Is the whole association responsible for limited common elements?

[kelly41280]

Chicago, IL

I live in a condo building with three residential units and one commercial unit. The commercial unit does not have access to the residential stairwells, but the three residential units do. The residential units pay more assessment dues than the commercial unit per month, which I assumed was because of the stairwells.

I am the president of the association and I live in a residential unit. The treasurer owns the commercial unit. He recently told me that he does not want to contribute to paying for the cleaning of the residential hallways anymore, and the residential units must pay for this out of our own pockets, on top of our current assessment dues. I also asked him about purchasing smoke alarms for the residential hallways, and he said that was a 'limited common element expense' and we'd have to pay for it out of our own pockets.

I assumed the assessments would pay for all common element maintenance. Shouldn't payment for the stairwell maintenance come from the assessments?

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by kelly41280

Chicago, IL

I live in a condo building with three residential units and one commercial unit. The commercial unit does not have access to the residential stairwells, but the three residential units do. The residential units pay more assessment dues than the commercial unit per month, which I assumed was because of the stairwells.

I am the president of the association and I live in a residential unit. The treasurer owns the commercial unit. He recently told me that he does not want to contribute to paying for the cleaning of the residential hallways anymore, and the residential units must pay for this out of our own pockets, on top of our current assessment dues. I also asked him about purchasing smoke alarms for the residential hallways, and he said that was a 'limited common element expense' and we'd have to pay for it out of our own pockets.

I assumed the assessments would pay for all common element maintenance. Shouldn't payment for the stairwell maintenance come from the assessments?

**A: yes but read your condo docs.

[FBM]

Your condo docs would need to tell you whether or not the stairwells are limited common elements, otherwise they are not. My building had to rebuild our outside stairwells due to code violations and even though they only serviced certain units, since they were not in the docs as limited common elements, we all had to pay for them. Even if they were limited common elements, I think your board would still be permitted to pay for expenses if they chose to. I hope you're listed on your bank account!