Condo and HOA Lawyers
Serving Tinley Park, IL

The first step is a call or a proposal request. We review your declaration and bylaws, get a clear picture of the issue, and recommend either a general counsel retainer or a scoped engagement with the fee agreement spelled out before any work begins. From there, your board has direct access to its attorney by phone and email, backed by our 24-hour response commitment. Plenty of Tinley Park boards hired their first attorney with us, and we make that transition simple.

We offer two options: a monthly general-counsel retainer with a predictable flat fee for routine questions, or matter-by-matter representation where we scope a specific issue and quote a fee upfront. Under the Illinois Condominium Property Act and the Common Interest Community Association Act, associations have specific statutory tools for recovering legal costs in enforcement and collections matters, which can offset the expense of representation.

We practice community association law and nothing else. More than 2,000 community association clients across Illinois and Michigan have trusted us with their legal needs, which means very little surprises us. Kevin Hirzel and Matthew W. Heron are Fellows of the College of Community Association Lawyers, a credential fewer than 200 attorneys in the country hold. We also invest in education: Hirzel's Handbook for Illinois condos and HOAs, a blog dedicated to Illinois HOA law, and a monthly newsletter that keeps boards current. When you call, you reach people who work with boards like yours every day.

There are a few situations where legal counsel makes a real difference. If your association has discovered construction defects in common elements, is going through a developer turnover, needs to ensure its policies comply with fair housing requirements, or is struggling to collect delinquent assessments, those are all situations where having an experienced community association attorney can protect the board and the community association's finances.

Condominium associations that discover construction defects, whether in common elements, building envelopes, plumbing, or structural systems, often have claims against the original developer, general contractor, or subcontractors. These cases are time-sensitive because statutes of limitation and repose set hard deadlines for filing claims. Our community association attorneys can investigate the defects, coordinate with engineers and experts, and pursue recovery on behalf of the association, either through negotiation or litigation.

Illinois law gives associations a structured path. It typically starts with a demand letter from the association's attorney, which alone often prompts payment. If that fails, condominium associations have an automatic statutory lien covering unpaid assessments, fines, interest, and attorney fees, and the association can pursue an eviction, which is the most common method of recovering assessments in Illinois. Because collection costs can be recovered from the delinquent owner, enforcement often does not come out of the association's operating budget.

Yes. Illinois courts enforce the plain language of your declaration and have confirmed that an owner has no right to short-term rent a unit when the declaration prohibits it. If your governing documents do not currently address short-term rentals, our attorneys can draft an amendment that gives your board clear, enforceable restrictions. The key is having precise language in your declaration, and that is something we review and draft regularly.

Act quickly, because Illinois law puts deadlines on everything. The developer must call an election for the owner-controlled board within statutory timeframes and turn over the association's books, records, and funds within 60 days of that election. New boards can also cancel long-term developer contracts, and the clock on claims against the developer, including construction defects and underfunded reserves, generally does not start running until turnover. An early legal review can recover real money for your association.