Mother May I?

By James R. Stevens, Principal, Chuhak & Tecson, P.C.

Coping with Permissions in Community Associations

Everyone remembers our parents’ favorite retort: “When you’re 18 and on your own, you can do what you want, but when you’re in my house, it’s my rules” or something similar. No matter what we wanted to do as young people, there was always someone who had to give us permission to charge ahead. Many people (including Boards) think that being in a Condominium Unit will free you from someone else’s permission before you do what you want to do. In fact, that’s not the case. There is a whole host of various permissions and permission granters built into community living, some obvious and others not so, that we will discuss in this article.

40 | COMMON INTEREST® • Summer 2017 • A Publication of CAI-Illinois Chapter