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Is board required to identify owners who are fined?

Q. We had a board meeting last week and moved into open session to make motions on issues, like owner rules violations, that were discussed during executive session. Do we have to put the unit numbers or identify the owners in these motions?

A. The law is not crystal clear on this. The conservative approach is to list the unit numbers/owner names in the motions made by the board when referring to unit owner rules violations and when levying fines. The reason is that if the fine is challenged in court, the board should have a clear, detailed corporate record of its actions, and as to what unit and owner is involved. The minutes are where this record is memorialized.

That said, I understand that there may be "privacy" or similar reasons why board members do not want to list a unit number or identify an owner by name. There is an alternative approach that many associations use in this situation. That is, many associations will keep a log of matters, discussed in executive session. The log is kept separate and apart from the minutes. For example, the log might state:

"March 1, 2017 Executive Session Item 1: Unit 999/Owner Smith rules violation."

"March 1, 2017 Executive Session Item 2: Unit 123/Owner Jones rules violation."

Then, rather than referring to a unit number or owner, the minutes could refer to the executive session item number. Here is an example: "Motion regarding March 1, 2017, Executive Session Item 1 to find that the violation set forth in the Jan. 6, 2017, notice of violation did occur and to levy a fine in the amount of $100."

The log book must be maintained for as long as the meeting minutes are maintained in case it is ever needed to be referenced.

This alternative has not been tested in an Illinois appellate court.

Q. Notices of board meetings in our condominium are delivered to board members, and posted on the property, 48 hours before the board meeting. Off-site owners don't receive these notices of board meetings. How can off-site owners get notice of the board meetings?

A. Some condominium declarations do require notice of board meetings to be mailed or delivered to all owners, as well as to the board members. So you should look at the declaration and remind the board of this requirement if it exists. There are certain board meetings for which notice must always be mailed or delivered to the owners, such as the budget adoption meeting.

Even if the declaration does not require notice of all board meetings to be mailed or delivered to owners, the board may have to do so. Section 18(a)(9)(E) of the Condominium Property Act does require the board to provide notice of all of its meetings to each unit owner who has provided the association with written authorization to conduct business by acceptable technological means, like email.

If the board has adopted rules to permit the use of email, it will have to accept some of the burdens, in addition to great benefits to the board and to the association, of the use of email to communicate with owners.

• David M. Bendoff is an attorney with Kovitz Shifrin Nesbit in the Chicago suburbs. Send questions for the column to him at CondoTalk@ksnlaw.com. The firm provides legal service to condominium, townhouse, homeowner associations and housing cooperatives. This column is not a substitute for consultation with legal counsel.

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