# ESA Letter in Elgin, IL: Two Counties, Two Different Answers

> Elgin sits in both Kane and Cook counties, and your civil rights map changes at the line. One side has a county commission. The other has nothing.

- Source: https://supportanimal.com/blog/illinois-emotional-support-animal/elgin/
- Publisher: Support Animal (supportanimal.com)
- Updated: 2026-08-10
- License note: informational content; not legal or medical advice.

## Key facts

- Population: 114,701
- Households renting: 28.1%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): Capped: 1.5 months' rent
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): Varies by building
- Breed/weight limits common: sometimes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## Find your county before you do anything else

Most renters never need to know which county their building sits in. In Elgin
you do.

Elgin is one city spread across two counties. **90,216 of its 114,701
residents live in Kane County. The other 24,485 live in Cook County.** Same
city hall, same water bill. But if a landlord here refuses your emotional
support animal, who you can complain to changes with the side of that line
your unit sits on. Check your lease before you file anything.

## The Cook County side has a real door

If your address is in the Cook County part of Elgin, you can bring a housing
complaint to the **Cook County Commission on Human Rights**. The county human
rights ordinance sits at Chapter 42, Article II of the county code, and
section 42-38 gives you **180 days** to file.

That is not automatic for every Cook County town. Section 42-33 lets a
municipality's own ordinance displace the county's, but only where that
municipality has enacted one with remedies. **Elgin has not.** There is no
fair housing chapter anywhere in the Elgin code and no housing-discrimination
prohibition in it, so the county ordinance applies here in full.

Elgin clearly knows how to reject a Cook County rule when it wants to. Chapter
6.96 of the city code overrides the county's minimum wage and earned sick
leave ordinances inside the city limits, naming both by number. The human
rights ordinance is not on that list. Elgin picked two and left the civil
rights one alone.

## The Kane County side has no door at all

Now the harder half of the city, and the half most Elgin renters live in.

**Kane County has no human relations commission, no human rights commission,
no civil rights office and no fair housing office.** That is not a gap in
research. The county's published department roster runs from Animal Control
through Workforce Development, and nothing on it handles housing
discrimination. The closest function, Human Resource Management, handles the
county's own internal ADA and equal employment complaints: its workforce,
not its renters.

Kane County does publish a fair housing page, through its **Office of
Community Reinvestment**. Read the name carefully: Reinvestment, not
Relations. Other websites get this wrong and send people hunting for a
commission that does not exist. The page is a referral sheet and **takes no
complaints**.

## The city's own commission cannot help either

Elgin has a Human Relations Commission. Title 3, Chapter 3.12 of the municipal
code created it under home rule, and says it supersedes the commission on
human relations authorised by statute. Section 3.12.020 lists **"physical or
mental disability"** among the bases it exists to address.

Then read section 3.12.050, which sets out its powers. The commission advises
and consults with the mayor, council, city manager and other city boards. It
may invite the cooperation of community groups. It may make recommendations.
It may run educational programs.

That is the whole list. **Chapter 3.12 has no complaint intake, no
investigation, no hearing, no subpoena power, no conciliation, no remedy and
no filing deadline of any kind.** The commission is advisory by design. Do not
spend a month of your one-year state clock waiting on a body that cannot rule.

## The statute that carries both halves of Elgin

Wherever your unit sits, the Illinois Human Rights Act reaches it.

**775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(2)** makes it a civil rights violation to deny a
reasonable accommodation "in rules, policies, practices, or services" where
one is needed to give a person with a disability an equal chance to use and
enjoy a dwelling. The Act **never uses the word "animal."** That sounds like a
weakness and is really the mechanism. A no-pets clause is a rule. A weight
limit is a rule. A pet-rent field in the leasing portal is a rule. You are
asking for an exception to a rule, which is what the statute covers.

Disability under **775 ILCS 5/1-103(I)(1)** is a determinable physical *or
mental* characteristic. For housing the only extra requirement is that it be
unrelated to your ability to rent or keep the home.

