HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - December 24, 2021
Published: Fri, 12/24/21
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HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - December 24, 2021
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We often hear our experts complain that condos and HOA seem to be in a no-win position when it comes to evaluating requests for accommodation under fair housing and disabilities laws. It seems not all claims of special needs are real, but it seems to invite liability to take too hard a stance.
In this week's tip, we discuss Spiegel v. The Illinois Human Rights Commission, an Illinois case in which an appellate court held that it was OK for a condo association to deny a resident's request to leave his orthopedic chair at the pool overnight as a reasonable accommodation.
The 1618 Sheridan Road Condo Association includes eight units, and Marshall Spiegel, one of its unit owners, had a physical disability related to either his prostate or his neck and back, according to the Illinois appellate court opinion. Spiegel's doctors recommended he use an orthopedic chair.
The condo implemented a rule requiring that owners who brought furniture, floatation devices, and so on to the pool area must remove those items daily. Spiegel was cited for leaving his orthopedic chair at the pool overnight.
He then asked for permission to do so. The board responded with a request for more information from a doctor explaining why Spiegel needed to keep the chair at the pool when he wasn't there. Spiegel submitted support from three doctors, but the association still denied his request, noting that Spiegel's doctors hadn't clearly addressed his medical situation or were from doctors who had previously offered letters and weren't independent third parties.
Spiegel filed another complaint, and the Illinois Human Rights Commission dismissed it. On appeal, the court held that the IHRC's dismissal was proper because Spiegel hadn't established that leaving his chair at the pool overnight was reasonable or necessary to deal with his disability.
The court stated:
"No evidence showed that the symptoms of Spiegel's physical disability were ameliorated by leaving the chair at the pool overnight. None of the doctors' letters that Spiegel presented to the Association confirmed that his disability required that he leave his chair by the pool overnight to alleviate his disability symptoms so that he could use the pool area like any other pool user. Although those doctors' letters recommended the use of a certain chair and that he not lift anything over 15 pounds, they did not explain why Spiegel's disability required that he not move his chair or that it stay at the pool overnight... Since the beginning, the Association requested yet received no evidence connecting this claim to the symptoms of a disability. And that was why the Commission determined that there was no evidence showing that leaving the chair at the pool overnight had anything to do with alleviating Spiegel's disability symptoms."
This case is either a refreshing change or what you'd expect given the facts. Read more in our new article: https://www.hoaleader.com/members/4441.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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