The City of Prospect Heights, a Cook County suburb in the northwest Chicago metro, requires a contractor to file a $25,000 surety bond with the Building Department before the City will issue a building permit. Ours is $125 flat — the price you see is the checkout price. The bond issues the moment you pay — a soft credit pull at most, never a hard inquiry.
















A city contractor registration bond is about the simplest filing in surety. Here's the entire process:
Business details and an effective date. That's the application — no financials, no credit section.
Registration bonds like this are among the thousands of bond types that issue right after purchase. At most, 1–2 business days.
Your executed bond and power of attorney arrive by email, ready to file with the Prospect Heights Building Department alongside your permit application. Wet-ink original mailed on request.
Illinois does not license general contractors at the state level, so a home-rule and non-home-rule city like Prospect Heights conditions its own building-permit process on a contractor first posting a $25,000 surety bond with the City. No permit for work inside city limits goes to an unbonded contractor.
It's a three-party arrangement: you (the principal), the surety carrier, and the City of Prospect Heights (the obligee), with property owners and the City itself as the protected parties. If a bonded contractor's work causes damage the licensing requirement is meant to guard against, a harmed party can recover against the bond up to the $25,000 penal sum.
It is not insurance for you — if the surety pays a claim, you repay the surety. The bond has to stay active for the life of your city registration, so we track it and remind you before renewal so your permit privileges don't lapse.
These are the actual issuing fields — no credit section, because this application doesn't collect credit information.
Start the application →$125 flat, soft pull only, bond often issued in the same sitting. Free until issued.