SB 3401 was carried by Sens. Robert Martwick, Donald DeWitte, Darby Hills and Mattie Hunter, with Buckner, Ryan and Yang Rohr as House sponsors. It was engrossed April 15, 2026 and heard in the Senate Condominiums Committee, whose hearing record shows four proponents and one opponent. CAI Illinois reports the Senate passed it 55-0 and that HB 2563 cleared House Judiciary unanimously.

One caution, stated plainly. The ILGA bill-status pages were unreachable throughout this research, and the mirrored action histories we could read end in Rules re-referrals rather than third-reading votes. The pattern is consistent with SB 3401 crossing to the House and dying there. We are not going to assert that either bill passed a chamber on a floor vote, because we could not open the record that would prove it. Treat CAI's 55-0 as CAI's account.

Why it failed, in the advocates' own words

CAI's Illinois Legislative Action Committee drafted and carried these bills, ran four call-to-action campaigns generating over 700 messages, and put advocates in committee at Illinois Advocacy Day on March 25, 2026. Its post-mortem is unusually blunt: legislators “received inaccurate information claiming studies raise housing costs,” and both bills were held at the last minute.

Worth noting for anyone tracing responsibility: Illinois REALTORS' 2026 Statement of Policy contains no published position on reserve studies at all. Its condominium plank opposes “legislation or policies which place an unnecessary restriction or limitation” on condominium ownership — general language, not a reserve-study position. Anyone reporting who killed HB 2563 should get that on the record rather than infer it.

The mandate arrived anyway, through the mortgage market

This is the part that changes the picture for boards. While Springfield declined to require reserve studies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rebuilt their condominium project standards in March 2026. Budgets must reflect the highest recommended reserve allocation in the reserve study from August 3, 2026, and the standard reserve allocation for many Full Reviews is reported to rise from 10% to 15% in January 2027.

An Illinois association with no reserve study, or with a study whose recommendation its budget ignores, now risks its units becoming unwarrantable. That hits resale value and refinancing for every owner in the building. The legislature's inaction did not remove the obligation; it moved it to a body no one voted for.

Where Illinois sits nationally

CAI counts four states with post-Surfside reserve mandates — Florida, Maryland, New Jersey and Tennessee — and two with structural-integrity inspection requirements, Florida and New Jersey. Illinois is in neither group. CAI's national policy now formally recommends statutorily mandating reserve studies and funding for all community associations, and since a February 2024 revision also supports laws providing for ongoing inspections of building structures and facades.

The facade plank is the piece Illinois has not yet seen in bill form — despite Chicago already running a facade critical-examination regime for buildings over 80 feet.

What to watch next

CAI's stated position is that ILAC “remains committed to working with legislators to re-introduce similar language in future sessions.” The 105th General Assembly convenes in January 2027, and pre-filing opens after the November 2026 election. The working assumption for a budget is that a five-year study becomes law in that session — and, separately, that the mortgage market will not wait for it.