# ESA Letter in Schaumburg: No Village Office, a County 180-Day Clock

> Schaumburg has no fair housing ordinance and no local commission, so an ESA complaint runs on Cook County's 180-day clock. And the code caps you at four animals.

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

## Key facts

- Population: 77,099
- Households renting: 37.1%
- 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)

## What the village does, and the one thing it does not

Schaumburg is a village of 77,099 people in Cook County. Of its 31,655
occupied homes, 11,729 are rented: a **37.1%** renter share, above the 32.9%
figure for Illinois as a whole.

The village regulates those rentals in one narrow way. Title 11, Chapter 123
of the code requires a rental license, at § 123.02, so your landlord already
answers to a village compliance system.

That chapter says nothing about pets and nothing about discrimination, and no
other chapter fills the gap. Search the code's table of contents for fair
housing, human relations, human rights, civil rights or discrimination and
nothing comes back. The village's own fair housing page confirms it: if you
believe you have been discriminated against and want to file, it says, you may
do so with one of the agencies below, and it lists HUD and the Illinois
Department of Human Rights. Not the village. Schaumburg's roster of 27
committees, boards and commissions has no human relations commission, fair
housing board or disability commission on it.

## Suburban Cook County is where your clock runs

That absence has a helpful consequence. Because Schaumburg has no local
ordinance carrying its own remedies, nothing here displaces the county's. The
Cook County Human Rights Ordinance applies in full.

Your forum is the Cook County Commission on Human Rights, downtown at 69 W.
Washington Street, Suite 1130; 312-603-1100. Section 42-38 is the housing
section it enforces, and the county protects characteristics the state does
not, source of income, gender status and housing status.

Write down the deadline. The Commission puts it plainly: your complaint must
be filed with the Commission within **180 days** of the date of the alleged
violation for the Human Rights Ordinance. Section 42-34(b)(1) carries that
period. Count from the day of the refusal, not the day you give up
negotiating.

## The county rulebook is as quiet as the statute

Do not expect the county's rules to name your animal. Search the Cook County
Commission's rules and the word "animal" appears zero times. Chicago's
Commission wrote emotional support animals into Rule 420.180(b); the county
never followed.

So a Schaumburg tenant argues the way most Illinois tenants must. Under **775
ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(2)** it is a civil rights violation to refuse reasonable
accommodations in rules, policies, practices or services where that may be
necessary to give someone equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling. The
Human Rights Act never uses the word "animal." A no-pets clause is a rule. A
weight ceiling is a rule. A pet-rent field you cannot leave blank is a rule.
Your request is an exception to one.

Disability under 775 ILCS 5/1-103(I)(1) is a determinable physical **or
mental** characteristic, and federal law runs beside it at 24 C.F.R. §
100.204. Illinois adds no regulation of its own: no animal appears in any of
the eight sections of the state housing rule, 71 Ill. Adm. Code 2300.

## Four dogs, four cats, and a definition of "kennel"

Here is a Schaumburg detail to know before you bring an animal home. Village
Code **§ 92.01** defines a kennel as any premises where more than four dogs,
or more than four cats, or any combination over six months of age are kept
"for any purpose whatsoever." In a home that works as a four-animal ceiling,
sitting on top of whatever your lease already says.

Chapter 92 contains no assistance-animal exception and no accommodation
clause. The service-animal provision at § 92.30 covers food premises and is
not a housing rule. The old § 92.21 "Guide dogs" section was repealed by
Ordinance 12-093 in 2012.

Be careful what that silence means. The ordinance does not say an assistance
animal counts toward the four, and it does not say one is exempt. The village
is not your landlord, and a municipal code is not a lease. If your household
is near four animals, get advice before adding another instead of assuming the
answer.

## Here there is a ceiling, and the label cannot dodge it

Chicago sets no maximum on a security deposit. Suburban Cook County does. Its
Residential Tenant and Landlord Ordinance covers almost all rental units in
suburban Cook, Schaumburg included, and **§ 42-111(a)** holds a deposit to
**one and a half months' rent**.

