Illinois condo and HOA assessment increases

The number to remember is 115%. As long as the board keeps the year's total assessments within 115% of last year, it can adopt the budget on its own. Cross that line, and owners get a tool. Owners holding 20% of the votes can petition the board, within 21 days for a condominium or 14 days for a non-condo HOA, and force a meeting.

The meeting has to happen within 30 days of the petition, and the increase survives unless a majority of all the votes in the association are cast against it. That is a high bar, so the trigger is more of a brake than a veto. Emergency assessments for structural, life, or safety needs can be adopted without the vote, and large capital improvement assessments have their own approval thresholds.

Read these together before you make an offer:

• The last few years of budgets to see how fast assessments have risen.
• Any increase over 115% and whether owners petitioned or accepted it.
• Any special or capital assessment that has been approved or proposed.
• The reserve fund status, which signals whether a big increase is coming.

Illinois does not cap your dues, so the 115% trigger and the reserve picture are what tell you where assessments are headed. A community that keeps hitting the trigger, or that is underfunded, is signaling future cost.

An HOA Notes brief reads the budgets, the reserve status, and the minutes together, flags a community heading toward a steep increase or a special assessment, and cites the page behind each finding.

765 ILCS 605/18(a)(7) and 765 ILCS 160/1-45(c) (115% assessment increase trigger). If a proposed budget or separate assessment would cause total assessments for the current fiscal year to exceed 115% of the prior fiscal year's assessments, owners holding 20% of the votes may petition within 21 days (CPA) or 14 days (CICAA) to call a membership meeting within 30 days; at that meeting, the budget or assessment is rejected if a majority of total votes are cast against it; additionally, the proposed annual budget must be distributed to all owners at least 25 days before board adoption (CPA) or 30 to 60 days before adoption (CICAA). The association may adopt budget increases up to 115% of the prior year by board action alone without triggering the member petition right; it may adopt emergency assessments for structural, life, or safety matters without any member vote; capital improvement or addition assessments require approval of two-thirds of total unit owner votes (CPA) or a simple majority (CICAA).

When you read the disclosure packet, watch for the board may increase assessments in any amount without owner notice or approval, special assessments may be levied at the board's sole discretion for any purpose, and bylaws denying owners the right to petition for a meeting after a large assessment increase. HOA Notes flags each of these against the statute and tells you which restrictions are actually enforceable.