Security deposits are a serious business—you're forking over between one and two times your monthly rent to reserve a place to live. Most landlords collect security deposits from their tenants as safekeeping against any damage done to the rental property, to ensure that you'll actually pay your last month's rent and that you'll perform the duties contained in the lease.

And though there are two specific laws dealing with security-deposit return— Illinois Security Deposit Return Act and the Chicago Residential Landlord-Tenant Ordinance—too often tenants are not aware of the legal provisions that protect their rights to their money, resulting in an unnecessary loss.

"Security-deposit horror stories are endemic," says Douglas Pensack, associate director of the Illinois Tenants Union, a non-profit organization that helps tenants with everything from evictions and lease breakages to maintenance and security-deposit issues. "Most landlords are dishonest and will find a way to deceive the tenant and steal the security deposit."

It's important tenants realize they have rights and that asserting them against a landlord is not as difficult as it seems. In fact, there is money to be made, not lost, in pursuing a legal case. The Chicago Residential Landlord-Tenant Ordinance is your best friend as it's more biased toward tenants than the state law. It says that if a landlord willfully fails to comply with any provision of the ordinance, a tenant may be entitled to a penalty of two times the security deposit plus costs and attorneys fees. But before the tenant can hold the purse, there are a few things you should know.

A landlord may not keep any part of a security deposit unless he or she has, within thirty days from the date the tenant vacates a property, delivered an itemized statement of damages containing estimated or actual costs, including viable receipts for repair of the damage. Failure to compose and send such a letter within thirty days means the landlord is then required by law to return the security deposit in full within forty-five days from the date the tenant vacates a property. But what happens when they don't?

"Maybe two out of a hundred will sue—it's a very small percentage," Pensack says, noting that most people will leave it alone rather than deal with the inconvenience. With those odds, many landlords just play them. "It's a calculated decision to steal."

Now perhaps you didn't leave the apartment spotless, and wonder whether they can withhold your deposit. They can't, Pensack says. There are only two reasons they can withhold the deposit: Actual, physical damage, or if you owe them rent. Note here that you cannot legally use the deposit to pay the last month's rent.

"There's no penalty because you did the wrong thing—actual loss must be proven. If he can't prove he actually did anything to fix it, then there's no loss," Pensack says. "Landlords will do things to confuse tenants, saying you'll 'forfeit your deposit' with a laundry list like they'll charge you fifty dollars if you don't clean the stove. It's horseshit and it's totally illegal. They have to prove they spent money to correct it."

To ensure proof of the state of the apartment, you should take photographs of the clean and orderly way you left things—just in case they try to pull a fast one after you move out. Photos, says Michael Gill, made all the difference when he left a poorly maintained apartment with bad electrical and plumbing systems. "Our toilet backed up once and the (landlord) called a plumber. She entered our apartment with the plumber, tried to flush the toilet, and caused a huge overflow of human waste onto the bathroom and hallway floors. She was kind enough to leave the mess for us clean up hours later when we got home," Gill says. "When we finally escaped, she tried to withhold our security deposit. She claimed we had trashed the place when we left. Luckily I had taken photos of the apartment the day we moved out. We ended up getting most of our security deposit back without interest. I decided not to sue, opting to salvage some of my sanity and have my friend karma pay her back tenfold."

In addition, the landlord doesn't just owe you your security deposit back, but they owe you it back with accrued interest. "Very few actually do," says Kate Kuehn, who discovered it after the last time she moved. "I didn't know that when I left my last place and was very angry when I found out."

Interest "must be paid every year on the anniversary date," Pensack says. "It must be placed in a separate account, a federally insured interest bearing account in the state of Illinois."

Pensack recommends renters write entirely separate checks for rent and security deposits (to avoid illegal co-mingling of funds), that monitor the destination of their check and request a copy of the canceled check to make sure they know where it went.

"Most people give up on their money for no good reason," Pensack says. "They think it's too difficult to pursue it legally. But that's the beauty of landlord tenant ordinance: it's not. If you win, you're entitled to two times the security deposit, plus damages and attorney fees. Landlords need to be punished more often by their tenants, when only two out of a hundred or so do, it's too easy. It's worth it for them to steal."

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