qualified. Neither a fee to access the report nor an application screening fee.
- Any additional report you ran, and that the applicant was not charged for it. Preserved by subsection (d) on that condition.
- A note of any local requirement you are also meeting. Subsection (c) resolves conflicts in favor of whichever policy gives prospective tenants greater protection, and local codes were not researched for this page.
Common mistakes with Illinois application fees
- Quoting the $50 cap as current law. It sits in 765 ILCS 705/35, whose source line reads “P.A. 104-479, eff. 1-1-27” and whose published page carries a delayed-effective-date banner. It does not apply until 1 January 2027.
- Concluding from the absence of a cap that Illinois does not regulate the fee. 765 ILCS 705/30 has been in force since 1 January 2025 and can prohibit the charge entirely.
- Citing 765 ILCS 705/25 for screening reports. That section is flood disclosure. The reusable-report provision is 705/30, and sources citing /25 are wrong.
- Taking the fee first and asking about a reusable report afterwards. The bar operates on charging, so the sequence decides whether you breached it.
- Inventing a screening criterion once a reusable report appears. Criterion (D) refers to criteria “consistently being used”. A criterion adopted for one applicant is not that, and inconsistent criteria carry separate fair-housing exposure.
- Assuming you must rely on the applicant’s report. Subsection (d) expressly preserves your ability to collect and process an application and to run an additional report; it only forbids charging the applicant for it.
- Charging a ‘report access fee’ instead. The prohibition names both a fee to access the report and an application screening fee, so the relabelling is anticipated in the text.
- Treating a report the applicant did not pay for as reusable. Criterion (A) requires preparation at the request and expense of the prospective tenant.
- Repeating unverified claims about Chicago or Cook County rules. Those were not confirmed against the municipal codes for this page. Subsection (c) makes the local layer potentially decisive, which is a reason to check it properly rather than to assume it.
- Ignoring the 2027 changes because they are not yet in force. § 705/35 will also require every non-optional fee to appear on the first page of the lease, on pain of the tenant not being liable for it, and creates a private right of action.
Is there a cap on rental application fees in Illinois?
Not yet. The $50 figure that circulates in guidance comes from 765 ILCS 705/35, and that section is not in force. Its source line reads “P.A. 104-479, eff. 1-1-27”, and the General Assembly’s published page carries the banner “This Section may contain text from a Public Act with a delayed effective date”. Until 1 January 2027 there is no Illinois ceiling on the amount of a rental application fee.
That is not the same as saying the fee is unregulated. 765 ILCS 705/30 has been in force since 1 January 2025 and was amended again with effect from 15 August 2025. It does something different from a cap: in a defined situation it removes the right to charge anything at all.
What is a reusable tenant screening report?
The Act defines it as a written report prepared by a consumer credit reporting agency that prominently states the date through which the information it contains is current, and that includes at least the prospective tenant’s name, their contact information, a verification of source of income, their last known address, and the results of an eviction history check conducted in a manner and for a period of time consistent with applicable law relating to the consideration of eviction history in housing.
Two things follow that landlords should notice. The report is prepared for the applicant, at the applicant’s expense, and travels with them — that is the point of the reform. And the statutory minimum contents do not include a credit score or criminal history, which is directly relevant to whether a particular report satisfies criterion (D) for a particular landlord.
When may an Illinois landlord not charge an application fee?
Where the applicant provides a reusable tenant screening report meeting all four criteria in § 705/30(b)(1). The report must have been prepared within the previous 30 days by a consumer credit reporting agency at the request and expense of a prospective tenant; must be made directly available to the landlord for use in the rental application process, or provided through a third-party website that regularly engages in the business of providing such reports and complies with all State and federal laws on the use and disclosure of consumer report information; must be available to the landlord at no cost to access or use; and must include all of the criteria consistently being used by the landlord in the screening of prospective tenants.
Where those are met, the landlord “may not charge the prospective tenant a fee to access the report or an application screening fee”. The prohibition covers both, so charging for access rather than for screening is not a route around it.
Can an Illinois landlord still run its own screening?
Yes, and the Act says so in terms. Subsection (d) provides that nothing in the section prohibits a landlord from collecting and processing an application in addition to the report provided, as long as the prospective tenant is not charged an application screening fee for that additional report. A landlord who does not trust a third-party report, or whose criteria genuinely go beyond it, is free to run their own — at their own cost.
