My fiance and I recently bought a condo in a three unit building in Chicago. At this time, 2 of the 3 units are sold. Since we were the first people to move in and the sale of the other two were moving fairly slowly, they started renting the other two units on AirBnB and are now renting the remaining unit for an undisclosed amount of time (longer term than AirBNB). We've started looking through the HOA to hold them accountable for guests that do not follow the by-laws (as was a serious issue with the AirBNB) and came across the following:
"This Article 11.02 of the Declaration shall not by amended unless Unit Owners owning not less than one-hundred percent (100%) of the total ownership of the Common Elements first authorize such Amendment and subject to Section 16.03. The Unit Owner making any such lease, or permitting such sublease or assignment, or providing a Short Term Rental License shall not be relieved thereby from any of his obligations under the Declaration....Such terms of paragraph 11.02 shall not apply to Declarant or Developer."
We initially thought to overturn this by obtaining control of the HOA with the other owner until we found the following in the rules for modifying the declaration:
"No provision of this Declaration affecting the rights, privileges and duties of the Declarant or Developer may be modified without its written consent. The Provisions of Article XIII and Sections 12.02, 16.02 and the following provisions of Section 16.03 of this Declaration may be changed, modified or rescinded by an instrument in writing setting forth such change, modification or rescission, signed and acknowledged by the President or a Vice President of the Board, and by all of the Unit Owners and all mortgages having bona fide liens of record against all of the Unit Ownerships."
We understand that we should have personally looked over this language ourselves before signing documentation so we don't need any condescension in that respect. In our defense, we did have a lawyer look through it. However, with no end in sight to the developer being an owner, we're wondering if they are able to exempt themselves from the rules laid out about rentals and the behavior of their guests and/or tenants as well as refuse for any rewriting of the laws regarding their exemptions without their permission.
Any thoughts/advice would be welcome.
