Connected Management Blog

5 Tips to Hire a Contractor for Repairs on Your Condominium When it comes to doing repairs on your condominium in Chicago, you want to know that you have a top-quality contractor on the job. There is a danger of hiring someone who does not have a company or a legitimate business when you’re looking for contractors. Hiring a friend or close family member can also cause a conflict of interest for your condo HOA. When you’re looking to hire a contractor, either through your Chicago property management company or by yourself, here are some tips to keep in mind....

Electronic Assessment Payments: Are You Offering Them? As a board member in Chicago, you try to do your best to make sure your residents have safety, security, and that assessments are paid on time. If you are not working with a Chicago property manager, it can be a harrowing task to try and take care of all that plus maintaining the building, working with vendors and other aspects of overseeing a Chicago condominium association. One aspect that you may want to consider is offering electronic payments to your residents. You can do this by hiring a property management company such...

Electricity costs are something that we all want to minimize. No one wants to receive an expensive electricity bill. The good news is that you have more control over the outcome of your bill than you may think. We often forget that it is our own actions (or lack thereof) that, at least in part, determines the final amount listed on the invoice. We’ve all heard of the age-old tips to avoid over-using electricity. “Turn off the lights when you’re not in the room,” “Don’t go to sleep with the TV on,” and “Unplug your appliances,” among others. These tips...

When a condo association needs a large amount of cash in a short period of time, a loan may be the only option. This is especially true if the owners cannot afford a large special assessment. Association loans often become necessary as an emergency measure due to deferred maintenance and a lack of proper budgeting. These types of loans use the association's existing and future assessment income as collateral to secure the debt. This means that if the association fails to repay the loan, the bank will go after the association's assessments. Prior to this change to the Illinois Condominium Property...

The Illinois Condominium Property Act, which is the master set of laws that control condo associations in Illinois, is updated on a regular basis. Any changes to the Act automatically override and supercede rules that may be contained in your association's governing documents. (Declaration / Bylaws) Effective June 1, 2016, one such change to the Act is related to the requirements for when notices must be sent to unit owners when a Board adopts the annual budget. As a Board it is important that you are aware of this change, and follow the new rule, so that any budget that you...