Subsection (b)(2) adds a modest protection for the landlord relying on a supplied report: the landlord may require an applicant to state that there has not been a material change to the information in it. That is a sensible thing to record on the application itself.
What changes on 1 January 2027?
765 ILCS 705/35 takes effect and does considerably more than cap a fee. All non-optional fees, one-time or recurring, will have to appear explicitly on the first page of a lease agreement, and a tenant will not be liable for a fee that does not; non-optional fees will also have to be disclosed clearly in the property listing or an accompanying link at the time of listing, along with whether utilities are included.
The fee ceiling itself will be $50 for a rental application including background checks, with a narrow exception under § 705/35(c)(1) of 765 ILCS 705 where a third-party background check actually costs more than $50, the landlord pays that cost upfront, and the landlord bills the applicant within 14 days with receipts from the provider — and if that billing is late, the fee is waived. The section will also ban a list of other charges, bar renaming a fee to avoid it, exempt lease agreements for dwelling units in owner-occupied premises of six units or fewer, and create a civil action carrying injunctive and monetary relief, attorney’s fees and costs.
Where the fee rules sit in the rest of Illinois law
Whether a reusable report satisfies your criteria depends on what you may lawfully screen for in the first place, and what a denial requires once a report has driven it. Our guide to Illinois tenant screening laws covers that ground, including the federal adverse-action process that applies whatever Illinois requires.
Money taken at application is not a security deposit; see Illinois security deposit laws for the rules that attach once a tenancy begins.
For the wider framework, see Illinois landlord-tenant laws.
Bottom line
Illinois law here is split in two, and only one half is in force. 765 ILCS 705/30 applies now: if a prospective tenant hands you a qualifying reusable tenant screening report, you may not charge them a fee to access it or an application screening fee at all. The report qualifies only if it was prepared in the previous 30 days by a consumer credit reporting agency at the applicant’s own request and expense, reaches you at no cost, and includes all of the criteria you consistently use in screening. You may still run your own additional report — you simply may not charge for it. The $50 cap people cite is real, enacted, and does not apply yet. It sits in 765 ILCS 705/35, which takes effect 1 January 2027 and whose published page carries a delayed-effective-date banner. Quoting it as current law is wrong; so is saying Illinois does not regulate application fees.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Illinois cap rental application fees at $50?
Not yet. The $50 cap is in 765 ILCS 705/35, whose source line reads ‘P.A. 104-479, eff. 1-1-27’ and whose published page carries a delayed-effective-date banner. It takes effect on 1 January 2027.
What law limits Illinois application fees right now?
765 ILCS 705/30, in force since 1 January 2025 and amended with effect from 15 August 2025. It is not a cap: where an applicant supplies a qualifying reusable tenant screening report, the landlord may not charge a fee to access the report or an application screening fee at all.
What makes a reusable tenant screening report qualify in Illinois?
Four criteria: prepared within the previous 30 days by a consumer credit reporting agency at the request and expense of a prospective tenant; made directly available to the landlord or provided through a qualifying third-party website; available to the landlord at no cost to access or use; and including all of the criteria the landlord consistently uses in screening.
Can an Illinois landlord run its own screening if given a reusable report?
Yes. Section 705/30(d) preserves the landlord’s ability to collect and process an application and to obtain an additional report, provided the prospective tenant is not charged an application screening fee for it.
What must a reusable tenant screening report contain in Illinois?
It must be written, prepared by a consumer credit reporting agency, prominently state the date through which its information is current, and include the prospective tenant’s name, contact information, a verification of source of income, last known address, and the results of an eviction history check conducted consistently with applicable law on considering eviction history in housing.
Do local Illinois ordinances override the state rule on application fees?
Section 705/30(c) provides that where a local policy conflicts with the Act, the policy that provides greater protections to prospective tenants applies. Municipal codes were not researched for this page, so check the local layer for your own property.
Is 765 ILCS 705/25 the Illinois screening report section?
No. Section 705/25 is flood disclosure. The reusable tenant screening report provision is 765 ILCS 705/30, and sources citing 705/25 for screening are mistaken.
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