IL Condo HOA rules amended by property manager (not HOA Board)

[Keith Ellis]

I have an Illinois condo unit that I rent out and would like a second opinion about an issue that was debating with the HOA's property manager.

The gist is that after signing new tenants to a lease I was hit with a $150 fee that wasn't in the rules and regulations for the HOA when I bought the unit. The IL Condo Property Ace is quite clear about the process required in order to amend governing documents, of which rules and regs are one. For example, the HOA must vote in an open meeting, notification of that meeting must be provided to HOA members, and the notification must include the full text of the proposed changes. In my case, not only did none of that happen, the PM is actually suggesting that is was THEM who changed the rules and therefore the typical process didn't need to be followed. Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? It's only $150 but it seems clearly illegal not to mention it makes me seriously doubt the credibility of the PM if he has this poor of a grasp of the rules his business must adhere to.

[Linda Weygant]

This really depends on how your governing documents are written.

For example:

The Articles of Incorporation generally are never amended as these are the original documents that started the business entity.  These are updated to include new contact info each year when the renewal is filed with the Secretary of State (or equivalent), but the underlying structure is generally not changed.

The By-Laws generally require a quorum of homeowners to change.  The By-Laws cover things like how the Board of Directors Form, what its duties are, how dues are assessed, etc.  It's a pretty big deal to change these, generally requiring not only the quorum of homeowners, but also specific notice requirements, a certain time period for discussion, etc.

The Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (CC&Rs) also usually require a quorum of homeowners to change.  These are things like paint color schemes, keeping each property in good repair, pet restrictions, holiday decorations, rental caps and all that small minutae that goes into how you can use your property and what you have to abide by.

Rules and Regulations generally DO NOT require homeowner quorum/votes to change. These are things like how late the pool stays open, whether diapered children are allowed in the pool, the amount of a fine for leaving pet waste on the ground, the due date of HOA dues, the number of days needed to cure a violations and other things like that. Often times a board will change Rules and Regulations after input from homeowners, but it is not strictly required that they do so.

Lastly, you have Policies and Procedures.  This can include things like what day of the month late charges are assessed to accounts, how many days after a homeowner is late do they turn it over to the lawyer and probably something like the issue you're battling, which falls in line with whether or not they charge a move-in fee or a new resident processing fee.  This could be something that the Management Company said to the board "hey, we incur a bunch of extra work for this process.  We're either going to charge the Board or charge the Homeowner" and then the board said "Charge the Homeowner".  And 99 times out of 100 (again, depending on how your governing documents are written), this is perfectly legal and legit as it is a change to a Policy/Procedure, not a change to the By Laws.