Illinois HOA fine rules
Illinois Common Interest Community Association Act765 ILCS 160/1-1 et seq.; fines at 765 ILCS 160/1-30(g)
Notice before a fine
"The board shall have the power, after notice and an opportunity to be heard, to levy and collect reasonable fines from members or unit owners for violations of the declaration, bylaws, operating agreement, and rules and regulations of the common interest community association" (765 ILCS 160/1-30(g)). The Act requires notice but does not prescribe how it must be delivered: § 1-30(g) names no method of service, states nothing the notice must contain, and sets no minimum number of days between the notice and the fine.
Time to fix it
The Act sets no cure period. Section 1-30(g) conditions a fine only on "notice and an opportunity to be heard" and states no period within which an owner may correct a violation to avoid a fine; any cure period comes from the declaration, bylaws, operating agreement or rules of the association.
Your right to a hearing
765 ILCS 160/1-30(g) — the board's power to fine exists only "after notice and an opportunity to be heard." The Act sets no window within which the owner must request that opportunity, no deadline for holding it, and no procedure for it. Separately, § 1-90 provides that "Every common interest community association, except for those exempt from this Act under Section 1-75, must comply with the Condominium and Common Interest Community Ombudsperson Act", and § 35(a) of that Act provides that "Each association, except for those outlined in subsection (b) of this Section, shall adopt a written policy for resolving complaints made by unit owners", whose final determinations must be "(i) made in writing; (ii) made within 180 days after the association received the unit owner's original complaint" (765 ILCS 615/35).
Limits on fines
The Act limits fines only qualitatively: the board's power is to "levy and collect reasonable fines" (765 ILCS 160/1-30(g)). No dollar amount, per-day limit or aggregate limit is set by the Act.
Your right to records
The board "shall maintain the following records of the association and make them available for examination and copying at convenient hours of weekdays by any member or unit owner in a common interest community subject to the authority of the board, their mortgagees, and their duly authorized agents or attorneys" (765 ILCS 160/1-30(i)(1)). The listed records include the recorded declaration, other community instruments, covenants, bylaws, amendments, articles and any rules adopted by the board; "Detailed and accurate records in chronological order of the receipts and expenditures affecting the common areas" together with "copies of all contracts, leases, or other agreements entered into by the board"; board minutes, kept "for not less than 7 years"; and "Any reserve study." Ballots and proxies, and the other records open to members of a not-for-profit corporation under Section 107.75 of the General Not For Profit Corporation Act of 1986, are available only "With a written statement of a proper purpose" (§ 1-30(i)(1)(iv)-(v)). "Where a request for records under this subsection is made in writing to the board or its agent, failure to provide the requested record or to respond within 30 days shall be deemed a denial by the board" (§ 1-30(i)(2)), and "A reasonable fee may be charged by the board for the cost of retrieving and copying records properly requested" (§ 1-30(i)(3)).
What this means for homeowners
- Illinois conditions the board's power to fine on notice and an opportunity to be heard. The Act does not say how that notice must be sent, what it must contain, or how many days must pass before a fine may be levied, so those details come from the association's declaration, bylaws, operating agreement and rules rather than from the statute.
- The Act sets no cure period — nothing in it requires the association to give an owner time to correct a violation before fining — and it caps fines only by requiring that they be "reasonable"; there is no dollar limit and no limit on daily or repeat fines.
- Not every Illinois association is covered. "A common interest community association organized under the General Not for Profit Corporation Act of 1986 and having either (i) 10 units or less or (ii) annual budgeted assessments of $100,000 or less shall be exempt from this Act unless the association affirmatively elects to be covered by this Act by a majority of its directors or members" (765 ILCS 160/1-75(a)). A separate and narrower exemption in § 1-75(b) reaches associations whose governing documents provide that the association may not use the courts or an arbitration process to collect or enforce assessments, fines, or similar levies, and associations "(i) of 10 units or less or (ii) having annual budgeted assessments of $50,000 or less"; those associations are exempt only "from subsection (a) of Section 1-30, subsections (a) and (b) of Section 1-40, and Section 1-55", so the fining provision in § 1-30(g) still reaches them.
- The Common Interest Community Association Act applies to single-family HOAs and other common interest communities and expressly not to condominiums: § 1-5 defines a "Common interest community" as "real estate other than a condominium or cooperative with respect to which any person by virtue of his or her ownership of a partial interest or a unit therein is obligated to pay for the maintenance, improvement, insurance premiums or real estate taxes of common areas described in a declaration which is administered by an association," and adds that a "'Common interest community' may include, but not be limited to, an attached or detached townhome, villa, or single-family home" while it "does not include a master association." Illinois condominiums fall under the Condominium Property Act, 765 ILCS 605, which gives condominium boards the parallel power, "after notice and an opportunity to be heard, to levy reasonable fines for violation of the declaration, by-laws, and rules and regulations of the association" (765 ILCS 605/18.4(l)).
- One 2026 change to this Act does not affect fines. The 104th General Assembly passed SB3527, approved by the Governor and filed as Public Act 104-0734 on July 31, 2026, which amends this Act and the Condominium Property Act to require an association to adopt a written policy for collecting unpaid assessments before taking legal action to collect common expenses. Within this Act it changes only §§ 1-35 and 1-45, and it leaves § 1-30(g), § 1-30(i) and § 1-75 untouched; in the Condominium Property Act it amends 765 ILCS 605/18.4 and 605/22.1, and the condominium fine provision at 605/18.4(l) appears in the public act only as reprinted, unchanged text. No fine rule in either act is altered. As of August 5, 2026 the Illinois Compiled Statutes pages for those two sections do not yet carry the amendment: § 1-35 still ends "(Source: P.A. 97-605, eff. 8-26-11; 97-1090, eff. 8-24-12; 98-842, eff. 1-1-15.)" and § 1-45 still ends "(Source: P.A. 100-292, eff. 1-1-18.)", so an owner reading either section on the state's website is reading the text as it stood before the public act.
Verified 2026-08-05
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