## One Illinois section names dogs, and it is not yours

A separate provision misleads tenants and landlords alike. **775 ILCS
5/3-104.1** is headed as being about refusing to rent to a person with a
guide, hearing or support dog, and its subsection (C) bans extra lease charges
beyond actual damage. It reads like it was written for you.

It was not. By its own terms it covers "any blind or hearing impaired person
or person with a **physical disability**." If your disability is a mental
health condition, quoting that section invites a correct refusal. Stay on
3-102.1(C)(2), which carries no such limit.

**775 ILCS 5/3-106** deserves a line too. It lists exemptions: an
owner-occupied building of four families or fewer, rooms let in a private home,
and every cross-reference inside it is written against Section 3-102. The
accommodation duty lives in Section 3-102.1, which 3-106 does not name. No
Illinois decision settling that has been found, so it is an argument worth
having with a lawyer, not a guarantee.

## Elgin counts nothing and recognises nothing

Elgin's animal code is remarkably empty on the questions renters ask. Chapter
7.04 sets **no numerical limit on how many animals a household may keep**, no
kennel-threshold ceiling, and no rule about pet fees or deposits. Chapter
6.37, on rental residential property, has no pet or animal provisions at all.
Several Illinois municipalities do cap households at a fixed number of dogs
and cats. Elgin is not among them.

The flip side is that Elgin gives you nothing either. Its only relevant
definition, at section 7.04.010, is **"service dog"**. A dog trained to do
work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability. The terms
assistance animal, support animal and emotional support animal appear nowhere
in the code. Elgin will not count your animals and will not recognise your
ESA, so every argument you make runs on state and federal law.

## Money, and the county line again

Deposits split the same way the complaint route does.

Cook side: county ordinance section 42-111(a) holds a security deposit to **one
and a half months' rent**, and adds that a landlord cannot dodge the cap by
calling the money something other than a security deposit, precisely what a
lump-sum "pet deposit" line tries to do.

Kane side: no county cap, and Elgin sets none. What you get instead is **765
ILCS 710/1**. The landlord must send an itemised statement of damage with paid
receipts within 30 days of the later of your moving out or your right of
possession ending, or return the whole deposit within 45 days. A court finding
bad faith or refusal to itemise awards **twice the deposit** plus costs and
fees. Since Public Act 103-224 took effect on January 1, 2024, that statute
reaches every Illinois landlord, however small the building.

Both halves of Elgin also get **775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(1)**: a landlord may not
increase a customarily required deposit for a person with a disability. And
for an approved assistance animal the right charge is nothing, because billing
you for the animal is refusing the accommodation.

## Clocks, and what happens if the landlord pushes back

Cook-side tenants have 180 days for the county commission. The state clock
is the same on both sides: **one year** to charge the Illinois Department of
Human Rights under 775 ILCS 5/7B-102(A)(1), from when the violation happened
or ended. Or sue in circuit court within **two years** under 775 ILCS
5/10-102(A), where either side may demand a jury and where you need not have
filed a charge first.

If asking brings retaliation (sudden inspections, threats, pressure to drop
it), that is its own violation under 775 ILCS 5/3-105.1.

## No list to join, and no card to buy

No Elgin office and no Illinois agency keeps a roster of emotional support
animals. The city code has no such concept, and the state statute mentions no
certificates, vests or ID cards, because none of them exist in law.

What does work is documentation from a licensed professional who knows you and
can explain why the animal matters for your condition. That turns a request
into one your landlord has to engage with under 3-102.1(C)(2).

## Where Elgin renters actually get help

**HOPE Fair Housing Center** names Kane among the counties it serves, along
with DuPage, parts of Cook and 28 more in northern and north central Illinois.
For the Kane-side majority of this city it is the primary fair housing
organisation. Reach it at 630-690-6500.

