Our "Ask the Expert" column receives regular submissions regarding who is responsible--the association or the unit owner--for various portions of a condominium building.

A primer on the difference between Common Elements and Limited Common Elements can be found in our Maintenance A-Z article "Who is Responsible? Common Elements & Limited Common Elements."  Understanding the fundamentals between common elements and limited common elements is important for every condo owner.  

If you have further questions or your governing documents require clarification (or revision), consultations with the Chicago Condo Resource Center are available to help your association address this issue.  Please feel free to contact us!

One of the easiest ways to spruce up your entryway is to standardize the labels on your mailboxes.  Self-managed buildings are notorious for having a hodgepodge of labels stuck to owners' mailboxes in haphazard fashion.  If they have labels at all!

I found customized labels online at www.mailboxworks.com for only $3.95 each.  The labels can be engraved with each owner's name and unit number, and they fit perfectly into the slot in the mailbox door.  Our entryway seriously looks a thousand times better since we installed the custom tags.  

Now if we could only figure out how to do the same for our buzzer system! 

While we're still enjoying warmer temperatures, colder months are just around the corner and HVAC companies are already getting booked up with annual maintenance appointments.  I just called today to make an appointment for our 4-unit building and aside from one open slot on Sept. 25th, they are pretty well booked through October.

If your building has a common boiler, it's time to call and make an appointment to have it serviced before you turn it on for the season.  A sub-zero day is not the best time to find out that you've got a boiler problem!  

For recommended vendors, see our vendor listings.

Dealing with owner delinquencies can be a time-consuming and expensive process.  However, once the association takes physical possession of a unit and obtains a renter, delinquencies can often be recovered quite quickly.

It's important to note that if the association fails to take action to rent a unit under possession once an owner has been evicted, the owner has a legal recourse to regain possession.  The possession action is intended as a remedy for the association to recoup delinquencies.  Leaving the unit vacant could cost the association the right to continue to possess the unit.

If your association is experiencing delinquencies, it's important to act quickly.  The Chicago Condo Resource Center offers education on the collections process and can help you to make a decision about legal action.  Subscribe today!

The cover story in the July/August issue of CAI's Common Ground  magazine, "Bully on Board?", discusses a topic that has come up several times for our clients, and can be one of the most difficult condo issues to address.  Bullying behavior is unfortunately not restricted to the playground.  Many adults are guilty of using bullying behavior to control their associations and further their personal agendas.

If you are dealing with a bully on your Board, there are ways to defuse the behavior.  "Reining in Bullies on your HOA Board" from HOAleader.com also discusses some tactics for handling bullies.

In our experience, it's important to address the behavior promptly and directly.  Left unchecked, bullying behavior only gets worse.  It's up to the remaining Board members, and sometimes the owners, to ensure that the behavior is put in check so that the interests of the entire association are preserved.