February 28, 2012 – Trying to talk to an employee of her condominium about a sewer project has already cost a Chicago homeowner $450 and now the condo association is threatening to take Catherine McCarty’s condo unit from her over unpaid legal fees three times that amount.

McCarty is not just a resident of Thorndale Beach North, a 151-unit condominium in the Edgewater community north of downtown, she happens to serve on the condo association’s board of directors.

The attorney threatening her with possession of her condo unit is judicial candidate Ellis Levin, the former attorney for Marina Towers Condominium Association.

On September 26, 2011, McCarty says she was only trying to talk to a building employee about the sewer work being done. The president of the condo board, 74-year-old Sigrid Ingold, with whom McCarty has had long-running disputes, says she was “attempting to interfere in the work of association employees.” McCarty was fined $450, which she paid, plus $1,554 in legal fees, which she did not – pointing out all Levin did, was write one letter.

In that letter, dated October 6, Levin (left) claims the incident was a “verbal attack” by McCarty that caused the employee “great distress” and was meant to “fluster and frighten him.”

“I paid the bogus fine and sent a letter to everyone explaining how attorney fees were not incurred to collect a fine,” says McCarty, “only to write letters.”

McCarty says she has seen no documentation of how Levin’s fees were determined.

In addition to the $1,554 in legal fees, Levin, in his February 24 letter to McCarty, says she also owes $70 in late charges plus a new charge of $92.50 for the “thirty day demand” letter. If McCarty does not pay in 30 days, her “right to possession of the premises will be terminated.”

Levin, a former state representative who served Chicago in the General Assembly from 1977 to 1995, is one of six candidates running in Cook County’s 8th sub-circuit that includes Edgewater and downtown Chicago.

In 1983, Levin co-authored amendments to the Illinois Condominium Property Act.

 Related story: Levin helps condo board president “bully,” say frustrated board members