Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Illinois

1. How do you "share" ownership?

2. Who owns the lake/dam?

3. What if any agreements, easements, covenants, conditions and/or restrictions are in writing and binding on all owners?

4. If so is there any kind of "homeowners" association that is an organized entity?

5. If none of the above, how do the owners ordinarily handle shared issues....

Point is before you "drill down" to the issue of negligence, there may be contractual obligations that come into play. Someone really needs to look at the "big picture" and its potential parts. But once you get passed all that, if one party does something that negligently hurts other parties, that person may be liable, but to come full circle, if everyone is responsible for the dam and leaks, and could be 50% liable themselves, then how the liability is shared may be an issue as well.