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Off-site address required to provide information

Q. I own a unit in a homeowners association, but I live off-site and out of state. My association wants me to provide my off-site address. Why does the association need my off-site address?

A. The association needs to have your off-site address in order to communicate with you about association business for which it must provide you notice. Notice must be provided to owners for various matters like, for example, meetings of the association and about proposed budgets and assessments. The typical language in a declaration for an association provides that notice is to be mailed or delivered to the owner at the unit at the association, unless the owner provides another address.

If an owner does not provide a good off-site address to the association, the association can still meet its legal obligation by sending notice to the unit. However, the owner may not actually receive the important information. An owner who does not actually receive notices might miss the opportunity to participate in meetings to elect directors. If an owner does not receive communications from the association, it is likely the owner will not know what the assessment is for the unit, and become delinquent in the payment of the assessments.

Notably, this issue can be eliminated to some extent if an association provides for notification to owners by electronic means. That typically requires the adoption of rules by the board and unit owner consent to receive notices electronically.

Q. The board of my association has allowed townhouse owners to extend the patios into the common areas outside of the designated homeowner's exclusive areas. Is this allowed?

A. In general, owners do not have a right to extend their patio onto the common area of the association. Likewise, the board of an association will generally not have the authority to grant an owner permission to do so. That said, there may be language in the association's declaration that permits the board to approve such an extension. If so, the issue should be carefully reviewed by counsel, as there is a plethora of appellate court decisions that generally indicate that a board cannot grant an owner the exclusive right to use this property belonging to the entire association.

Q. Our 60-unit association has traditionally been managed by a professional management company. One of our residents has previous experience working for a management company, but she is not licensed as a property manager. She has approached the board about managing the association for less than what we pay our management company. She has stated that as a resident of the association, she does not need to be licensed in Illinois. Is that true?

A. The resident, who would be paid, does need a license to provide community association management services. The Illinois Community Association Manager Licensing and Disciplinary Act governs the issue. In general, a person who provides community association management services, provides services as a community association manager, or holds himself or herself out as a community association manager must be licensed under Section 15 of that law.

The act does provide exemptions. Under Section 20(a)(1), any member of a community association providing one or more of the services of a community association manager to a community association without compensation for such services to the association does not require a license. However, because the resident in your situation would be compensated to provide services, the resident must hold a license under this law.

There is another exception to the license requirement for any person, corporation, partnership or limited liability company providing one or more of the services of a community association manager to a community association of 10 units or less. This is described in Section 20(a)(1) of the act. However, this exemption is not applicable to your 60-unit 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.

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