Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Illinois
I have a condo in Chicago, with a total of 9 units in the building. I am on the title as part owner along with my grandmother and mother. My grandmother & mother are only on the title for financial reasons. I live here alone. My issue is with the association manager. She has been, less than friendly, to say the least. The other day she sent me an email accusing me of not picking up dog feces in the front yard. The issue was resolved (it was from another dog), but the issue was when my mother asked me why she is receiving these emails, why aren't these concerns being directed to the only true homeowner? My mother has her own home to worry about, and does not want to be bothered from the association about MY home. So I politely requested multiple times that I be the only person to be contacted regarding these small concerns such as things like trash, dog feces, noise, ect. This was her response:
"I know that you are the only one residing in unit 102, but as association manager when we address a unit we must address all owners of the unit. This is for if any legal matters come up no one can say they were not contacted. The reason the email was not sent to your grandmother is we were not given her email."
As you can see, the manager does not send these to my grandmother, yet she claims it MUST be sent to all part owners of unit. She never even requested my grandmothers email address. So it has become apparent to me that she is sending these emails to my mother because she does not respect me as an adult. I have hit my limit on this person disrespecting me and talking down to me repeatedly. I have been nothing but friendly and accommodating, as well as respectful. I am 22yrs old and have been living on my own for owner 4 yrs. I rented apartments for the past 4 yrs and this is my 1st time owning. My cousin owns a townhouse also in my grandmother's name, and her association never contacts my grandmother. I have never met an association manager who refuses to respect your wishes about who should be contacted regarding small neighborly concerns. The only reason I could see it being necessary to contact ALL part owners is if I didn't pay my association fees or something of that nature. My question for you is, what response can I give her in order to debunk this claim that she is emailing my mother for "legal" reasons. What can I do to sort this out? My ONLY goal here is to get her to stop bothering my poor mother. It stresses my mom out and she shouldn't need to be concerned about these things.
1 Answer from Attorneys
You're avoiding the issue. Occupancy is NOT ownership. All three of you are "true owners". Period. I do not know who set up the email addresses, but it could easily be that your mother didn't want to upset your grandmother and has all communications for both of them sent to her. Or, the manager's information about all the owners is faulty. If you want to stop bothering your mother and grandmother, then the only thing I can think of is to have the 3 of you write a letter saying all owners are to be communicated through YOUR email (or the unit address), IF the manager will be ok with that. There is legal liability.
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