Zoom meetings continue to be allowed for condo board
By David M. Bendoff
Q: When the pandemic started, our homeowners' association board began conducting its board meetings via "Zoom." The board is still conducting its board meeting via "Zoom," hosted by the management company. Is this still allowed?
A: Many condominium and common interest community association boards were introduced to video meetings during the pandemic. However, the Illinois Condominium Property Act, and the Illinois General Not for Profit Corporation Act, had previously permitted the use of video board meetings.
Therefore, all Illinois condominiums and common interest community associations can continue to conduct board meetings via video conference. However, just like "in person" board meetings, all people participating in the meeting need to be able to communicate with each other. Participation in the video meeting constitutes attendance and presence in person at the meeting.
Importantly, owners must be permitted to "attend" the open portion of these board meetings conducted by video conference.
Q: The majority of the board of our condominium has become aware that the board president is taking kickbacks from vendors. The board wants to remove her as president of the board. The board president is now aware of this, and she refuses to call any board meetings. What can the board do about this?
A: The president is not the only board member who can call a board meeting. Special meetings of the board of the association can also be called by 25% of the members of the board. Therefore, the board members should sign and send a call of a board meeting to the secretary of the board. The secretary would then issue the notice of the board meeting. The board members could remove this person as president at that board meeting.
The board should also consider taking action to remove this person from the board entirely. If this person won't resign voluntarily, a vote of the owners would be required to remove a board member from the board.
Q: Unbeknown to the owner (who would be mortified) of a unit in our association, the tenant of this owner is engaging in prostitution in the unit. Do you have any suggestion for our board for dealing with this?
A: I have a couple of suggestions. First, the owner should be made aware of this and advised to terminate the lease and evict the tenant, as I trust this conduct violates the lease. Or, if the lease is close to the end, the owner needs to agree in writing not to extend the lease or relet the unit to this tenant.
Failing that, the board has a right to terminate the lease, and to evict the tenant, under provisions of the Illinois Condominium Property Act.
Q: Our association has had a proposed amendment to the declaration under consideration for quite some time. The board has been collecting proxies for over a year in connection with a vote on the amendment. A meeting was finally called to vote on the amendment, and a significant number of the ballots were cast using the year-old proxies. Was it proper to use proxies that were over 11 months old?
A: A proxy for a condominium or a common interest community association is valid for 11 months from the date it is signed by the owner, unless the association's declaration or the written proxy itself provides otherwise. Both the association's declaration and the proxy need to be reviewed to determine if they provide that the proxy is valid for more than 11 months. If they do not include this language, the proxies would not have been valid after 11 months from the date they were signed by the owner, and should not have been used at the meeting.
• 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.