By Amy M. Smith and Todd J. Skowronski HB 5019 is a new bill pending in the Michigan House that will require condominium associations in the state to conduct periodic reserve studies to help plan for future repairs and replacements. The Community Associations...
Assessments
Michigan Condos – Addressing New Lending Questionnaires
UPDATE: See also our October 2023 update on Lending Questionnaires. It has been just over a year since tragedy struck Surfside, Florida, when ninety-eight individuals perished in when a 12-story beachfront condominium partially collapsed. The national response...
Michigan Court Of Appeals Confirms Need To Pay Condo Dues
Frye v. Golfpointe Village Condominium Association The condominium and homeowner association attorneys at Makower Abbate Guerra Wegner Vollmer recently successfully defended a challenge by a co-owner relating to her unpaid condominium association assessments. In Frye...
Deferred Maintenance and Revised Lender Questionnaires: Responding to the Surfside Tragedy
On October 13, 2021, the Federal National Mortgage Association issued Lender Letter to take effect January 1, 2022. This Lender Letter temporarily revises the eligibility requirements for lenders issuing loans that may be purchased by Fannie Mae for properties located in condominiums containing five or more attached units.
5 Things Every Board Member Must Know for Long-Term Planning: A Guide to Proactive Decision Making
Long-term planning is one of the primary duties an individual undertakes when seated on the board of directors for a community association. There is a constant balance that must be found between a desire to keep assessment levels steady (and low) and ensuring that the items which the association is responsible for repairing, replacing and maintaining are properly handled in the short and long-term.
Can you Foreclose on Just Unpaid Fines? The Michigan Court of Appeals Renders a Decision
In a unanimous but problematic decision issued on February 25, 2021 in Channel View East Condominium Association, Inc. v Ferguson (Docket No. 351888), a panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals held that a condominium association did not have authority to foreclose its...
Association Funding: Budgeting, Assessments, and Reserves
Association boards have a variety of responsibilities in administering the affairs of a condominium or homeowner association. Some of the most important responsibilities include ensuring that the association has sufficient funding to maintain, repair and replace items...
What Every Board Member Should Consider to Reduce Assessments
A condominium association’s board of directors has a seemingly endless list of responsibilities, but one of the most important – at least in terms of its impact on the membership – is the adoption of an annual budget. In simple terms, adopting a budget requires the...
Rules Your Community Association Should Consider Adopting
Does our Board have rulemaking authority? In Michigan, a condominium association Board has the implicit authority to enact reasonable rules and regulations regarding the condominium. Generally speaking, this authority is quite broad and unless otherwise specified in...
Two Condominium Bylaw Provisions That Every Board Should Review to Ensure that Assessments are not Unnecessarily Depleted
Assessments are the means by which all associations operate, and assessments provide the necessary income to maintain and enhance a community's assets to protect and maximize unit values. When assessment levels get too high, the very assessments that are essential to...
Insuring Condominium Property Under a “Single Entity” Insurance Policy
One of the primary functions of a condominium's governing documents is to establish the respective responsibilities of the association and the co-owners for maintaining, repairing and insuring everything located within the project. During the early days of condominium...
Bankruptcy – What Every Condominium Association Must Know
Delinquent assessments are unfortunately a frequent and practically universal problem for condominium associations. The collection of delinquent assessments is essential to the viability of any condominium association; however, these collection efforts can become...