Cook County demolition bonds.
From $200.
Before Cook County's Department of Building and Zoning issues a permit to wreck, demolish, or tear down a building in unincorporated Cook County, it conditions the permit on a surety bond. Premiums cost 1% of the bond amount. No credit check up to $100,000, and most applications approve instantly.
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How much does a Cook County demolition bond cost?
1% of the bond amount, from $200 at the $20,000 minimum. Enter your amount in the calculator for the exact price.
Three steps. One sitting.
Cook County demolition bonds are a short, standard-form indemnity obligation. Enter your amount and file with the Department of Building and Zoning. Here is the whole thing:
Apply online
Your business details, the fiscal year covered by your demolition permits, the bond amount for the structure's height, and the effective date — no financials, no credit check up to $100,000.
Approved
No credit check up to $100,000, so most Cook County demolition bonds approve instantly — pricing is 1% of the bond amount.
File with Building and Zoning
Your executed bond arrives by email, ready to attach to your demolition permit application. Wet-ink originals mailed on request.
What it is and who needs it.
What the demolition bond actually guarantees
A demolition bond is an indemnity guarantee. Before a principal can procure a permit to wreck, demolish, or tear down a building or structure in unincorporated Cook County during the permit's fiscal year, the Department of Building and Zoning conditions that permit on a bond running to the County of Cook.
The bond's standard form obligates the principal to indemnify, keep, and save harmless Cook County and its agents or officials against any loss, cost, damage, expense, judgment, or liability arising from accidents to persons or property on account of the demolition operations — including anything done by the principal's agents, employees, or workmen under the permit. It is a three-party arrangement: you (the principal), the surety carrier, and Cook County (the obligee). If the County is held liable for demolition-related harm, it can draw on the bond, and if the surety pays, you repay the surety.
The penal sum is set by the height of the structure: $20,000 for demolition of three stories or less, and $40,000 for demolition of four stories or more. Enter the figure that matches your structure; the premium is 1% of that amount, and no credit check up to $100,000.
You need this bond if you are
Claims, renewal, filing, and what sets the price.
If a claim is made
A claim comes from the party the bond protects, the obligee named on the form, when the duty the bond guarantees is not met.
The surety investigates and pays a valid claim, up to the bond amount. You then repay the surety: a surety bond is a guarantee of your performance, not insurance for you.
Renewal and term
The bond runs to December 31 whatever day you buy; the premium covers the period to that date.
Renewal falls on the statutory date, December 31, in the year your term ends.
Renew before the expiry date to keep the bond in force: the license, permit or contract it backs expects continuous coverage.
How to file it
File with Building and Zoning. Your executed bond arrives by email, ready to attach to your demolition permit application. Wet-ink originals mailed on request.
What sets the price
The premium is 1% of the bond amount, $100 minimum: the amount the obligee sets moves the price, not your business profile.
No credit check up to $100,000. Above that, the carrier may run a soft pull, which never affects your score.
Where a check runs, it decides approval; the rate is the same for everyone approved.
One application, issued instantly.
These are the actual issuing fields. No credit check up to $100,000.
Start the application →Common questions.
Other Illinois bonds.
Price and requirements checked on the carrier’s application, . Page updated .
Pull the demolition permit today.
From $200, no credit check up to $100,000. Enter the amount your structure requires and file with the County the same day.