Illinois assessment judgments now expire in 15 years with no revival, and $1,000 is off limits
Illinois assessment judgments now expire in 15 years with no revival, and $1,000 is off limits
2026-09-10 · Illinois · Legislation
What happened. SB 1738 was signed August 1, 2025 as Public Act 104-0120, effective January 1, 2026. It is the most consequential change to Illinois association collections practice in years, and it has been almost entirely unreported on this beat, because nothing in it mentions condominiums.1
It amends sixteen sections of the Code of Civil Procedure and adds three new ones — 735 ILCS 5/2-1402.1, 5/12-705.1 and 5/12-1001.1.
The definition that decides whether it applies to you
“Consumer debt” is money or property due from a natural person arising from a transaction in which property, services or money was acquired “for personal, family, or household purposes.” A “consumer debt judgment” excludes bodily-injury and death compensation, and excludes judgments where the debt is guaranteed by, or carries joint-and-several liability with, a business.
A judgment for unpaid assessments against an individual owner of a residential unit will frequently meet that test. The working assumption is that it does, with the investor-LLC case the exception rather than the rule.
Change one: an automatic $1,000 in the bank
New Section 12-1001.1 gives a judgment debtor against whom a consumer debt judgment was entered on or after January 1, 2020 the right to $1,000 of equity in personal property held in a checking or savings account at a third-party citation respondent or garnishee. It is automatic — it attaches immediately on entry of judgment, before any court order confirming the exemption or directing turnover.
The citation or garnishment lien does not attach to that $1,000 before the return date, and the respondent must exclude it when withholding. It is carved out of, not added to, the debtor's existing $4,000 wildcard equity under 12-1001(b). The right expires on the return date: if the debtor does not appear to claim it, the court may order the whole balance turned over.
Parallel notice provisions land at 2-1402.1 (citations) and 12-705.1 (garnishments), and the respondent's answer must now list all of the debtor's personal property “even if it is not in excess of $1,000.”
The practical effect on a small assessment judgment is direct. A bank citation against an owner whose account holds $1,400 now yields $400 rather than $1,400 — before fees. For associations that routinely citation small balances, the arithmetic of whether the citation is worth filing has changed.
Change two: a hard 15-year life, and no revival
This is the larger change and it is easy to miss, because it is a single new subsection.
New 735 ILCS 5/2-1602(a-10)(3): a consumer debt judgment entered on or after the Act's effective date may not be revived at all and is “enforceable for a period of 15 years after its entry.”
Three regimes now run in parallel, and which one governs turns on the entry date:
- Consumer debt judgments entered on or after January 1, 2026: 15 years, no revival, full stop.
- Consumer debt judgments entered January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2025: revivable within 10 years.
- Judgments on consumer debt entered before January 1, 2020: the ordinary 7-year and 20-year revival rules of 2-1602(a).
What this does to the “park it and wait” strategy
The standard Illinois play against an owner with no reachable assets — take the judgment, record it, and wait for a sale or refinance to force payment — had an effectively indefinite horizon, because a judgment could be revived. For post-2026 assessment judgments that horizon is now fifteen years and it cannot be extended.
Fifteen years is a long time and most collections resolve far sooner. But a board sitting on a judgment against a deeply underwater unit in a building with a stalled market should be aware there is now a clock, and that letting it run out is a permanent loss rather than a paperwork problem.
The corollary is that the resale moment matters more. The 765 ILCS 605/22.1 disclosure and the payoff at closing are the reliable collection event; a judgment is now a depreciating asset alongside it.
What has not changed
Nothing here touches the six-month priority lien under 765 ILCS 605/9(g), which remains the association's strongest position in a foreclosure and is not a judgment at all. Nor does it affect possession actions under 735 ILCS 5/9-102(a)(7) — the eviction remedy is unaffected, which is one reason Illinois associations use it.
What to do now
Audit the judgment portfolio by entry date and sort it into the three regimes above. Any judgment entered between 2020 and 2025 is revivable within 10 years — and for the oldest of those, the revival window is a live deadline rather than a theoretical one. Instruct collection counsel to flag consumer-debt characterization on new filings, because the exemption and the 15-year clock both turn on it.
What to watch next
Whether Illinois courts treat assessment obligations as arising from a transaction “for personal, family, or household purposes.” The argument that a unit purchase is such a transaction is straightforward; the argument that the assessment obligation is instead a covenant running with the land, not a consumer transaction, is available and has not been tested.
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