What happens when a condo owner falls behind on their assessments?

One of the reasons renters give for wanting to become homeowners is that they never want to risk being thrown out of their home again. Once you own a piece of property, nobody can throw you out of it without reason, right? When a Condominium Board is involved, this is not always the case.

You see, when you buy a condo in Illinois, you buy air space. You are entitled to the air space in your condo plus the surface of your walls and floor, and a percentage of the rest of the building. Everyone is jointly responsible, through their condo assessments and participation in the association, for the upkeep of the common areas, and building exterior.  It's a very socialist kind of system when you think about it.

When a condo owner falls behind on their assessments, the board can wind up falling short on their accounts, making them unable to pay for shared items like the water bill, the landscaping bill, or even the building's insurance policy. The state of a condo association's finances can affect the ability of buyers to get loans to buy into the building. Therefore, if an owner gets very far behind, the condo board has the right to take them to court and evict them.

Once the owner is out, the board can rent out the condo to a tenant, whose rent will go in part towards the payment of the evicted owner's back assessments.

Illinois Legal Aid has a great article about this for condo owners. But what does it mean for tenants?

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