**Prairie State Legal Services** lists DeKalb, DuPage, Kane and Kendall for
its West Suburban office. Note the boundary: it has no Cook County office
among its eleven, so it serves the Kane side only.

The **Cook County Commission on Human Rights** takes the Cook side, within 180
days. The **Illinois Department of Human Rights** covers the whole city,
whichever county you woke up in.

## What Elgin landlords can and cannot do

**Cannot:**
- Cannot refuse to make a reasonable accommodation in rules, policies, practices or services when it may be necessary to give a tenant with a disability an equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling, under 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(2), which is what a request to waive a no-pets rule for an assistance animal asks for
- Cannot treat a mental-health disability as outside the Act, because 775 ILCS 5/1-103(I)(1) defines disability as a determinable physical or mental characteristic and the housing article adds only that it be unrelated to the person's ability to acquire, rent or maintain a housing accommodation
- Cannot demand that the animal be trained, certified, registered or of a particular species, none of which appears anywhere in the Illinois Human Rights Act. The word "animal" does not appear in the Act at all
- Cannot refuse to rent because of the disability of a person who will live in the unit or of anyone associated with the renter, not only the person signing the lease, under 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(A)
- Cannot alter the terms, conditions or privileges of a tenancy, or the services and facilities that come with it, because of a disability, under 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(B)
- Cannot increase for a person with a disability any customarily required security deposit, in the express words of 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(1)
- Cannot coerce, intimidate, threaten or interfere with a tenant who asks for an accommodation, or who helped someone else ask, under 775 ILCS 5/3-105.1, a separate civil rights violation from refusing the request
- Cannot keep any part of a security deposit for damage without sending an itemised statement with paid receipts within 30 days, or must return the whole deposit within 45 days, under 765 ILCS 710/1: a duty that reaches every Illinois landlord since Public Act 103-224 removed the five-unit threshold on January 1, 2024
- Cannot rely on 775 ILCS 5/3-104.1 to justify a charge, because that section is written for blind, hearing impaired and physically disabled tenants and grants a landlord nothing in any event

**Can:**
- May ask for information establishing the disability and the disability-related need for the animal where neither is obvious, the enquiry 24 C.F.R. § 100.202(c) leaves open
- May refuse an accommodation that is not reasonable. One imposing an undue financial or administrative burden, or requiring a fundamental alteration of the landlord's operations
- May hold a tenant liable for damage the animal actually causes, and may recover it from the deposit through the itemised statement 765 ILCS 710/1 requires
- May enforce the ordinary terms of the tenancy against a tenant with an assistance animal: rent, noise, cleanliness and lease conduct rules apply the same way they apply to everyone else
- May set a security deposit at any amount, Illinois capping none, and may charge pet fees and pet rent to tenants generally, since no Illinois statute regulates them, which is exactly why the accommodation, rather than a ceiling, is what removes the charge for an assistance animal

## How to get an ESA letter in Elgin

1. **Check that you qualify**, Answer a short screening about how your condition affects daily life in Elgin. No diagnosis paperwork needed up front. (About 5 minutes: free)
2. **Connect with a licensed professional**, You are matched with a provider licensed for Illinois clients who reviews your situation in a telehealth evaluation. (Telehealth evaluation)
3. **Complete your evaluation**, The professional evaluates whether an emotional support animal alleviates symptoms of a condition recognized in the DSM-5. Honest evaluations, not everyone qualifies. (Most of Our Applicants Qualify)
4. **Receive your signed letter**, Your letter arrives on the professional's letterhead with their license number: the documentation Illinois landlords may lawfully request. (Typically within days of approval)
5. **Send it to your landlord**, Submit the letter with a short reasonable-accommodation request. Pet fees, pet deposits, and breed limits no longer apply to your animal in Elgin. (Protection under FHA + state law)

## Conditions that can qualify for an ESA

No fixed government list exists. A licensed professional evaluates whether an animal alleviates symptoms of a DSM-5-recognized condition, commonly:

