Illinois Screening Fee Law 2025: Reusable Reports Exempt

765 ILCS 705/30 prohibits a landlord from charging a prospective tenant a fee to access a screening report, or an application screening fee, once that tenant provides a report meeting the statute's qualifying criteria.

[Cite: 765 ILCS 705/30, as added by Illinois Public Act 103-0840]

The restriction isn't automatic just because an applicant mentions having a prior screening report somewhere. It only applies once a report meeting the specific conditions described below is actually provided.

A qualifying report has to be prepared by a consumer credit reporting agency within the past 30 days, at the applicant's own request and expense, and it has to state the date through which the information is current.

[Cite: 765 ILCS 705/30, as added by Illinois Public Act 103-0840]

Every one of those elements matters independently. A report the applicant obtained for free through some other channel doesn't qualify, since the statute specifies the applicant paid for it. A report that's accurate but doesn't state its own currency date also falls short, since that dating requirement is built into the qualifying definition itself.

Reports age quickly in this context. A report generated 45 days before an application, even one that was otherwise perfect when it was produced, no longer meets the qualifying window.

[Cite: 765 ILCS 705/30, as added by Illinois Public Act 103-0840]

That means a landlord evaluating whether the fee restriction applies has to check the report's preparation date against the application date every time, rather than assuming any screening report presented by an applicant automatically qualifies.

The statute requires that a qualifying report cover all the criteria the landlord consistently uses to screen applicants.

[Cite: 765 ILCS 705/30, as added by Illinois Public Act 103-0840]

That condition protects a landlord from being forced to waive a fee based on a report that's simply incomplete relative to what that particular landlord actually checks. A landlord that consistently reviews credit history, eviction history, and income verification for every applicant isn't required to treat a report missing one of those three components as qualifying, since it doesn't cover the full scope of the landlord's own standard screening criteria.

This is worth addressing head-on, since it's the exact question this article was built to confirm. The statute doesn't force a landlord to accept a qualifying reusable report as a full substitute for the landlord's own screening process. Section 30(d) states plainly that nothing in the section stops a landlord from collecting and processing an additional application, as long as the applicant isn't charged an application screening fee for that additional report.

[Cite: 765 ILCS 705/30(d), as added by Illinois Public Act 103-0840]

In practice, that means a landlord can still run its own separate background check, credit pull, or eviction history search on top of a qualifying reusable report the applicant already provided. What the landlord can't do is charge the applicant for that additional screening once the qualifying report is already in hand. The obligation this law creates is a fee restriction, not an acceptance mandate.

Secondary coverage of this law sometimes describes it as requiring landlords to "accept" reusable reports, which overstates what the statute actually does. A property manager reading only that shorthand version might assume handing over a qualifying report ends the screening process entirely. It doesn't. It ends the fee, not the landlord's ability to independently verify an applicant's information.

[Cite: 765 ILCS 705/30, as added by Illinois Public Act 103-0840]

A landlord can ask the applicant to complete a written statement confirming that no material change has occurred to the information contained in the qualifying report since it was generated.

[Cite: 765 ILCS 705/30, as added by Illinois Public Act 103-0840]

That certification step gives a landlord a documented basis for relying on a report that may be a few weeks old, without having to independently re-verify every detail, while still building in a layer of accountability if something in the applicant's circumstances changed after the report was produced.

The statute bars two related but distinct charges: a fee to access the report itself, and a separate application screening fee.

[Cite: 765 ILCS 705/30, as added by Illinois Public Act 103-0840]

That dual restriction closes an obvious workaround. A landlord can't sidestep the screening-fee prohibition by instead charging a separate fee specifically to view or pull up the qualifying report the applicant already provided.

Where a local ordinance, resolution, or other policy adopted by a unit of local government conflicts with this Act, the policy offering greater protection to prospective tenants controls.

[Cite: 765 ILCS 705/30, as added by Illinois Public Act 103-0840]

For a landlord operating across multiple Illinois municipalities, that means this state-level fee restriction functions as a floor, not a ceiling. A city or county ordinance with a stricter reusable-report requirement, a longer qualifying window, or a broader fee prohibition, would take precedence over the state provision within that jurisdiction.

The practical starting point is training leasing staff to check a submitted screening report against all four qualifying conditions, preparation date within 30 days, applicant-paid, currency-dated, and coverage matching the landlord's standard screening criteria, before waiving any fee. Building a standard certification form for applicants to confirm no material change since the report's generation gives staff a documented basis for relying on it.

Separately, deciding in advance whether the leasing office will run its own additional screening on top of a qualifying report, and communicating that clearly to applicants, avoids confusion about what a fee waiver does and doesn't mean for the rest of the application process.