Condo Living Made Easy

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought grief and hardship to many people around the world. To help ease the financial stress caused by the pandemic, FEMA is offering financial assistance for COVID-19-related funeral expenses. 

You may qualify for COVID-19 Funeral Assistance benefits if you meet these requirements:

• You are a U.S. citizen, non-citizen national or qualified non-citizen
• The death occurred in the United States, including U.S. territories and the District of Columbia
• You incurred funeral expenses on or after January 20, 2020, for a person whose death was caused by COVID-19

Learn more, here.

You can now view your 2022 First Installment Cook County Tax Bill and make an early payment online.

Watch for your bill in the mail late February/early March. Your next tax bill will be due April 3^rd, 2023 and will be 55% of the previous year's total amount.

The second installment tax bills will likely be slightly delayed, but will probably not be as delayed as they were in 2022. 

An owner forum is a period of time during an open board meeting that is set aside for the sole purpose of providing unit owners and homeowners with the opportunity to ask questions and make comments about how the community is being run.  

Community association boards that are governed by the Common Interest Community Association Act (CICAA) have a legal obligation to reserve a portion of their open board meeting for comments by members. Condominiums associations organized under the IL Condominium Act are not required to provide an owner forum, but they may want to do so.

Owner forums are known to strike fear in the hearts of board members. Owners can—and often do—say whatever they want when given the opportunity, and their comments are not always positive. 

Learn how to best prepare for an owner forum, here. 

In 2017, the Illinois General Assembly passed Public Act 100-0200 to update the Illinois Smoke Detector Act.

Public Act 100-0200 requires Illinois homes to have a smoke alarm with a sealed 10-year battery by January 1, 2023.

However, the legislator provided several exceptions to this law. Learn more about them here.