When Illinois requires a contractor to be bonded

The bond answer by trade in Illinois

Illinois bonds three trades at the state level and leaves the rest to a different mechanism: a license paid for with insurance, a city permit bond, or nothing at all.

Plumbing and irrigation contractors post a $20,000 bond with the Department of Public Health. Roofing contractors post $10,000 or $25,000 with the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, depending on the license tier. Sewer and mechanical contractors in Elgin post $20,000 to the city. Cleaners, painters, handymen and salon booth renters post nothing to any state agency.

That spread is the point of this page. The trade decides the bond, not the contractor's preference, and the amounts differ by a factor of two. What each of those costs to buy is covered separately on the bonding costs page.

$20,000An Illinois plumbing contractor registration requires a $20,000 surety bond or a letter of credit in the same amount, on the Department's form. — Illinois Department of Public Health, plumbing contractor application, retrieved 2026-09-29

$10,000 / $25,000The Illinois roofing license bond is $10,000 for residential-only licensing and $25,000 for residential and commercial licensing. — Illinois Dept. of Financial and Professional Regulation, roofing contractor application, retrieved 2026-09-29

Trades the state registers with a bond

Three state bonds exist, and each is welded to a registration the same agency controls.

The plumbing bond is $20,000, sits on the Department of Public Health's own form, expires September 30 of the current year, and may not be continuous. The irrigation bond is also $20,000, on its own set of state forms, and exists because Illinois statute (225 ILCS 320/2.5) requires every irrigation contractor installing lawn sprinkler systems to be bonded. The roofing bond is $10,000 or $25,000 by license tier, is continuous, and the surety can end it on sixty days' notice.

Note the shape here: the state does not ask the contractor to choose. The bond amount is printed on the agency's form. If the forms offer a choice, as roofing's do, the choice is the license tier, not the bond.

$20,000An Illinois sole proprietor irrigation contractor posts a $20,000 bond on the state's form, required by 225 ILCS 320/2.5 for lawn sprinkler installers. — Illinois Department of Public Health, sole proprietor irrigation contractor surety bond form, retrieved 2026-09-29

sixty daysThe Illinois roofing license bond is continuous, and the surety's liability ends sixty days after cancellation except for liability accruing before that date. — Illinois Dept. of Financial and Professional Regulation, roofing contractor application, retrieved 2026-09-29

Trades licensed on insurance instead of a bond

Not every trade pays in bond. Illinois licenses some trades on an insurance certificate instead, and one accepts either.

The commercial pesticide applicator, which covers most lawn and landscape operators who apply pesticides for hire, must show financial responsibility to the Department of Agriculture in the form of a surety bond or a certificate of liability insurance. The insurance route has published minimums: at least $50,000 per person and $100,000 per occurrence for bodily injury, with a $500,000 annual aggregate, plus $50,000 per occurrence property damage — or a $100,000 combined single limit. The certificate must carry a 30-day cancellation notification.

Roofing carries both halves: the bond for the license, and a separate insurance form with $500,000 liability per occurrence of personal injury and $250,000 property damage. The full walk-through for a trade like this is the get bonded and insured guide.

bond or insuranceA licensed Illinois commercial pesticide applicator shows financial responsibility as a surety bond or a certificate of liability insurance, per 415 ILCS 60/10. — Illinois Department of Agriculture, pesticide certification and licensing, retrieved 2026-09-29

$100,000 per occurrenceThe pesticide applicator insurance route requires $50,000 per person and $100,000 per occurrence bodily injury with a $500,000 aggregate, and $50,000 per occurrence property damage. — Illinois Department of Agriculture, pesticide certification and licensing, retrieved 2026-09-29

Trades the cities bond, not the state

Illinois has no general contractor license at the state level. The city where the permit gets pulled is where a general contractor, remodeler, sewer worker or mechanical contractor gets asked for paper.

Elgin is the concrete example, and its permit page states its own rule plainly. Sewer contractors file a $20,000 permit bond in favor of the City of Elgin. Mechanical contractors file the same $20,000 permit bond plus a contractor license from any Illinois municipality that gives a written HVAC examination. Roofing permits require the state roofing license. Plumbing permits require the state plumbing contractor license, prefix 055. Electrical work requires a contractor license from any Illinois municipality that gives a written examination based on the National Electrical Code.

Every licensed contractor also files a notarized letter of intent with the city. Naperville, an hour south, runs a different electrical system entirely: registration with the city, permits for all electrical work, and no city bond at all. Assume nothing across city lines; call the permit counter before the first job.

$20,000 permit bondElgin requires a $20,000 permit bond from sewer and mechanical contractors, and a notarized letter of intent from all licensed contractors. — City of Elgin, Building Permits page, retrieved 2026-09-29

registration, no bondNaperville requires electrical contractor registration, states that all electrical work in the city requires a permit, and issues no city bond. — City of Naperville, Electrical Contractor Registration, retrieved 2026-09-29

Trades no state board touches

House cleaners, painters, handymen, organizers and most remodelers answer to no Illinois state board for their trade. The state does not bond them, license them, or set their insurance floors.

The salon trades are licensed but not bonded. A salon or barbershop registers with the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, each practitioner holds a professional license, and a $200 cosmetology examination fee is the state's clearest price tag on the trade. The department's cosmetology page lists applications, renewals and registrations — and no bond form among them.

"Bonded" on a cleaner's flyer is still a real thing, but it is a voluntary dishonesty bond bought from an insurer, not a state requirement. What a bond like that pays and who it protects is exactly the confusion the bond versus insurance page untangles.

$200 exam feeIDFPR licenses Illinois cosmetologists with a $200 examination fee, and its cosmetology page lists no bond form among its applications and renewals. — Illinois Dept. of Financial and Professional Regulation, cosmetology page, retrieved 2026-09-29

What the unlicensed trades still get asked for

No state bond does not mean no paperwork. The asker moves from the agency to the counter in front of you: the landlord, the property manager, the event office, the general contractor.

The Illinois State Fair is the published example of how an event does it. Vendor certificates must show at least $300,000 per person, $500,000 per occurrence and $50,000 property damage, name the Illinois Department of Agriculture as additional insured, and arrive by July 1. Food trucks meet a different layer entirely, from commissary agreements to health department permits, and the food truck page walks that stack in full.

For a cleaner or handyman the practical rule is simpler than the state's absence of one: the bond is optional, the certificate request is not. Whoever hands you a contract will name what they want on it.

July 1State Fair vendors show $300,000 per person, $500,000 per occurrence and $50,000 property damage, with the Department of Agriculture as additional insured, by July 1. — Illinois State Fair, vendor insurance requirements, retrieved 2026-09-29

Check who reads the paperwork before you buy any

Before spending on a bond or a policy, ask the two parties who will actually inspect it: the agency or city that registers the trade, and the client or venue that hires the work.

For the agency, the answer is on its own forms, and this page's table is the summary. For the client, the answer is in the contract you have not signed yet, and it moves with each venue, landlord and general contractor you work for.

One question settles most of it in one call: "What exactly do you need on the certificate, and who is the certificate holder?" The mechanics of answering that are the certificate of insurance guide, and the workers' comp line on the same document has its own rules for the self-employed, on the workers' comp exemption page.

exact name matchThe IDPH plumbing application requires the name of the principal on the surety bond to exactly match the business name on the application. — Illinois Department of Public Health, plumbing contractor application, retrieved 2026-09-29

Questions