The next sentence is the one to remember: a landlord may not avoid the
coverage of that subsection by labeling the fee or charge as anything other
than a security deposit. A "pet deposit," a "one-time animal fee", if it
works like a deposit it sits inside the same one and a half months, for every
tenant.

For an approved assistance animal the number should be zero anyway, and not
because of the cap. Monthly pet rent is not a deposit, so the county limit
never touches it, and Illinois caps nothing. Charging you for the animal is
charging you for the accommodation. Section 3-102.1(C)(1) separately forbids
raising a customarily required deposit for a person with a disability. Note
that the county cap is enforced by an individual right of action, not by the
Commission.

## Damage, receipts, and a rule that now reaches everyone

Approval is not immunity. If your animal wrecks a carpet, that is your bill.

Illinois controls how it gets proved. Under **765 ILCS 710/1** the landlord
must give you an itemised statement of the damage with paid receipts attached,
within 30 days of the later of your moving out or your right of possession
ending. Without that statement the entire deposit is due back to you inside 45
days. If a circuit court finds the landlord refused to itemise or acted in bad
faith, the award is **twice the deposit** plus court costs and reasonable
attorney's fees.

That reach is newer than people realise. The Act used to apply only to
buildings of five or more units. **Public Act 103-224 struck those words
effective January 1, 2024**, so every Illinois residential landlord is inside
it now.

## The section with "support dog" in the title is not yours

Sooner or later somebody hands a Schaumburg tenant 775 ILCS 5/3-104.1. Its
heading is "Refusal to sell or rent because a person has a guide, hearing or
support dog," and it bars an extra lease charge other than for actual damage
the dog does. It reads like it was written for you.

Read the first line instead. It protects "any blind or hearing impaired person
or person with a physical disability." If your disability is a mental health
condition, that is the wrong section, and quoting it hands your landlord's
lawyer an easy reply.

Two more Illinois laws get misquoted this way. The Assistance Animal Damages
Act, 740 ILCS 13/, covers an animal **trained** to assist a physically
impaired person and deals with theft and attack, not housing. And the Service
Animal Access Act at 720 ILCS 630/ no longer exists, Public Act 97-1108
repealed it.

## Three deadlines, and a separate wrong if they push back

You are not limited to one door in Schaumburg.

The county Commission wants your complaint inside 180 days. The Illinois
Department of Human Rights takes a housing charge within **one year** under
775 ILCS 5/7B-102(A)(1), measured from when the violation was committed or
ended; it targets 100 days for the investigation, and if it dismisses you get
90 days to ask the Human Rights Commission to review. Or skip both: 775 ILCS
5/10-102(A)(1) gives you **two years** to sue in circuit court, either party
may demand a jury, and paragraph (3) says no charge need be filed first.

Awards under 775 ILCS 5/8B-104 run to actual damages, attorney's and expert
witness fees, and civil penalties up to $16,000, $42,500 or $70,000. If the
landlord threatens or pressures you for asking, that is its own violation
under 775 ILCS 5/3-105.1.

## There is no list, and nobody can add you to one

No Illinois agency keeps a roll of emotional support animals. Neither does
Cook County, nor Schaumburg Village Hall. The certificates, ID cards and vests
sold online carry no weight under the county ordinance, the Human Rights Act
or the federal regulations, and a landlord may ignore one.

What a landlord may ask for, under 24 C.F.R. § 100.202(c), is information
establishing that you qualify for a benefit available to people with
disabilities. That means documentation from a licensed professional who has
assessed you and can tie your condition to the need for the animal. A current
letter from someone who knows you turns a request into one your landlord has
to answer.

## Getting help around Schaumburg

The Cook County Commission on Human Rights takes the complaint and explains
its own process. Open Communities covers fair housing in the north and
northwest suburbs of Cook County (where Schaumburg sits), though it does not
provide legal representation. Legal Aid Chicago handles free civil legal work
across Cook County. Progress Center for Independent Living serves suburban
Cook County from the disability side, which matters when the real dispute is
whether your condition is taken seriously.

