Selling an Illinois Condo? How the 22.1 Disclosure Actually Works
Key Takeaways:
- The 22.1 isn’t a single document. It’s a package of up to ten items the condo board assembles from its own records.
- The legal duty sits with the seller, who has to obtain the package from the board. The board’s job is to hand it over within 10 business days of a written request.
- Any fee is optional. The statute only caps it: the association may charge the seller up to $375, plus $100 for rush service within 72 hours.
- The 10-day clock starts after there’s a contract. The work behind it can start the day the listing agreement is signed.
- Most delays come from the building, not the paperwork: a volunteer board, documents in three places, and nobody sure who the principal officer is.
This post is for sellers and listing agents. If you’re on the board and a request just landed, the board’s version of this guide walks through each item you have to provide.
I was the board president of a 16-unit building in Chicago, and over my tenure I handled four 22.1 requests. Every one of them arrived the same way: an email from a seller’s attorney, a list of what the board owed, and a deadline. The sellers were my neighbors, and most of them had never heard of a 22.1 until their attorney asked for it. Their listing agents knew the building well enough: agents ask a set list of building questions up front, at listing. But the 22.1 itself runs between the attorneys and the board, mostly out of the agent’s view.
That gap is worth closing, because the agent’s listing questions and the 22.1 draw on the same records. A seller and agent who understand how the 22.1 moves can get ahead of it instead of waiting on it.
What the 22.1 Actually Is
Section 22.1 of the Illinois Condominium Property Act (765 ILCS 605/22.1) says that when an owner resells a condo unit, the owner has to obtain certain information from the board and make it available to the buyer.
There’s no official 22.1 document to download and fill in. What the statute lists is a set of things only the association has: its declaration, bylaws and rules; a statement of the unit’s account; anticipated capital expenditures; the reserve fund’s balance; last year’s financial statement; pending lawsuits; the master insurance coverage; a good-faith statement about alterations to the unit; and who to send notices to. From January 1, 2027, a copy of the association’s collection policy joins the list as a tenth item.
Some of those are documents the board already has. Others are statements the board has to write fresh for your unit. Together they’re the package people mean when they say “the 22.1.” If you want the detail on each item, the board’s guide covers them one at a time.
Who Does What
The statute puts the obligation on the seller, but nearly all of the work sits with the board. In practice it runs like this:
- The listing agent asks the board about the building. When the listing agreement is signed, before there’s any offer, the agent asks the board for the building facts buyers will want: rentals, pets, parking, assessments, planned projects. This isn’t part of the 22.1, but it draws on the same records.
- The unit goes under contract. The buyer’s attorney will want the 22.1 package during attorney review.
- The seller requests it in writing. Usually the seller’s attorney sends the request to the board or its management company. A written request is what starts the board’s clock.
- The board’s principal officer assembles it. In a managed building that’s often the management company acting for the board. In a self-managed building it’s a volunteer, usually the president, doing it in the evenings.
- The package goes back to the seller’s side and on to the buyer’s attorney.
- Questions come back. The buyer’s attorney asks the seller’s attorney, who asks the board. Every question adds a round trip.
Steps 3 through 6 are the 22.1 itself, and the listing agent isn’t formally part of them. But the agent’s request in step 1 is the only one that happens before anyone is watching a deadline, and the agent is still the person the seller calls when the 22.1 stalls.
The Timeline
Once the board has the written request, it has 10 business days to furnish the information. That’s two full weeks on the calendar, and it was 30 days before a 2023 amendment.
Two weeks is a long time inside a real estate deal. Attorney review periods, mortgage commitment dates and closing dates are set by the contract, not by the statute, and they don’t move because the board is still looking for a bylaw amendment from 2004. The board can be fully within its legal deadline and still be the reason the deal feels stuck.
That’s why the useful question for a seller or agent isn’t “how long does the board have?” It’s “how ready is this board?” — and that’s something you can find out long before there’s a contract.
What It Costs the Seller
Possibly nothing. The statute doesn’t require the association to charge a fee. It only limits what the association can charge if it chooses to.
If the board does charge, the fee has to be reasonable and cover its direct out-of-pocket costs for producing the information and copying, up to $375. That cap adjusts each year with inflation. If the seller needs the package faster, the association may charge an extra $100 for rush service completed within 72 hours.
Those are ceilings, not set prices. Ask the board or management company what it charges when you ask who to send the request to.
What Slows It Down
In my experience, the statute is rarely the problem. The building is. These are the usual culprits:
Nobody knows who to ask. The statute says the principal officer, or whoever the association designated for notices. In a small self-managed building that may be a president who changed last spring, and the seller may not have the current contact.
Documents in three places. The declaration is with one former board member, the latest amendment was recorded but never circulated, and the insurance certificate is in someone’s email. Each missing piece is a day.
No financial statement ready. The statute only requires the last fiscal year’s statement of financial condition. Buyers’ attorneys usually ask for more — the current budget, recent financials — and a board without an accounting system produces those by hand.
“Anticipated” capital expenditures. The board has to disclose spending it anticipates over the current and next two fiscal years, not just projects it has formally approved. If the board has been talking about the roof, someone has to decide what to write, and that conversation takes time.
The lender’s questionnaire. Separate from the 22.1, the buyer’s lender will usually send the board its own condominium questionnaire. It isn’t required by law, but the buyer’s financing depends on it, so it lands on the same volunteer in the same week.
None of these are things a seller or agent can fix. All of them are things you can find out early.
Your Listing Questions Are the Head Start
Listing agents already do the most useful thing anyone can do before the 22.1 lands. When the listing agreement is signed, you ask the building questions buyers will have: how many units are rented and whether there’s a rental cap, pet rules, parking, the monthly assessment and what it covers, any special assessments or planned projects.
Answering those questions sends the board to the same records the 22.1 draws on: the declaration and bylaws, the rules, the budget, the insurance, the minutes. If the board gathers them once, at listing, the 22.1 starts from documents that are already in hand. If the answers come back as a quick email from memory, the board starts from scratch when the attorney’s request arrives.
While you’re asking, it’s also the moment to confirm who the board president is, whether there’s a management company, and who should receive the written 22.1 request when the time comes.
That’s what our free building profile for Illinois listing agents does. You send the board president one link. They upload whatever documents they have, Nestingbird’s AI pulls out the building facts, and the president checks each answer against the passage it came from before sharing. You get a page with the confirmed facts and the documents the president chose to share. It’s free for you and for the board, and neither of you needs an account.
The building profile isn’t the 22.1. Nothing in it is signed or certified. But it means the board has already gathered its documents and confirmed the facts by the time the attorneys ask. When the unit goes under contract, the board can prepare the official 22.1 in Nestingbird, starting from what the profile already collected.
The Bottom Line
The 22.1 feels like a surprise because it arrives after the contract, when everyone is already watching the clock. But the information in it doesn’t change between listing and contract. The roof is the same roof, the bylaws are the same bylaws.
If you’re selling or listing an Illinois condo, don’t wait for the attorney’s request to find out whether the board is ready. Ask at listing. The board’s 10 business days go a lot faster when the work is already done.
This post explains how the process usually works. It isn’t legal advice. The seller’s and buyer’s attorneys are the people to ask about a specific transaction.
About the Author: Nathan Jones is the founder of Nestingbird, a platform that helps HOA boards and property managers handle finances, maintenance, and communication — including resale disclosure packets for Illinois (22.1) and Washington (resale certificate). Listing agents can request a free building profile from any Illinois condo board.