Owners have final say in sale of entire property

Q: The board of our condominium association is speaking with a real estate broker about listing the entire condominium property for sale. I understand owner approval is needed to sell the entire condominium. Does the board need owner approval to hire a real estate broker to sell the entire property?

A: Section 15 of the Illinois Condominium Property Act governs the sale of the entire condominium property. The Act requires owner approval to sell the entire property; that is a sale of all of the units and common elements comprising the condominium property. The level of owner approval of a sale depends on the number of units in the association. Seventy-five percent of the owners, based on percentage of ownership in the common elements, is needed if the property contains four or more units.

The Illinois appellate court has held that the Act does not require the board to obtain the approval of the unit owners before taking action to investigate or negotiate a sale of the property. Here, the board would not need owner approval to engage a real estate broker to sell the entire property.

The sale would need to be put to a vote of the owners once the board and a prospective purchaser have come to a written agreement for the sale of the entire condominium. Of course, any such agreement should expressly state that it is subject to owner approval.

Q. The board of our association issued a request for proposal to contractors that included detailed specifications for a very large maintenance project. Bids were received that varied substantially in price for what is supposed to be the exact same work. The board did not pick the lowest bidder. Is that a problem?

A. There may be goods and services for which cost is the primary consideration. However, cost is not necessarily the only criteria to be used to determine which of the multiple bids that a board should select for a project; particularly for a large project to take place over an extended period of time.

Examples of factors to be considered, along with the cost, include the experience of the contractor, the contractor's availability to do the work on the association's schedule, whether the contractor has sufficient number of workers to perform the project, the contractor's financial stability, the contractor's access to materials needed for the project, and the contractor's reputation in the industry. A low bid from a contractor who misses the mark on these factors may end up being more "expensive" in the end.

Q. A friend and I co-own a unit in a common interest community association. My co-owner lives in Illinois; I live out of state. He and I disagreed on who we should vote for in a recent board election. Much to my disappointment, he attended the annual and voted for the candidates he preferred, and not the candidates I preferred. Should the co-owner of my unit have been allowed to vote as he pleased at the annual meeting?

A. Section 1-25(h) of the Illinois Common Interest Community Association Act addresses this issue. That section essentially states that where there is more than one owner of a unit, if only one of the multiple owners is present at a meeting of the membership, he or she is entitled to cast the vote associated with that unit. Therefore, the co-owner of your unit, who attended the annual meeting, was entitled to cast the votes for candidates as he or she saw fit.

You should review the declaration of covenants for your association to see what it says about how the multiple owners of a unit can address this issue between themselves and the association.

• 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.