Legal Question in Construction Law in Illinois

Guaranty? Sure, if you can get a GC to sign a personal guaranty......I sincerely doubt it if you're not just laughed out of their office and even a personal guaranty may be worthless. There are virtually no guarantees. The closest thing you can get to a guaranty in Illinois is a construction escrow that requires the owner/customer to fund payment and the escrowee is obligated to pay each and every subcontractor separately upon tender of lien waivers and other proof of completed work. But if the owner or GC or the construction lender is not requiring this kind of arrangement, then most likely you as a sub won't be able to dictate the requirement -- you'll simply lose the bid. And will a construction escrow stop an unscrupulous GC from submitting fraudulent waivers and try to bypass you? No. But short of having the GC put up a payment bond (if this is a public project one may be required), or taking some kind of mortgage lien in the property, or setting aside the money up front, no, because there can always be a dispute as to quality of work..... Now Illinois does have newer laws that require owners to pay contractors within specific amounts of time or incur interest and potential court costs, but again those are not "guarantees", just "incentives" and "hammers". If there are any factors missing you may want to resubmit the question to be answered more comprehensively.