Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Illinois

First, you're in Chicago, and Chicago has a landlord-tenant ordinance, a summary of which should have been attached to and made a part of your lease. You need to look through it as to your rights regarding security deposits and interest on security deposits. If the summary is not exactly on point the entire ordinance is available on line at: http://www.chicityclerk.com/tenantsVRSlandlords.php

As to your specific questions:

1. You can try through the Recorder of Deed's website (http://www.ccrd.info/CCRD/il031/index.jsp) but you may wind up at the County Building between the assessor's office and/or the Treasurer to get the right Property Tax Parcel Number (PTN or PIN) and even then you may wind up with a dead end such as a corporation, limited liability company, or blind trust as owner. For all you know the reason your old landlord won't deal with it is that he was foreclosed on, except normally you would have received some kind of notices - . Sometimes the name of the party that the Treasurer has as the party paying real estate taxes, could be the owner or an agent for the owner. Or you can just pay a title company for an "ownership search" but you could wind up with the same blind dead ends. But then you might find out who the management agent is, or a receiver, or law firm. But why does this matter? Because you believe you can reason with the actual "owner"? Maybe, that's up to you. If it's a legal entity like a land trust, you'd first have to write the trust and ask if they would forward your request to the owner, which they would do, and then the trustee may or may not have to tell you who the "real" owner is anyhow. Bottom line is that you had a contract with a landlord--the name on the lease. You can sue the landlord and the landlord would then be obligated to defend itself or, if it was named as an agent for undisclosed principals, the landlord could disclose their principals and then the principals would be brought in, or if the lease names the principals (like a corporation or land trustee) you'd have to add them when you file any lawsuit.

2. A case? Maybe. Sounds like you moved out w/o taking pix, and without a "checkout" or "punchlist" of agreed items, or anything. This is where you need to look at the Chicago landlord/tenant ordinance and see how many items the landlord complied with or failed to comply with. Ultimately it's a question of how believable you are versus what evidence the landlord has of the conditions, and costs. But before you get started check the ordinance because the landlord can't just arbitrarily "fix" things.

This is not meant as a definitive answer but a general narrative to assist you in heading in the right direction. Cited law may or may not apply to a specific set of facts. We nevertheless hope this is of some help to you.