- Generalized anxiety disorder
- Major depressive disorder
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Panic disorder
- Social anxiety disorder
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Bipolar disorder
- Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
- Phobias with housing impact
- Chronic stress affecting daily function

## Housing help in Elgin

- [HOPE Fair Housing Center](https://hopefair.org/services/) (fair housing)
- [Prairie State Legal Services, West Suburban office](https://www.pslegal.org/our-offices) (legal aid)
- [Cook County Commission on Human Rights](https://www.cookcountyil.gov/agency/commission-human-rights) (county agency)
- [Illinois Department of Human Rights](https://dhr.illinois.gov/rights/housing-rights.html) (state agency)

## Frequently asked questions

### Elgin is in two counties. Which one am I in, and why does it matter?

Check your county on your property tax bill or your lease before you file anything. Of Elgin's 114,701 residents, 90,216 live in Kane County and 24,485 in Cook County. A Cook-side tenant can bring a housing complaint to the Cook County Commission on Human Rights within 180 days. A Kane-side tenant cannot, because Kane County has no human rights or fair housing body at all. The state and federal routes are open to both.

### Can the Elgin Human Relations Commission take my ESA complaint?

No. The commission is real and its enabling chapter names physical or mental disability as a protected basis, but Elgin Municipal Code section 3.12.050 gives it advisory and educational powers only. It advises the mayor, council, city manager and city boards, enlists community groups, makes recommendations and runs educational programs. Chapter 3.12 contains no complaint intake, no investigation, no hearing, no subpoena power, no conciliation, no remedy and no filing deadline.

### How many animals can I keep in an Elgin rental?

Elgin sets no limit. Chapter 7.04 of the municipal code, which covers dogs, cats and other animals, contains no numerical cap on household animals and no kennel-threshold ceiling. Some Illinois municipalities do cap households at a set number of dogs and cats; Elgin is not one of them. Your lease is still a separate matter. A landlord's own two-animal rule binds you unless it gives way as a reasonable accommodation under 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(2).

### Does anything in Elgin's code recognise an emotional support animal?

No. The only animal-and-disability definition in the code is section 7.04.010's "service dog": a guide dog, signal dog, or other dog trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability. That is a trained-task standard. The words assistance animal, support animal and emotional support animal do not appear. Nothing local helps you, and nothing local hurts you either; the argument is a state and federal one.

### Can my Elgin landlord charge a pet deposit for my assistance animal?

Not for an approved accommodation, because billing you for the animal is refusing the accommodation. The backstop differs by side of town. Cook-side renters have the county's one-and-a-half-month deposit cap at section 42-111(a), which also stops a landlord relabelling the charge. Kane-side renters have no cap, only 765 ILCS 710/1's return rules. Statewide, 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(1) bars raising a customary deposit because of a disability.

### I rent on the Kane County side of Elgin. Who actually helps me?

HOPE Fair Housing Center names Kane among the counties it serves and is the closest thing to a local fair housing office for you; its number is 630-690-6500. Prairie State Legal Services' West Suburban office lists Kane among DeKalb, DuPage, Kane and Kendall. Beyond those, the Illinois Department of Human Rights and HUD. Kane County's own fair housing page only refers people out and accepts no complaints.

### How long do I have to act if my Elgin landlord refuses the animal?

Cook-side tenants have 180 days for the county commission. Everyone in Elgin has one year to file a housing charge with the Illinois Department of Human Rights under 775 ILCS 5/7B-102(A)(1), counted from when the violation was committed or ended. And 775 ILCS 5/10-102(A) allows two years to sue in circuit court, with a jury if either side asks, whether or not you ever filed a charge.

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Get evaluated by a licensed provider: https://my.supportanimal.com/qualify?sa_source=blog&sa_medium=blog&sa_campaign=esa-guides&sa_content=markdown&ref=blog&sa_term=illinois-emotional-support-animal%2Felgin