ILLINOIS CONDOMINIUM PARKING SPACES


ATG has recently received a number of claims involving condominium parking spaces. Because of the shortage of parking in many areas of Chicago and the suburbs, parking spaces are becoming increasingly valuable and a common area of conflict between condominium unit owners. Therefore, condominium buyers are asking ATG to insure title to parking spaces along with title to the condominium unit. Many times the commitment will contain only the legal description for the condominium unit, but later, even at closing, the parties will ask the ATG member to add the parking space. This article explains what you need to know before agreeing to the change.


To minimize the chances that your transaction is the subject of a claim, take the following steps:

  1. Check the prior policy. If the seller produces a prior policy, check to see whether the parking space was specifically described in the legal description on Schedule A. If not, then the parking space was not insured and you must review title to the parking space back to the condominium declaration.



  2. Check the condominium declaration and all amendments to it. Obtain a copy of the condominium declaration and all its amendments. Review the documents to see how parking spaces are allocated. If the parking spaces are common elements, equally shared by all unit owners, then ATG cannot insure a particular parking space. Instead, the legal description for the unit and its common elements provides the most insurance possible for the right to use the parking areas.



  3. Determine the condominium's common elements. Most condominium declarations make parking spaces limited common elements. Limited common elements must be allocated to a particular condominium unit to be insurable and may be allocated either through a deed from the developer or by a chart in the condominium declaration. If the condominium declaration allocates particular parking spaces to particular condominium units, then review the chain of title for the condominium unit to see that the parking space was never conveyed away to a different unit owner. Furthermore, examine all amendments to the declaration to see that it was never amended to change ownership of the parking space. If neither of these two things happened, the title to the parking space can be insured along with the condominium unit.



  4. Review the chain of title for the condominium unit. If the condominium declaration states that the developer was to convey parking spaces to condominium unit owners, then check to see that the chain of title includes a deed from the developer to the first unit owner for the parking space. If not, then the parking space cannot be insured. If the developer did convey the parking space to the first unit owner, then review the chain of title to be sure that the parking space was never conveyed away to a different unit owner.



  5. Review the Sidwell or other tax map. Confirm with your search provider that he or she reviewed the Sidwell or other tax map to determine the correct PIN or PINs for the property, and that he or she looked to see if the parking space had its own PIN, separate from the unit. If it does, be sure that your search provider searched both PINs and that both PINs' information has been properly raised as an exception on the commitment.



When you review the chain of title for a condominium unit and its parking space, be aware that limited common elements need not be specifically described in the legal description for their titles to pass along with title to the condominium unit. Be aware of the following situations, which pose greater insuring risks:

  1. If at some point the unit owner switched parking spaces with a neighbor; or



  2. If the current unit owner has more parking spaces than most unit owners are entitled to; or



  3. If the current owner is using a different parking space than the one allocated to his or her condominium unit.



In these situations, review the documents in the chain of title carefully and contact the Underwriting Department for approval to insure the parking space. Using the above guidelines, you will be able to write insurance policies that provide coverage for condominium parking spaces, and peace of mind for all parties to the transaction.

© ATG UB0507vol10no2

 

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