Owner who does not pay assessments can be charged to fix unit
Q. By court order, our association recently took possession of a unit from an owner who did not pay assessments. The unit is filthy and several appliances do not work or are missing. What can the association do about this?
A. The Illinois Code of Civil Procedure permits the association to incur reasonable expenses to make the unit rentable. This would include, for example, cleaning, painting and repair or replacement of nonfunctioning or missing appliances. This is by no means every potential expense. However, the sum expended by the association are then added to the owner's account, and must also be paid to the association before the owner is entitled to regain possession of the unit.
Q. Once our association obtains an order of possession of a unit of an owner who did not pay assessments, are there any time frames within which we must lease the unit?
A. As of Jan. 1, upon obtaining an order of possession, an association has up to eight months from the expiration of the automatic stay to have a lease begin. The term of the lease may not exceed 13 months from the date of the commencement of the lease. Note that a judge may, upon motion by the association, permit or extend a lease for one or more additional terms not to exceed 13 months per term. This is all the result of an amendment to the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure.
Q. You once wrote about how associations need to provide access to process servers. I understand that there is now a statute that addresses this. Can you discuss it?
A. The Illinois Code of Civil Procedure was recently amended, effective Jan. 1. It now provides that an employee of a gated residential community must grant entry into the community, including its common areas and common elements, to a process server who is attempting to serve process on a defendant or witness who resides in or who is known to be within the community. The phrase "gated residential community" includes a condominium association, housing cooperative or private community.
Q. Our condominium association recently held its annual meeting. There were four candidates running for three open seats on the board. The ballots identified the four candidates. The instruction provided to the owners at the meeting was to vote for three candidates. About one-third of the ballots were cast for only one candidate, rather than for three. Are these ballots valid?
A. Yes. A ballot that is cast for less than all of the open seats on the board is absolutely valid. An owner is not required to cast a vote for all of the open seats on the board.
There may be a number of reasons why an owner would not cast a vote for all of the open seats. For example, the owner may not have been familiar enough with all of the candidates, or the owner may have simply overlooked casting a vote for all of the open seats. This does not affect the validity of the ballot.
Q. An owner in our association inundates the board and management with abusive, profane emails and phone calls, at all hours of day and night, expressing his dissatisfaction with the board and management. What can the board do to stop this?
A. The owner should be advised, via regular mail, to stop sending communications to the board or management by email or by phone, and that he may only communicate with the board and management in writing via regular mail. The only exception would be in the event of an "emergency." The letter should also advise the owner that future email from him will be deleted and not read. While it is simple to sit at a keyboard and send emails, many belligerent emailers won't bother with regular mail. If the emails do continue, simply hit the "delete" key, or "block" incoming emails from this owner.
• David M. Bendoff is an attorney with Kovitz Shifrin Nesbit in Buffalo Grove. 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.