Illinois HOA Estoppel & Resale

Section 1: Overview — Estoppel and resale disclosure in Illinois

Illinois requires a condominium seller to obtain from the board and make available to the prospective purchaser a defined package of documents and a statement of the unit's account before a resale, under Section 22.1 of the Illinois Condominium Property Act.¹ The operative provision is 765 ILCS 605/22.1, a non-uniform Illinois statute, not a Florida-style "estoppel certificate" and not a resale certificate under the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, neither of which Illinois has adopted.¹ The statutory instrument exists only for condominiums governed by 765 ILCS 605; non-condominium common interest communities (planned developments and most townhome associations) are addressed under a separate statute, the Common Interest Community Association Act, 765 ILCS 160.² The mechanics run demand-triggered: the purchaser demands the disclosure, the seller obtains it from the board, and the principal officer of the association must furnish the required information in writing within 10 business days of the request.¹ Nationally, Illinois is a non-uniform statutory-disclosure state, distinct from UCIOA states such as Alaska, from hard-mandate Florida, and from states that leave resale disclosure entirely to recorded covenants. Illinois has no dedicated HOA regulator, though the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation administers a Condominium and Common Interest Community Ombudsperson program, whose repeal date was extended to January 1, 2029 by Public Act 104-0377.⁵ The sections ahead detail the statutory requirements, the transaction lifecycle, and recent legislative and judicial activity.

Section 2: The statutory requirements

2A. The Illinois Condominium Property Act resale certificate

The controlling authority is the Illinois Condominium Property Act, 765 ILCS 605, and specifically Section 22.1, 765 ILCS 605/22.1.¹ This is a non-uniform Illinois provision. The document is a resale disclosure package: on the resale of a condominium unit by a unit owner other than the developer, the owner must obtain from the board of managers, and make available for inspection to the prospective purchaser on demand, the governing documents and a set of financial and legal statements about the association and the unit.¹ The board (or the managing agent acting for it) produces the information; the selling owner has the duty to obtain it and make it available to the purchaser before conveyance.¹ The statute provides that "[t]he principal officer of the unit owner's association or such other officer as is specifically designated shall furnish the above information when requested to do so in writing and within 10 business days of the request."¹ The association may charge the unit seller a reasonable fee, not to exceed $375, covering the direct out-of-pocket cost of providing and copying the information; under Section 22.1(c), "[b]eginning one year after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 102nd General Assembly, the $375 fee shall be increased or decreased ... by a percentage equal to the percentage change in the consumer price index-u," and the association "may charge an additional $100 for rush service completed within 72 hours."¹ This resale disclosure stays separate from the developer's obligation. Initial sales by a developer are governed by Section 22 of the Act, which requires full disclosure of the declaration, bylaws, a projected operating budget, and a floor plan before the initial sale, with distinct remedies.⁶ The Section 22.1 regime is condominium-only; a planned community or non-condominium association has no statutory resale certificate under 765 ILCS 605.

2B. Required contents and the seller's resale disclosure

Section 22.1(a) enumerates nine required items: (1) the declaration, bylaws, other condominium instruments, and rules and regulations; (2) a statement of any liens, including a statement of the account of the unit setting forth unpaid assessments and other charges due and owing as authorized and limited by Section 9 of the Act; (3) a statement of any capital expenditures anticipated within the current or succeeding two fiscal years; (4) the status and amount of any reserve for replacement fund and any portion earmarked for a specified project; (5) the statement of financial condition for the last fiscal year available; (6) the status of any pending suits or judgments in which the association is a party; (7) the insurance coverage provided for unit owners; (8) a statement that any improvements or alterations made by the prior owner are believed in good faith to comply with the condominium instruments; and (9) the identity and mailing address of the principal officer or designated agent.¹ The selling owner furnishes this package — governing documents plus these statements — to the buyer. The disclosed assessment balance and any pending special assessments are the financial heart of the document: they tell the buyer and the closing agent the exact payoff figure and pending obligations before closing. The account is separately available to any owner under Section 18(i), which requires that "upon 10 days notice to the manager or board of managers and payment of a reasonable fee, any unit owner shall be furnished a statement of his account setting forth the amount of any unpaid assessments or other charges due and owing from such owner."⁷ For a planned community, the equivalent figure comes from a declaration-based statement of account, not a statutory certificate.

2C. Binding effect, remedies, and scope

Illinois Section 22.1 doesn't contain an express estoppel or binding-effect clause. Unlike the Florida and Alaska statutes, it doesn't state that the association is bound by the figures disclosed as against a good-faith purchaser, and it doesn't bar a lien for common-expense amounts in excess of those stated; the statement of account is simply limited to amounts "as authorized and limited by the provisions of Section 9 of this Act or the condominium instruments."¹ Section 22.1 is also silent on a remedy for nondelivery. Illinois courts, however, have recognized an implied right of action allowing a prospective purchaser to terminate the purchase contract within a reasonable time after receiving disclosures that reveal previously undisclosed material expenses or conditions.³ On scope, the obligation reaches condominiums under 765 ILCS 605; non-condominium communities fall under 765 ILCS 160. The Act contains no small-condominium carve-out: under Section 2.1, "[u]nless otherwise expressly provided in another Section, the provisions of this Act are applicable to all condominiums in this State," so Section 22.1 governs two-unit and self-managed condominiums alike.⁴

Section 3: The resale transaction in practice

A. Requesting the certificate

For condominiums under 765 ILCS 605, the selling unit owner obtains the disclosure from the board, and in practice the request is initiated by the purchaser, the seller, or an authorized agent such as a title company or closing attorney; the statute frames the duty as the owner's, triggered by the purchaser's demand.¹ The request to the association must be in writing, and the written request is what starts the statutory clock.¹ Planned communities aren't subject to Section 22.1; the recorded declaration governs how their statements of account are requested.

