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Anne, Evanston // Wednesday, November 18, 2009 @ 10:06 AM
An owner in our 14 unit building has failed to pay nearly $20000.00 in assessments before filing for bankruptcy protection. She continues to accrue arrearages and has not followed the directives of the court to make payments to the building. The Board is reticient to pursue their 'neighbor'.
A result of this continuing arrearage is that the remaining 13 Owners had their assessemnts raised to cover the serious deficit of the one owner.
While the board may eventually collect the arrearage, I am selling my unit now.
Can I sue the Board or the Owner to recoup the amount that my unit had to pay to make up for the single unit's arrearage?
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Stefan Lucke, Ukranian Village // Wednesday, November 18, 2009 @ 10:07 AM
Great show.
Many questions and concerns were raised that I always had and never found a real answer for.
I wonder, are there any figures out there on how much profit a typical developer in Chicago is making on building or rehabbing condos? (Percentage of selling price). I have the impression that most condos are built as cheaply as possible and sold at a prime price.
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Rhett, Andersonville/Chicago // Wednesday, November 18, 2009 @ 10:25 AM
We own a condo in three story building, bottom floor is retail, second and third floors are one unit each residential. This makes this a mixed use building, but 33% commercial.
Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac changed the rules and now won't underwrite. We've had two buyers for our condo this summer, we have a beautiful unique unit of high demand in this difficult market - both times they were turned away due to this underwriting.
Andersonville is where we live, a dense charming area of retail with residential above. This would kill the community if we can't get underwriting; essentially the government is not allowing sales to go through.
How can we get someone to make a change to the guidelines? This kills the entire concept of urban planning and "greening" our cities if the government-owned underwriting won't allow loans for this to take place.
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Eric James, Elgin, IL // Wednesday, November 18, 2009 @ 10:37 AM
If renters were made to pay their portion of the rental buildings property taxes directly they would/should be eligible for the same tax advantages of home ownership that Condo owners buy Condo's for in the first place and Condo's would no longer be as attractive and we wouldn't need to spend everyone's tax money to setup government oversight of Condo's when Renter laws are already on the books and government agencies already exist to assist and protect renters.
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Bonnie Kisielowski, Hyde Park/Kenwood // Wednesday, November 18, 2009 @ 10:41 AM
Good Morning:
It is quite confusing but I will try to make it as short/comprehensive as possible.
I live in a self-governed 6 unit condominium building located in the Hyde Park/Kenwood neighborhood.
Our neighbor sued our Association claiming we had a party wall and maintenance easement allowing her unfettered access to our property.
She was confused and didn’t realize the party wall on her deed related to the building that was actually attached to her building.
We do not have a maintenance easement on our property.
We are familiar with Plats of Surveys and easements because two of work in the architectural field and one of us works in construction.
After a three year court battle, we were granted a pre-trial and the judge ruled in our favor.
I believe we have a license that was recorded with the court.
She was angered because we won and she is now required to contact our Association prior to accessing our property.
Her fence was installed so that the supports face our property; her contractors need to stand in our parking area in order to repair her fence.
Her building is 2” off of the property line and she needs to access our property in order to tuck-point a portion of her west elevation.
I believe our license states that our Association:
1. should receive no less than 48 hours notice when they need to access our property, unless it is an emergency.
2. receive a copy of the Certificate of Insurance from her contractors with our Association
We believe she is trying to catch us in a breach of contract and take us back to court and try to get unfettered access.
She is playing a game where she sends letters that are to arrive exactly (2) days prior or calls us and leaves messages on our machine exactly 48 hours prior.
She recently left a message at 8:30am on Thursday morning to let us know that she needed access at 8:30am on Saturday.
This often doesn’t give us enough time to coordinate with everyone in the condo to make sure someone is home to deal with the gate.
Unfortunately, my husband is the president and it falls on him to ensure her access, in eight years we have never denied her access.
