Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Illinois

Huh? Let me see if I understand. You are a unit owner who has his unit under contract for sale but your buyer is unable to get financing because too many other units are delinquent? And if your deal falls through you want to sue the non-paying unit owners? Is that it? Well, first, your buyer's lender's requirements are requirements that you allowed in your contract to sell most likely, in the mortgage contingency clause, and so that is an issue. Secondly, it is up to the Association to lien the non-paying units and eventually potentially foreclose the liens and have them sold to pay the liens off most likely pursuant to rights granted in the condo declaration and/or State law, but that is usually counterproductive because there is most likely a construction loan ahead of the assessment liens and selling them most likely will depress the prices of all of the units. These are the times in which we live, and I am not aware of any attempt to test whether the defaulting unit owners are liable. Buying into a condo almost assumes those kinds of risks because your remedies are typically limited to what the Association has the right to do. However if the Association is remiss in its obligations to collect assessments there may be a claim against the Directors & Officers Liability insurance that the Board should be carrying, but there are a lot of other factors that must be reviewed to determine whether that or any other remedy is available, together with looking at your contract of sale's mortgage contingency clause. Buildings in distress today are a problem, to be sure, but lenders are also not happy getting into bad situations and are avoiding them like the plague.