Board can boot absent treasurer from office, but not board
Q. The board of our condominium is comprised of seven members. The officers of the association are a president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. The treasurer has not attended any of the monthly board meetings in about six months. Is there any law that would allow the board to deem the board member in question removed from the board due to these absences?
A. Neither the Illinois Condominium Act nor case law permits the board to declare a board seat vacant due to a board member’s absence from some number of board meetings. If the absent board member is an officer, the board could vote to remove them from the officer position, and to elect another board member to serve in that officer position.
Occasionally, a declaration will include language that does allow the board to declare board member to be removed from the board due to some number of consecutive absences.
Otherwise, a vote of the unit owners would be required to remove the frequently absent board member from the board. A typical declaration requires the affirmative vote of two-thirds of all owners to remove a board member from the board.
Q. The annual meeting for our association took place in April. Several new board members were elected at that annual meeting. When should the minutes of that annual meeting be available to the members of the association?
A. The annual meeting is a meeting of the members of the association. The minutes of the annual meeting would be approved at the next meeting of the members of the association. That would typically be the next annual meeting of the members.
Q. Our condominium association is comprised of seven units. The board is comprised of three members. A husband and wife, who own two of the units, both serve on the board. The couple now has two of the three board votes. Is this proper?
A. The husband and wife here can both serve on the board, as they own two units. Both the husband and wife would each have a vote on the board. The issue here then becomes a political issue. If more owners ran for the board, this may not be an issue.
Q. My father and I live in a unit together, although only my father is the owner. Can I be elected to the board if my father gives me a proxy for that purpose?
A. A proxy is a document that an owner gives to another person to vote on behalf of the owner, or to establish a quorum, at a meeting of the owners. However, a proxy cannot be used to delegate an owner’s right to another person to serve on the board. You would need to be granted some ownership in the unit by your father in order to be eligible to run for and to serve on the board.
Q. I am on the board of our condominium. The board is considering a rule that would require the owner and tenant of a leased unit to sign an addendum to their lease. The addendum would provide that the tenant agrees to abide by the association’s declaration and rules. This seems like quite an administrative burden. Is there something else the board can do to avoid this?
A. Language in Section 18(n) of the Illinois Condominium Property Act renders the lease addendum unnecessary. That section states that the provisions of the Act, the declaration, bylaws, and rules and regulations that relate to the use of the individual unit or the common elements is applicable to any person leasing a unit and shall be deemed to be incorporated in any lease. That section goes on to provide that an association may seek to evict a tenant for any violation by the tenant of the declaration, bylaws, and rules and regulations.
• 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.