Of late, she has amped up her rhetoric and accused us of circumventing her and written a letter to us regarding this, stating that per the license we are only allowed to contact her and no one else in the building.
It is untrue, we have always worked with her and again never denied her access for the eight years we lived there.
She is taking unrelated items and trying to use it as a cause for us to go back to court.
She have never provided us with the proper documention (certificates of insurance), as we were granted in the liscense.
We have never required it because we are afraid of pissing her off. If we deny her access for not having the correct paperwork, we think she will get even more angry.
We think she will start using the emergency clause to harrass us and call us at all hours of the day and night demanding access.
If we slip up and are not available, we are back in court.
We would like to know our options, we feel terrorized by the 60 year old lady next door.
Do we need a third party to deal with her and advocate for us?
We don’t have the revenue to hire a full time Property Manager but should we consider a part-time PM?
That way we would have her contact the PM and they could require the legal documentation and it would be out of our hands.
Should we hire a lawyer on retainer? Have her contact the lawyer and he/she could require the legal documentation?
Sorry this wasn’t so short after all.
I hope you can guide us down a correct path.
With Regards,
Bonnie A. Kisielowski
Proteus Group, LLC
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Ryan Simmons, Ravenswood // Wednesday, November 18, 2009 @ 10:47 AM
I was listening to the broadcast and I heard a lot of legal options to the condo issues. I am a consultant with Otavala Consulting here in Chicago. We've been working with Ebony Wilkerson, a lawyer (who was on the program via phone) to help condo associations and boards not get to legal options. Using the law is fine, but is costly. Not only in money, but in hurt relationships within the community.
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Eleanor Hall, Hyde Park/Chicago // Wednesday, November 18, 2009 @ 11:20 AM
I've read about the tax credits on the federal income tax for homeowners who improve energy efficiency (windows, etc.). Can condo owners take these tax credits? If so, ow would you compute the amount of the credit? What documentation is required?
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darryl shelby, chatham // Wednesday, November 18, 2009 @ 11:28 AM
our condo assn.took over management duties from our management com. van witz aug. 1,2009 they gave me the president of the assn.
all our bills ,files,records, and one undeposited check for late assesments in the amount 623.00 chris one of their managers said that i would have to call the owner pam witz to get our remaining operating balance of 5,443 dollars after several weeks of unreturned phone i file a complaint with city of chicago aug. 30 2009 after two months the cities attorney is giving the case to the states attorney for review. our assn.had to pay the gasco. 1,200 toget our gas back on. our building insurance was cancelled for about a month until we paid them about 1,000.van witz was channel 5 news for stealing money from several assn. one assn. is missing 300,000. our assn. can;t afford an attorney unless we can work a plan any suggestions?
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Evan McKenzie, Chicago // Wednesday, November 18, 2009 @ 4:21 PM
I see many of these questions deal with very detailed factual situations and I hesitate to dive into those with opinions for fear of not having all the facts and giving bad advice. I can say this--associations need to collect assessments, and they need to set their assessments high enough that they can allocate some of each assessment to reserves. How much? That requires a reserve study, where somebody who knows the business determines what is likely to need maintenance and replacement, and when, and how much it will cost. Then the reserve component of the assessment can be set at the right level. But if people don't do the study, and they want to operate on a pay as you go basis, and especially if they don't collect assessments, then eventually disaster strikes.
People who live in condos need to get educated, and especially if the association is small, they need to think about connecting up with other small associations. The organization I mentioned, the Chicago Condominium Affairs Council, is trying to do just that. You can contact Tom Besore at 312-265-6272, or see their new website at www.condoaffairscouncil.org.
