About Illinois Community Associations

You might be surprised that Illinois has the 4th largest number of community associations in the United States. They number 19,550 in total involving 133,800 board and committee volunteers with $5.989 billion in assessments.

The state ranks just behind Texas, but well back of Florida and California for most HOAs and community associations.

(above screen capture courtesy of CAIonline.org)

If you're considering forming an association in Illinois, the demands/rules for HOA's/CAM's here are unique from those of a California HOA, Florida HOA, or Texas POA. Governing laws regarding board rules and association services are unique to each US state and it's important to understand the distinctions if you're only familiar with another state.

This year and over the next few years, more homeowners associations will be formed, driving a demand for association management consulting, association planning, digital adoption, and daily maintenance services.  Today, many management functions are conducted via a SaaS association management software platform. Although it handles most of your daily work, there are tasks that your board and manager must tackle themselves.

Illinois homeowners associations are governed by the Illinois Common Interest Community Association Act. Condo associations, not discussed here are governed by Illinois Condominium Property Act. The formal, legal description of your HOA is found at the ilga.gov website and is important to understand. 

If you're a property developer now researching the requirements for forming an HOA, we can get you started here, and then help you with what will be the most important HOA asset -- your HOA software.

Creating Your Illinois HOA

Begin with a big picture view in creating your new HOA in Illinois. 

Follow these preliminaries:

Understand Laws and Procedures:  Illinois has its own specific regulations for HOAs under the aforementioned Common Interest Community Association Act.
Ascertain your Assets: what common elements and amenities will be included in your community?
Collaborate with Homeowners:  Discuss the value, requirements and process with homeowners to understand what services they would like and what level of dues they will be comfortable with.  
Be Clear on the Level of Insurance You Need:  You're required to carry liability insurance which is rising fast, and you must acquire policy and coverage quotes to get the right solution.
Decide on the Type of Management:  Will your HOA be self-managed or managed by association management company? You'll need to know who is available, or what you'll need to self-manage your association.
Create Your Governing Documents:   An HOA lawyer will help you craft your Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions (CC&Rs), bylaws, set fees and allowable fines for bylaw violations, set your clear purpose for the association, and file the necessary paperwork with the Illinois Secretary of State. They can advise on how to protect your HOA from frivolous lawsuits.
Elect your HOA Board:  You'll need to ask for community members to run as directors for the HOA board who together make decisions on board rules, activities, spending, and bylaw decisions.

Key Challenges for Illinois HOA/CAM Teams

Some areas of Chicago as an example may not mirror affluent areas of Florida, Texas, or California. Resources and populations will create some resident-side challenges. Here are some things to take into account so you can adapt your board goals and management focus.

Homeowner Apathy: Getting residents to join the board or attend meetings is a challenge you may solve through good communications. The fact is, people can be apathetic and far removed from your HOA. Focus on clear communication of benefits to them, demonstrating how their lifestyles will improve and how you keep the neighborhood clean and functional.

Social Discord: Neighborhoods with mixed races, incomes, religions, cultures and language makes cohesion tough, however your communications strategy can create a spirit of togetherness and tolerance.

Big Workloads and Expectations: Day to day operations if done manually can overwhelm teams. This is what creates demand for HOA management software since dues collection, violation management, maintenance, accounting and payments, and resident communications require a lot of time.

Homeowner Resentment and Resistance: Some will not like paying their dues and will resist collections and obeying rules and regulations. A few don't trust the HOA board. Enforcement requires significant time. Solving that requires transparency, good, positive communications skills including supporting the rules of the HOA.

Lack of Staff Training: Lack of professionally trained staff means uncertainty in carrying out duties, time waste, poor decisions, and mistakes. HOA software takes a lot of these challenges away via automation and user help.

Insufficient Funding: Some neighborhoods are struggling with lower incomes and higher costs. Without operating funds, all areas of HOA management will come under pressure, which makes the streamlining power of HOA software so vital. 

Your New HOA/Community Management Software

All too often, the selection of software is done as an afterthought or too quickly. The fact is, many property management software products and basic association management software are chosen for convenience. Instead, smart managers take a deeper look at a comprehensive system and a software that's being consistently improved to adapt to new digital trends and services.

Managing your association efficiently is the most significant challenge and an HOA platform helps. It will also factor highly in growing your revenues and building resident satisfaction, from amenities management to resident engagement. Investing in a powerful platform is wise. And ManageCasa™ is expertly developed and optimized for HOA administration. Having confidence in your platform is important.

Save Your Time and Speak with Our Sales Team

It's advisable to review ManageCasa's association management platform to get a feel for a comprehensive solution that delivers the essential services of accounting, online payments, communications and daily management of operations and maintenance.  And there's much more advanced features to know as well.  Check out the pricing plans too as they're quite affordable.

You can speak with our sales team regarding switching to ManageCasa™ or how to set up your member database in our system. You'll find ManageCasa™ is simple and powerful and will become the key asset to your HOA success. 

See more on the basics of HOA financial management, typical HOA challenges, and how to improve efficiency.