9.01 In General:
There has been and shall be created, under the laws of the State of Illinois, a not-for-profit corporation to be known as the Lake Wildwood Association, Inc., which is herein referred to as “the Property Owners’ Association” or “the Association”. Every person who acquires title (legal or equitable) to any numbered lot in the Development shall be a member of the Association, and no person shall acquire such a title until he shall have been approved for membership in the Association. No owner of a numbered lot in the Development shall have the power to convey the title to said real estate to any person who shall not have been approved for membership in the Property Owners Association. The foregoing provision requiring that owners of numbered residential lots within the Development be members of the Property Owners Association is not intended to apply to those persons who hold an interest in such real estate merely as security for the performance of an obligation to pay money, e.g., mortgagees and land contract vendors. However, if such person should realize upon his security and become the real owner of a numbered lot within the Development, he will then be subject to all the requirements and limitations imposed in these Restrictions on owners of numbered lots within the Development and on members of the Property Owners Association, including those provisions with respect to alienation and the payment of an annual charge.
9.02 Purposes of the Property Owners Association:
a. The general purpose of the Property Owners Association is that of providing a means whereby the streets and those areas within the Development designated as parks, lakes, recreational areas or other amenities on the plats thereof, and such other recreational facilities within the Development as may be conveyed to the Association, may be operated, maintained, repaired, and replaced.
b. An additional purpose of the Property Owners Association is that of providing a means for the promulgation and enforcement of all regulations necessary to the governing of the use and enjoyment of such streets, parks, lakes, recreational facilities or other amenities and such other recreational facilities within the Development as may be conveyed to the Association.
9.03 Power of Property Owners Association to Levy and Collect Charges & Impose Liens:
a. The Property Owners Association shall have all the powers that are set out in its Articles of Incorporation and all other powers that belong to it by operation of law, including, (but not limited to) the power to levy, against every member of the Association, a uniform annual charge of not less than Thirty ($30.00) Dollars per numbered single-family residential lot within the Development (“Assessment”), or such greater amount per numbered single-family residential lot within the Development as may be determined by the Board of Directors of the Association after consideration of current maintenance needs and future needs of the Association, for the purposes set forth in its Articles of Incorporation; provided, however, that no such charge shall ever be made against, or be payable by, the Developer, the Association itself, or any corporation that may be created to acquire title to, and operate the utilities serving the Development.
b. Every such charge so made shall be paid by the member to the Property Owners Association on or before the first day of March of each year, for the ensuing year. The Board of Directors of the Property Owners Association shall fix the amount of the annual charge per lot by the first day of February of each year, and written notice of the charge so fixed shall be sent to each member.
c. Each Owner shall receive through a prescribed delivery method, at least thirty (30) days but not more than sixty (60) days prior to the adoption thereof by the Board, a copy of the proposed annual budget together with an indication of which portions are intended for reserves, capital expenditures or repairs or payment of real estate taxes.
d. The Board shall provide all Owners a reasonable detailed summary of the receipts, common expenses, and reserves for the preceding budget year. The Board shall (1) make available for review to all Owners an itemized accounting of the common expenses for the preceding year actually incurred or paid, together with an indication of which portions were for reserves, capital expenditures or repairs or payment of real estate taxes and with a tabulation of the amounts collected pursuant to the budget or assessment, and showing the net excess or deficit of income over expenditures plus reserves or (2) provide a consolidated annual independent audit report of the financial status of all fund accounts within the Association.
e. If an adopted budget or any separate assessment adopted by the Board would result in the sum of all regular and separate assessments payable in the current fiscal year exceeding 115% of the sum of all regular and separate assessments payable during the preceding fiscal year, the Association, upon written petition by owners with 20% of the votes of the Association delivered to the Board within fourteen (14) days of the Board action, shall call a meeting of the owners within thirty (30) days of the date of delivery of the petition to consider the budget or separate assessment; unless a majority of the total votes of the owners are cast at the meeting to reject the budget or separate assessment, it shall be deemed ratified.
f. If total common expenses exceed the total amount of the approved and adopted budget, the common interest community association shall disclose this variance to all its members and specifically identify the subsequent assessments needed to offset this variance in future budgets.
g. Separate assessments for expenditures relating to emergencies or mandated by law may be adopted by the Board without being subject to owner approval or the provisions of subsection 9.03(e) or (h) of this Section. As used herein, “emergency” means an immediate danger to the structural integrity of the Development or to the life, health, safety, or property of the owners.
h. Assessments for additions and alterations to the Development or to Association-owned property not included in the adopted annual budget, shall be separately assessed and are subject to approval of two-thirds of the total members at a meeting called for that purpose.
i. The Board may adopt separate assessments payable over more than one fiscal year. With respect to multi-year assessments not governed by subsections (g) and (h) of this Section, the entire amount of the multi-year assessment shall be deemed considered and authorized in the first fiscal year in which the assessment is approved.
j. The Board has the authority to establish and maintain a system of master metering of public utility services to collect payments in conjunction therewith, subject to the Tenant Utility Payment Disclosure Act.
k. If any charge shall not be paid when due, it shall bear interest from the date of delinquency at the rate of 6% per annum; the Association may publish the name of the delinquent member in a list of delinquent members, or by any other means of publication; and the Association may file a notice that it is the owner of a lien to secure payment of the unpaid charge, plus costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees, which lien shall encumber the lot or lots in respect of which the charge shall have been made, and which notice shall be filed in the Office of the Recorder of the County in which the lot or lots so encumbered shall lie. Every such lien may be foreclosed by equitable foreclosure at any time within three (3) years after the date on which the notice thereof shall have been filed. In addition to the remedy of lien foreclosure, the Property Owners Association shall have the right to sue for such unpaid charges, interests, costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees, in any court of competent jurisdiction as for a debt owed by the delinquent member or members of the Association. Every person who shall become the owner of the title (legal or equitable) to a numbered lot in the Development by any means is hereby notified that, by the act of acquiring such title, such person will be conclusively held to have covenanted to pay the Property Owners Association all charges that the Association shall make pursuant to this sub-paragraph 9.03 of the Restrictions.
l. The Property Owners Association shall, upon demand, at any time, furnish a certificate in writing signed by an officer of the Association certifying that the assessments on a specified lot have been paid or that certain assessments against said lot remain unpaid, as the case may be. A reasonable charge may be made by the Board of Directors of the Property Owners Association for the issuance of these certificates. Such certificate shall be conclusive evidence of payment of any assessment therein stated to have been paid.
9.04 Purpose of the Assessments:
The assessments levied by the Property Owners Association shall be used exclusively for the purpose of promoting the recreation, health, safety and welfare of the members of the Association, and in particular, for the improvement and maintenance of the properties owned or operated by the Association.
9.05 Suspension of Privileges of Membership:
Notwithstanding each member’s consent for use and enjoyment reserved in Article 8 hereof, the Board of Directors of the Association shall have the right to suspend the voting rights (if any) and the right to use the facilities of the Association of any member or associate member (a) for any period during which any Association charge (including fines, if any, assessed under Article 10 of the Restrictions, below), owed by the member or associate member remains unpaid; (b) and during the period of any continuing violation of the restrictive covenants for the Development, after the existence of the violation shall have been declared by the Board of Directors of the Association; and (c) while any utility bill for water service rendered to the member shall remain unpaid.