Until July 29, 2010, the effective date of Illinois’ newly-penned Common Interest Community Association Act, 765 ILCS 160/1 et seq., (the “Act”), condominium associations were subject to extensive regulation under the Condominium Property Act, 765 ILCS 605/1 et seq., whereas non-condominium homeowner’s associations (“HOA’s”) were left to piecemeal regulation from portions of statutes such as the General Not For Profit Corporation Act and case law.
With the passage of the Act comes a comprehensive set of regulations that now apply to HOA’s by identifying them as “Common Interest Community Associations” (“CICA’s”). All those affected by CICA’s, from residents, board members and officers, to attorneys representing either CICA’s or property owners subject to CICA’s, should learn all they can about the new statute. While an analysis of the full impact of the Act will surely fill more than one chapter of books and be the subject of numerous features, the purpose of this article is to: 1) explain the background of the Act; 2) highlight key provisions of the Act; 3) briefly identify ways the Act will
affect CICA’s; and 4) raise important unanswered questions with regard to the applicability of the Act.
Background. The genesis of the Act can be traced to as early as 1963, the year Illinois enacted its first condominium act, which was adopted from a model statute developed by the Federal Housing Authority.1 From 1977 through 1981, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (the “ULC”) promulgated the Uniform Condominium Act (1977), the Uniform Planned Community Act (1980), and the Model Real Estate Cooperative Act (1981) which offered states guidance in drafting statutes related to HOA’s. In 1982, the ULC promulgated the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (the “UCIOA”), which was designed t supercede the three prior acts to provide a single, comprehensive act to govern common interest communities, regardless of whether they were for condominiums, HOA’s or cooperatives. 2
1 765 ILCS 605, Historical and Practice Notes-Introduction, by Ellis B. Levin.
2 See Introduction to the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws.
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By Scott E. Pointner and Derek M. Johnson first published in the DCBA Brief December 2010 Vol. 23 Issue 3
