Act spells out rental board eligibility standards

Q: I’m a unit proprietor in a condominium affiliation and have a query relating to board member standards for competency. Our affiliation membership unwittingly elected board members which can be detached to resident considerations, have vital language limitations, and albeit, have questionable intelligence. Are there any standards for expertise or competency to serve on a condominium board?

A: Pursuant to Part 18(a)(1) of the Condominium Act, the one authorized standards for serving on a condominium board is to be a unit proprietor of a unit within the condominium affiliation. There isn’t any different authorized standards for serving on a condominium board within the Condominium Act

Nonetheless, administrators have fiduciary obligations to the unit house owners of the affiliation below Illinois regulation. This requires condominium administrators to behave moderately, act in the most effective curiosity of the affiliation, and observe the phrases of the condominium declaration and bylaws, which incorporates sustaining, repairing and changing the frequent parts. Board members that breach their fiduciary duties could also be topic to particular person legal responsibility.

Due to this fact, board members who would not have any expertise or data concerning the function of administrators serving on a condominium board ought to hunt down the recommendation of execs, and moreover, would profit from studying useful resource supplies relating to greatest practices of working a condominium affiliation.

Q: I stay in a suburban condominium affiliation the place our condominium board terminated our administration firm for trigger and employed a brand new administration firm this previous yr. After the termination, the board of administrators issued a discover to all unit house owners to pay unit assessments to the brand new administration firm. Nevertheless, the unique administration firm has rejected the termination discover and instructed unit house owners to proceed paying their assessments to them and threatened to file liens in opposition to models that don’t comply. Who’re we obligated to pay our month-to-month assessments?

A: Administration corporations are brokers of the affiliation. If there’s a dispute between the board of administrators and a administration firm, unit house owners ought to observe the path of the board of administrators as a result of it’s the board that’s granted authorized authority below the condominium declaration and bylaws to gather assessments and implement cures in opposition to unit house owners for nonpayment of assessments, not the administration firm.

If the termination of the administration firm was improper because the administration firm believes, relying on the precise information, the administration firm might have a breach of contract declare in opposition to the affiliation for damages; nevertheless, the administration firm doesn’t have the authority to dictate the place unit house owners pay their assessments, file evaluation liens in opposition to models with out board approval and/or deal with affiliation funds after the efficient date of the discover of termination.

Q: I’m an proprietor in a small, 10-unit townhouse neighborhood affiliation. Our board of administrators raised the assessments $200 a month to $300 a month, which is a 50% enhance. Is the board licensed to extend our finances a lot?

A: The authority of a townhouse board to undertake budgets to fulfill bills is printed within the townhouse declaration and bylaws, and if relevant, the Widespread Curiosity Neighborhood Affiliation Act (CICAA). The CICAA statute applies to residential neighborhood associations apart from neighborhood associations with 10 models or much less or an affiliation with an annual finances of $100,000 or much less, by which case these associations are exempt from CICAA.

If CICAA does apply and the newly adopted finances is greater than 115% of the sum of the earlier yr’s common and particular assessments, per Part 1-45 of CICAA, 20% of the house owners can file a petition inside 14 days of the adopted finances for an proprietor assembly to be held inside 30 days, and if the finances is rejected by a majority of the overall votes of the members on the proprietor assembly, the finances can be rejected. If not, the finances is deemed ratified.

It must be famous within the final a number of years, on account of inflation, the price of labor and supplies, utilities and vendor contracts have elevated considerably for many neighborhood and condominium associations. Thus, most associations have skilled finances will increase to fulfill bills. An affiliation having inadequate funds to pay for insurance coverage insurance policies for the frequent areas, utilities, upkeep contracts for providers for the house owners, or workers salaries shouldn’t be a tenable state of affairs, so house owners needing to reconcile finances will increase to fulfill affordable bills has grow to be a actuality of homeownership.

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