PARK RIDGE, Ill. (WGN) — It’s been nearly three years since flames ripped through a condominium complex in northwest suburban Park Ridge.
Since then, unit owners have continued to pay mortgages, homeowner association fees, insurance and more, even as the property’s reconstruction has stalled.
“It was pretty much a total loss,” condo owner Bonnie Lennon said.
The fire started in a top-floor unit in May 2022. There were no serious injuries. The cause was determined to be accidental.
Owners hoped for a quick rebuild.
But only the roof and windows have been installed. Owners told WGN Investigates they don’t know of a timetable for the building’s full completion.
“We have been told there is a gap between…how much the restoration company wants to charge and how much the insurance company believes they need to pay,” owner Noreen Reilly said.
Owners say they’ve been told the two sides are millions of dollars apart.
“There’s no end in sight,” Reilly said. “We don’t know.”
WGN Investigates has previously reported how residents of other residential properties, including a Hyde Park high-rise, faced long construction delays after a fire, causing severe financial stress.
Real estate experts we interviewed say they’re not surprised.
“Often times, there’s a delta between the cost to rebuild and what the insurance company is willing to pay,” said Aaron Stanton, an attorney at law firm Burke, Warren, MacKay & Serritella P.C., and an expert on real estate and construction.
In such cases, state law says owners can either pay the difference, or they can move to sell the property and split the proceeds.
Ideally, a condo association’s insurance should cover the full cost of the rebuild.
But insurance premiums in recent years have risen so rapidly that many condo associations have taken less coverage to save money.
“That’s a perilous move, in my view,” said James Stevens, an attorney at Burke, Warren, MacKay & Serritella P.C., and an expert on the Illinois Condominium Property Act. “The way it should work in an ideal world is there is enough money to rebuild.”
Lennon and other owners said they don’t know why there’s such a divide between their insurance and restoration companies. But they do know with each passing day, it’s becoming harder to hold on and keep paying for condos that aren’t even livable.
“We want it finished,” Lennon said. “We’ve waited. We’ve been patient.”
Calls to the insurance and restoration companies were not immediately returned.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
