Financially Failing Chicago Condo Bldgs. Struggle To Stay Afloat; Unit Owners Begin Invoking State Law To Take Possession Of, Rent Out Delinquent Apts

In Chicago, Illinois, Chicago Public Radio WBEZ 91.5 FM reports on the plight of a 27-unit condo building in Chicago’s Washington Park neighborhood that is almost completely empty and the effort by three determined unit owners to keep the building from being condemned. In view of most of the units being foreclosed or abandoned, and some inhabited by squatters, the three are fighting back, armed with the Illinois Condominium Property Act which allows them to obtain a court order to take possession of the units if the owner stops paying monthly assessments. They aren't alone in fighting battles throughout the city to save their financially failing condo buildings from going under.

• It was [local attorney Ebony] Wilkerson’s idea to file for possession to rent out the units to shore up the building’s finances. And she put them in touch with a wife-and-husband team called Haus Financial Services that helps condo associations manage their books. For this building, they’re cleaning up and finding renters for the units. It’s the first ray of hope for these three owners in a great big empty building that’s suffering the effects of the global banking meltdown.

• And they’re not alone. Angela Maurello of the non-profit Community Investment Corporation has been working on this for years. Her program acts as a receiver on behalf of the city for distressed condo buildings. "Oh there’s hundreds because we already have 200 of the ones we have, so I’d say there’s got to be 400, 500 of these buildings in the city. This is a serious problem," [Maurello said]. And that means lots more condo owners [...] trying to shoulder the expense of a whole building without help from their neighbors. Maurello calls these fractured buildings and says many are clustered in South Side neighborhoods like Washington Park. But they’re also scattered throughout the city.

For more, see Condo Owners Struggle to Salvage an Almost-Empty Building.

In a related story from Chicago Public Radio, see Untangling Mortgage Fraud in Chicago Condo Buildings:

• All over Chicago, but especially in South Side communities like Washington Park and Woodlawn, people are coping with half-empty and sometimes completely vacant condo buildings. How did they get that way? Why did so many units go into foreclosure all at once? In some cases, the reason can be traced to mortgage fraud. But untangling that web of financial transactions and unearthing the reasons behind a building’s collapse are difficult and time-consuming.