Help Needed With Un-cooperating president

June 24, 2017

I live in a condo that the entire area consists of many individual buildings, run individually, on a block of condo buildings that has an Umbrella Association President. I'm my building's president and am dealing with an issue that I need assistance with to get resolved. My building (consisting of 8 units = 8 owners) faces south & the neighboring building (also 8 units & 8 owners) directly across from me faces north. There is a sidewalk directly in between the two buildings. I'm in the process of trying to determine who exactly owns this sidewalk & what percentage. In the meantime, this sidewalk is in dire need of repair & am afraid someone might get hurt walking on it. Since April 6, 2017, I've been texting & calling the president of the other building to speak with me regarding repairing the sidewalk to no avail. He hasn't returned any of my texts or phone messages. I went to the City of Palos Hills to speak with the Building Commissioner in May who told me that Palos Hills doesn't own it & has no control over it. However, he did go to view the property & did contact by phone the president asking him to return the phone call to no avail. The Building Commissioner did tell me that he was going to send him a letter (I'm looking into whether this has been done or not) to encourage him to have this repaired. I went by the president's unit and buzzed him to no avail. First and foremost, I'm afraid that someone will get hurt. Second, I'm afraid that we're going to be sued if someone does get hurt. Please advise me as to what I can do to have this issue resolved, as I have no idea what to do next & no one in my building can afford a lawyer.
Thank you!

If the other building is equally responsible for the sidewalk then they should pay half the cost of getting it repaired. Wait and see what the building commissioner says, but don't wait forever. What about the umbrella association? Do its governing documents say anything about this piece of common property where the sidewalk is?

My advice is don't spend tons of money protecting your HOA from every little threat or perception of being sued. It can cost more money doing all the preventative consultations and nothing ever happens. I don't knee jerk react to every little threat that comes along. Show me the paperwork first not just the words. Too many HOA's spend too much money on preventative/worries than they would on the result if they were sued.

Whatever happens in this situation. The cost of the repairs is still on all the members in the HOA. I would get some quotes to present the other president or other members. Let them see the numbers and maybe more results will happen. It's not like the other president is responsible to pay for it out of their pocket. It's coming out of ALL the member's pockets.

If, Helen, only you & the other building are completely responsible for maintaining this sidewalk, do you have a reserves account for it? This is, an account where you've been saving up funds for future repairs & replacements?

Or...is it possible the master association have receives for all the sidewalks at your HOA?

Let me try a different question: All owners pay dues to the master associaton, right? But does a tiny portion of these dues pay for your budiling's future needs? Let's say new roof?