## What Schaumburg 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 Schaumburg

1. **Check that you qualify**, Answer a short screening about how your condition affects daily life in Schaumburg. 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 Schaumburg. (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 Schaumburg

- [Cook County Commission on Human Rights](https://www.cookcountyil.gov/agency/commission-human-rights) (county agency)
- [Open Communities](https://www.open-communities.org/) (fair housing)
- [Legal Aid Chicago](https://legalaidchicago.org/) (legal aid)
- [Progress Center for Independent Living](https://progresscil.org/) (disability services)

## Frequently asked questions

### Does the Village of Schaumburg have a fair housing office I can complain to?

No. Schaumburg's own fair housing page says that if you wish to file a complaint you may do so with one of the agencies below, and the agencies it lists are HUD and the Illinois Department of Human Rights, not the village. The village's full list of 27 committees, boards and commissions contains no human relations commission, human rights commission, fair housing board or disability commission, and the code has no fair housing chapter at all.

### How long do I have to file an ESA housing complaint in Schaumburg?

One hundred and eighty days at the county level. Because Schaumburg has no local ordinance with remedies, nothing displaces the Cook County Human Rights Ordinance, so it applies here in full. The Cook County Commission on Human Rights states that your complaint must be filed with the Commission within 180 days of the date of the alleged violation for the Human Rights Ordinance; § 42-34(b)(1) of the county code carries that period and § 42-38 is the housing section. The Commission sits at 69 W. Washington Street, Suite 1130, Chicago, 312-603-1100.

### Schaumburg's code stops at four animals. What does that mean for my ESA?

Village Code § 92.01 defines a kennel as any premises where more than four dogs, more than four cats, or any combination over six months of age are kept for any purpose whatsoever, which works as a four-animal ceiling in a home. Chapter 92 contains no assistance-animal or accommodation exception anywhere in it. The ordinance simply says nothing about assistance animals in either direction, so a household already at four should get advice before adding another animal rather than assuming the cap does or does not apply.

### Can my Schaumburg landlord charge a pet deposit for an emotional support animal?

Not as the price of the accommodation, billing you for the animal is refusing the accommodation, and 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(1) also bars increasing a customarily required security deposit for a person with a disability. Separately, suburban Cook County caps deposits: Cook County Code § 42-111(a) limits a security deposit to one and a half months' rent and says a landlord may not avoid that by labeling the fee or charge as anything other than a security deposit. That cap is enforced by suing, not by the Commission.

### Does the Cook County ordinance say anything about emotional support animals?

No. The Cook County Commission on Human Rights' rules contain zero occurrences of the word animal, unlike Chicago's Rule 420.180(b), which names emotional support animals directly. A Schaumburg tenant therefore argues from the statute: 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(2) makes it a civil rights violation to refuse reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices or services when necessary for equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling. Federal law says the same at 24 C.F.R. § 100.204.

### What if the 180-day Cook County window has already closed?

You still have two state routes. The Illinois Department of Human Rights accepts a housing charge within one year of the violation being committed or terminated under 775 ILCS 5/7B-102(A)(1). And 775 ILCS 5/10-102(A)(1) lets you sue in circuit court within two years, with a jury if either side demands one, and subsection (A)(3) says you do not have to file a charge with the Department first. Missing the county deadline does not end the matter.

### Someone told me 775 ILCS 5/3-104.1 protects support dogs. Does it help me?

Only if your disability is physical. That section is headed refusal to sell or rent because a person has a guide, hearing or support dog, and its own text limits it to any blind or hearing impaired person or person with a physical disability. If your disability is a mental health condition, it is the wrong section and citing it hands your landlord an easy answer. The accommodation duty at 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(2) is the provision that covers you, and it draws no line between physical and mental disability.

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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%2Fschaumburg