Your Windy City Guide

Your Windy City Guide:City of Chicago imposes trash fee that will sock condo and homeowner associations: "Effective with April 1st your trash hauler will be adding the full payment of the annual permit fee to your association’s bill. For some associations, this fee will come as huge shock and potentially a significant cash flow issue, especially those who use trash-totes for individual units. The minimum fee is $80.00 per trash container up to $780 per trash container.

The ordinance is written in such a way that EACH AND EVERY ONE OF OUR TRASH BINS IS SUBJECT TO THE MINIMUM PERMIT FEE.

Refuse haulers have been lobbying the City to repeal the new fee or at least allow customers to pay the fee over several months rather than 100% up front. Unfortunately, the City has not acted upon these requests.

For Wellington Park Homeowners Association that will fee will be approximately $7,520.00 of new tax due in April. That amount will be due every April 1st until the Ordinance is repealed or changed."
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Yet one more unanticipated cost for associations to deal with. Wait until the emerald ash borer gets fully established and local governments order property owners to pay for cutting down and hauling away all their ash trees. The way I see it, local governments get squeezed financially and the first thing they do is start offloading costs and charging special user fees. Associations are a perfect target for this because, unlike businesses, they can't relocate.