Q: I live in a self-managed town home association. On the whole, our board of directors does a fairly good job of managing the association. However, I have been told that homeowners associations with assets of more than $100,000, which we have, must be audited by the state of Illinois periodically. Our association has never been audited. Is this accurate? And is a town home association subject to the Common Interest Community Association Act, or CICAA?
A: There is no statute or policy that requires the state of Illinois to audit the finances of homeowners’ associations with assets of more than $100,000. What you may be referring to is the threshold of when CICAA applies to a community association.
Per Section 1-75 of CICAA, if a community association has more than 10 units or an annual budget of more than $100,000, it is subject to CICAA. Relating to accounting principles in CICAA, pursuant to Section 1-45, a community association consisting of 100 or more units is required to use “generally accepted accounting principles” in fulfilling any accounting obligations under CICAA.
Q: I am a unit owner in a condominium association. When are condominium board meeting minutes required to be displayed in the common elements (immediately after the board meeting or after the meeting minutes are approved at the next board meeting)?
A. Pursuant to Section 19 of the Condominium Act, a condominium board of directors must make available to unit owners upon written request copies of approved board meeting minutes for the immediately preceding seven years. Board meeting minutes are in draft form until they are formally approved by the board of directors at a subsequent board meeting; however, there is no requirement under the law to post/display copies of board meeting minutes in the common elements. Some associations do post board meeting minutes in the common elements as a convenience for the unit owners, but that is a voluntary choice of the board of directors.
Q: I live in a condominium association that I feel has been poorly run for decades. There are five board members, three of which have been serving on the board for 25 years and they vote in concert so they impose their will on the community. The board makes many poor decisions such as deferring maintenance, refusing to raise assessments to perform necessary maintenance, repair and replacement of the common elements, and terminating several different management companies in the last 20 years. What can we do?
A: Assuming everything described is accurate, the most straightforward path is for the unit owners to organize and either (i) petition for a unit owner meeting to remove the objectionable directors from the board with two-thirds affirmative vote of the unit ownership, the most common legal standard in most condominium instruments, or (ii) given removal from the board is a difficult legal hurdle to achieve, galvanize unit owners disappointed with the current board of directors and at the ballot box at the next two annual meetings, elect a majority of directors that share the administration values of the concerned unit owners.
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