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Robin Jackson, North Kenwood // Thursday, November 19, 2009 @ 12:15 PM
My association is at a standstill. We have 8 owners. The majority 67% (6 units) of ownership wants to move to a management company. The minority 25.2% (2 units) do not and believe we are not a legal entity. One owner (7.8%) will not respond. The previous board did not maintain our legal status with the state. I informed all the owners in October 2008 of this. We voted to stay an association, complete the necessary documents, and elected new officers. The two owners who do not want a management company believe how the vote was handled was wrong(?). They are stalling the process. The president is afraid to hire a management company. So as treasurer I collect the assessment from everyone but the two difficult owners and pay builds. We cannot continue like this.
Can we proceed with hiring a management company? There are only 8 units and this takes too much time and we are getting nasty with each other!
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Aaron, Skokie // Thursday, November 19, 2009 @ 6:42 PM
Hello and thank you for reading this.
My name is Aaron and I own a condo in Skokie. I currently rent my unit out in a 10 unit building, and live nearby. We have one unit for sale in the building (bought for 254,000 in 2005 on the market for 159,000), which is the condo board president's unit. We have one unit on the market for rent, and one unit in the forclosure process, which the association rents out. We also have one to two other units that are on the verge of the forclosure process. All of that is actually the good news in this story.
Our main issue is the developer, contractor and the Village of Skokie. The building is rehab or as I like to call it a re-paint. My specific unit has had at minimum 8 water leaks since 2006 in different areas with only a couple recurring. Other units have also had water leaks. Most issues have been resolved, but we have now had to take out a large loan to repair the roof, the tuckpointing and the windows. We have done this so we do not deplete our reserves and we will have the loan paid in approximately three years.
We have not been able to get the contractor or developer to stand by the warranties they issued / offered. The Village of Skokie is no help and the board president said he spoke with the Village and they advised him they cannot help us even though they certified the building for occupancy and conducted inspections during construction. We did have home inspectors when we purchased, however, some of the issues were caught and warranties were given. We recentlty had another inspeciton done and the results are not good. The roof, windows, tuckpointing are all in need of repair according to the inspector. We are at a loss, both financially and emotionally. There are only two of us on the board, since the treasurer has quit. No one else wants to assist the president and myself (secretary). We work full time and have spent countless hours trying to get these situations resolved.
We are between a rock and a hard place, since we cannot sell these units especially since the taxes are outrageous 3,800 for a one bedroom unit and 5,400 for a two bedroom unit. I rent my unit for a 500/month loss and would gladly sell it for a loss if it would sell (I previously had it on the market for one year with no success). The developer's LLC is now defunct and the contractor is broke and has told me to sue him because we won't get anything.
My question is what recourse, if any, do we have with the developer, contractor and Village as far as getting the repairs done and getting reimbursed? and is there any liability that falls to the developer, contractor and Village?
Thank you for your time -
Aaron
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Tom Besore, New East Side - Chicago // Friday, November 20, 2009 @ 9:57 AM
A group of condominium board leaders have just formed a new Illinois nonprofit organization known as the Chicago Condominium Affairs Council. Please visit our website at http://www.condoaffairscouncil.org to participate in this initiative. We're a grass-roots advocacy organization dedicated to helping with these very issues. We are truly independent in that we receive no financial support from "the condominium industry". Your participation would be most welcome!
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Ed Gould, Lakeview/Chicago // Tuesday, November 24, 2009 @ 5:48 PM
I live in a 32 unit condo building. At one time (4 years ago) we were in very good financial condition. Our previous president was excellent at budgeting.
The president stepped down and the presidency was given to another person. This person has taken us from a very nice reserve (excellent by most standards) and has essentially gotten us into a real bind with very little in reserves. It is to the point where if we need anything for the building there is a special assessment. The building unfortunately has non interested group of people and they have just sat back and let the budgeting go to hell. They will not speak up at board meetings and a board meeting is ho-hum affair. In essence they turn their back on just about everything and have basically let the president go wild.
There are maybe two or three of us that try to speak up but we get zero support from the owners. They are essentially not interested in anything.
Can you suggest a way to light a fire under these people?
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