Evanston, IL HOA Rules: Dispute Resolution (2026)

Section 5-4-6-1 of the Evanston City Code opens the enforcement part of the Residential Condominium Ordinance, Title 5, Chapter 4. Subsection (A) directs the City Manager, or a designee, to receive complaints and conduct whatever investigations he or she deems necessary. Under this section the City Manager's office is the intake point and decides how far a complaint goes.

Subsection (B) applies once that office determines there has been a violation of Chapter 4 or of any duly adopted rule or regulation of the City. Three tools are listed, and the City can seek all or only a portion of them, plus any other relief the law grants. First, staff attempt to conciliate the matter by conference or otherwise and secure a written conciliation agreement. Second, the City seeks a written assurance of discontinuance, signed by the declarant and the City Manager or designee. Third, the City institutes injunctive or other appropriate action in any court of competent jurisdiction to obtain a restraining order, a permanent or temporary injunction, or another form of relief.

The ordinance reaches declarants, defined in § 5-4-1-7 as any person who plans to execute or has executed the condominium declaration. Under § 5-4-1-5 it applies to multiple-family dwellings (three or more units, excluding group, row or townhouses) developed as new or conversion condominiums. The administration section, § 5-4-1-6, sets an application fee of $150.00 per unit for new or conversion condominiums and no fee for resale of individual units. Resales by individual unit owners fall under only a short list of provisions: Subsections 1-6, 3-5, 3-6 and 6-1, 6-2(B) and 6-3, even for units created before the ordinance was adopted.

Conciliation sits ahead of money penalties. Section 5-4-6-2 lets the Corporation Counsel seek an injunction after an inspection finding, with a penalty of not more than $500.00 per unit, and § 5-4-6-3 gives a unit owner or tenant a separate civil suit against a declarant. Records disputes inside an association run on a different clock: § 5-4-5-6 requires production within 10 business days of a written request, under 765 ILCS 605/19.