Can a Homeowner Association equalize the percentage of each owner's interest?

Whenever a homeowner or condominium association is formed by a developer, it is established by virtue of a Declaration which is recorded with the County Recorder. That Declaration includes a schedule of all of the Units in the association and their corollary ownership percentage. These percentages are the common element ownership percentages allocated to each unit by the developer, typically based on sales value. Unless the changes sought fall within the extremely narrow exception of Section 27(b) of the Illinois Condominium Property Act, a unanimous unit ownership approval is required to subsequently amend those common element percentages. Section 27(b) provides a simplified mechanism for correcting what are known as “scriveners’ errors,” but changes to the common elements percentages schedule in a declaration do not generally fall within this purview. The exception to this rule is where there are simple mathematical errors such as failure to total to 100%. The desire to equalize percentages is not covered by Section 27 (b). So, unless all of the owners in your association approve an amendment to the common element percentages, they cannot be changed. And it is almost impossible to get all owners to approve such an amendment because, while some owners would see a reduction in their percentage, others would see an offsetting increase, resulting in increased assessments to those owners.

THIS ERWINLAWANSWER IS DATED AS OF 04/30/2019 AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGES IN THE APPLICABLE LAWS, AS MAY OCCUR FROM TIME TO TIME. THE READER SHOULD KEEP THIS IN MIND AND SHOULD ALWAYS VERIFY THAT THIS ANSWER HAS NOT BEEN AFFECTED BY RECENT CHANGES IN THE LAW.