B. The statutory clock and delivery

For condominiums, the clock starts on the association's receipt of the written request, and the principal or designated officer must furnish the information within 10 business days.¹ The statute doesn't prescribe a delivery method or a validity period for the completed disclosure. Section 22.1 doesn't itself impose a penalty on a late association or automatically void the sale; the consequence for incomplete or late disclosure runs through the implied purchaser remedy recognized by the courts rather than an express statutory sanction.³

C. Fees and refunds

For condominiums, the association may charge the seller a reasonable fee capped at $375 (adjusted annually by CPI-u), which is a fee ceiling rather than the open-ended "reasonable fee" some states use, and it may add up to $100 for rush service within 72 hours.¹ This isn't a Florida-style indexed schedule of separate delinquency and multi-unit caps; it's a single dollar ceiling plus a rush add-on. The statute doesn't address a refund if the sale doesn't close, and it's silent on any expedited fee beyond the $100 rush charge.¹ By contrast, a non-condominium community under 765 ILCS 160 may charge the seller only "a reasonable fee covering the direct out-of-pocket cost of copying and providing such information," with no dollar ceiling, and must respond within 30 days.²

D. Consequences and the binding effect

Because Section 22.1 has no express estoppel clause, Illinois doesn't, by statute, bar an association from later collecting properly owed amounts that were understated in the disclosure; the disclosed balance is limited to amounts authorized under Section 9 but isn't made conclusive against the association.¹ The Act also creates no express statutory damages standard for an erroneous or late certificate. Instead, the purchaser's protection is the judicially recognized right to rescind the purchase contract within a reasonable time when the disclosures show undisclosed material expenses or conditions.³

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No bill enacted in the past 24 months amended the Section 22.1 resale-disclosure provision or the Section 22 developer public offering statement. The last substantive change to the resale-disclosure rules came from House Bill 5246 of the 102nd General Assembly, enacted as Public Act 102-976 and effective January 1, 2023, which reduced the turnaround from 30 days to 10 business days and added the $375 CPI-adjusted fee ceiling plus the $100 rush charge.⁸

B. Recent Illinois appellate rulings

C. Active legislative debates

No pending bill would add a validity period or alter the existing Section 22.1 fee cap. The active question is judicial: the Supreme Court of Illinois will decide in the Greenswag appeal whether the 2023 fee-cap amendment applies retroactively and how it bears on consumer-fraud claims over disclosure charges.⁹

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Illinois sits between the national camps. Hard-mandate states such as Florida impose a statutory estoppel certificate with a short business-day clock, indexed fee caps, an express validity period, and a binding waiver of amounts not disclosed, under Fla. Stat. § 718.116(8) for condominiums and § 720.30851 for HOAs.¹⁰ Detailed-disclosure states such as California require a statutory transfer-disclosure package of enumerated documents under the Davis-Stirling Act, Civil Code § 4525 et seq.¹¹ UCIOA states such as Alaska, Colorado, and Washington use a resale certificate with a short turnaround, a reasonable fee, and an express binding effect, illustrated by Alaska's provision that a "purchaser is not liable for an unpaid assessment or fee greater than the amount set out in the certificate" and that the contract is voidable until delivery.¹² Illinois's condominium act carries a statutory resale-disclosure provision, but it's narrower than a UCIOA certificate: it enumerates nine content items and a 10-business-day clock with a $375 CPI-adjusted fee ceiling, yet it omits the UCIOA estoppel/binding-effect protection and any statutory contract-cancellation remedy.¹ For a multi-state operator expanding into Illinois, the practical implication is that the disclosure obligation and fee cap are real and enforceable through the fee ceiling, but the buyer-protection "estoppel" mechanics familiar from Florida and UCIOA states don't exist by statute here. Illinois last amended its resale-disclosure provision effective January 1, 2023 and hasn't changed it since.⁸

HOA Weekly's Illinois Estoppel and Resale coverage updates quarterly as the General Assembly, the Illinois Appellate Court, and the Supreme Court of Illinois act. Federal frameworks also apply to Illinois associations regardless of the state rules, notably the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act where a disclosed balance is being collected, plus the Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and the FCC's OTARD rule.

Footnotes

1. 765 ILCS 605/22.1, Illinois Condominium Property Act (resales; disclosures; fees), Source: P.A. 102-976, eff. 1-1-23 ↩
2. 765 ILCS 160/1-35, Common Interest Community Association Act (member powers, duties, and obligations) ↩
3. Channon v. Westward Management, Inc., 2022 IL 128040 (Supreme Court of Illinois, Nov. 28, 2022) ↩
4. 765 ILCS 605/2.1, Illinois Condominium Property Act (applicability) ↩
5. Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, Condominium and Common Interest Community Ombudsperson (Public Act 104-0377, eff. Aug. 15, 2025) ↩
6. 765 ILCS 605/22, Illinois Condominium Property Act (full disclosure before sale) ↩
7. 765 ILCS 605/18, Illinois Condominium Property Act (contents of bylaws; statement of account) ↩
8. Illinois House Bill 5246, 102nd General Assembly (Public Act 102-976) ↩
9. Greenswag v. Lieberman Management Services, Inc., 2025 IL App (1st) 240289-U; Supreme Court of Illinois docket (leave to appeal allowed, No. 1-24-0289) ↩
10. Fla. Stat. § 720.30851 (2025); see also § 718.116(8) ↩
11. California Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act, Cal. Civ. Code § 4525 et seq. ↩
12. Alaska Stat. § 34.08.590, Alaska Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (resales of units) ↩