How are condo boards governed? I live in a SW Chicago suburban condo complex. This condo board makes their money on fining people for all sorts of things. They almost never reverse themselves when issuing a fine. I am renting this condo so I can not personally go to the board but must go through my landlord. I was recently fined a large sum of money for a problem that had a very simple solution and could have been corrected in about 1 hour. They blew this up to be a major incident that took several days according to them to solve.If this were a business I would say this was price gouging. I can not appeal this fine without my landlord. the fine was $250.00 but that also charged for other things that were not necessary totaling $828.00. If anyone has any real information on how to fight this and wants additional info please advise and I will add additional details of the incident. I believe this condo board is overcharging people and issuing fines for things that do not exist.
Does you housing authority have condos in it’s jurisdiction? If they do, I would start there. Actually I would probably start with the landlord and see if that gets you anywhere. Other then that, maybe your states attorney general.
BTW can you clue us in on what the infraction was and why the fine was bumped up so high? We may be able to help.
The landlord is 86 years old and does not want to get involved. Her husband recently passed away away. He handled all the paperwork and she was not aware that a copy of the lease had to be sent to the board. She was find $200.00 for this even though she explained what had happened. Therefore she feels it would be pointless to appeal since they would not help her before.
We had an 11 year old girl that my daughter was babysitting for in the pool. The girl has learning problems and her mother rarely takes her any place. The girl was having so much fun she was afraid if she took time to go to the bathroom she would not be allowed to return to the pool, so she defecated in the pool. They made a federal case out of it, closed the pool for 3 days and charged for new equipment and 5 hours of labor @ $60.00 hour. The CDC says this problem could be corrected within about 1 hour. I feel that a reasonable fine and cost of chemicals would have been proper but $828.00 is way over doing it!
I don’t have anything to say about the cost, but I think you should go to the housing authority about your landlord. It’s not fair to you if you’re paying her money, but she has no interest in helping you in this situation.
That presents another problem, she is a relative and this would cause a family problem that would not be worth it. She is 86 years old and in poor health and feels it would be pointless. The condo board rarely, if ever reverses it’s self. The only item that could possibly be reduced is the $250.00 fine, the rest they said is an invoice and can not be changed. I have a better chance of becoming a millionaire in the next 2 minutes than I have of them reducing this fine. this is how this board makes it’s money by all of these silly fines. This way they can say they did not raise the easements.
Not to be crass, but I’m not sure what your looking for then.
Your options seem to be
Dispute the fines (you can’t becuase you’re only a tenent)
Make your landlord do it (she won’t becuase she doesn’t want to)
Report her to the housing authority (you won’t becuase she’s a relative)
These options don’t seem to be anything more then basic common sense to a renter, but since for one reason or another they can’t be used. I’m not sure what else to tell you except to ask your landlord to humor you and do it anyways.
BTW are you paying ‘full price’ for rent. I had a friend renting from her friends mom, and was having alot of problems with her apartment. Everytime I told her to mention it to her landlord she told me that she felt bad becuase the landlord was a friend of hers, or that since the landlord was a friend she felt she was supposed to deal with certain things (like outlets not working). But I always told her, since she was paying the same rent as anyone else there, she ought to be treated the same as them. Now if rent there was $600 and she was getting the friend discount and paying $500, yeah then I can see not complaining about a sqeeky door, or a drawer that doesn’t open. But if you pay the same as everyone else, you deserve to be treated like them as well.
QUOTE=Joey P]Not to be crass, but I’m not sure what your looking for then.
Your options seem to be
Dispute the fines (you can’t because you’re only a tenant)
Make your landlord do it (she won’t because she doesn’t want to)
Report her to the housing authority (you won’t because she’s a relative)
These options don’t seem to be anything more then basic common sense to a renter, but since for one reason or another they can’t be used. I’m not sure what else to tell you except to ask your landlord to humor you and do it anyways.
BTW are you paying ‘full price’ for rent. I had a friend renting from her friends mom, and was having a lot of problems with her apartment. Every time I told her to mention it to her landlord she told me that she felt bad because the landlord was a friend of hers, or that since the landlord was a friend she felt she was supposed to deal with certain things (like outlets not working). But I always told her, since she was paying the same rent as anyone else there, she ought to be treated the same as them. Now if rent there was $600 and she was getting the friend discount and paying $500, yeah then I can see not complaining about a squeaky door, or a drawer that doesn’t open. But if you pay the same as everyone else, you deserve to be treated like them as well.
[/QUOTE]
I pay less than market value for this place and like you said I do not complain about squeaky doors, i take care of minor issues myself. My complaint is not about the landlord but of the condo board. They are ripping people off with stupid fines and because it is only normally $50.00 here, or $100.00 there no one does anything about it. The board does not reverse fines once assessed. if you are an owner you can go to a meeting and ask for an appeal but it is denied every time. They simply set an amount for something then tell you you have to pay or else. They do not raise the assessment fees because everyone will complain. Instead they find ways to fine people for stupid stuff. In my case this could have been solved in just one hour or less. They decide they want to prolong the issue just to make money. There have been numerous small violations throughout the complex where something was not done on time. Rather than send a reminder, the wait about 2 weeks then tell you that they are fining you so much per day for the violation. They did this in the Fall and made over $2,000.00 total on a very minor issue. My issue is with the board that is allowed to fine people and set what ever amount they want and you can not do anything about it. she recently was fined $200.00 because she did not submit a copy of my lease to the board in a timely manner. Her husband had passed away recently and he took care of everything here. She was not aware that this had to be done. They waited a few months then told her she was in violation. Rather then send a reminder or make a phone call, they purposely waited then fined her; the board refused to take back the fine. I could go on and on about this but it would there be any point?
Since the contract (lease) is between you and your landlord, I don’t understand how the condo people have the jurisdiction to fine you. Does the lease say you accept all of their fines? Were you given a copy of the rules and the responsibilities of the occupants and the condo assocation?
Seems to me their beef would be with your landlord, but IANAL and IANFI so my post is more out of curiousity.
They can not fine me directly; they fine the landlord. And yes I am responsible for any fines that directly relate to me or my guests. I have a copy of the condo rules and reg. However there is nothing in the rules to cover this situation. The rules also do not state what the fine is for any violation of the rules. Again if this were a fine in relation to a law, both state, local, and federal have regulations that say a fine is between X & Y. Here the fine is what ever they feel like thay want it to be.