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.
Articles, News and Resources
Can you Foreclose on Just Unpaid Fines? How a Recent Decision from the Michigan Court of Appeals May Impact a Condominium Association’s Ability to Collect Unpaid Fines
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...
State Extends Timeframe to File a Claim Under the Marketable Record Title Act
On March 29, 2019, significant amendments to the Marketable Record Title Act (MRTA) went into effect. Under these amendments, for a generic incorporation by reference like "subject to easements and restrictions of record" to validly preserve a restriction recorded...
Do You Have a Responsibility Matrix And Is It Up To Date?
Boards and managers are always looking for ways to make the administration of their condominiums more efficient. Having to sort through the Master Deed (and multiple amendments too!) to figure out whether the association or co-owner is responsible for a certain common...
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...
COVID-19 & Community Association Foreclosures: Boards Encouraged to Enact COVID-19 Related Moratoriums on Foreclosures
Covid-19 has upended normal life for all Americans, from widespread job losses, scrambling for daycare, to working from home while watching the kids at the same time. Community associations have likewise been affected. Such significant disruptions in daily life have,...
Moratorium on Eviction Actions Extended Through June 11, 2020
*** NOTE: The guidelines relating to evictions have been changed since this article was first published. Please find the most up-to-date information here. To provide temporary relief to those individuals that may have been, or would have been, facing eviction...
All Violations Are Not Created Equally During Coronavirus Pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic and the Governor's stay home executive orders have not resulted in the extinction of restriction violations nor have they extinguished the ability to enforce a community's restrictions. While executive orders requiring most Michiganders to...
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...
Get Smart – What Associations Should Consider in Light of the Rising Popularity of Smart Doorbells
Whether its excitement over new technology or a desire to discourage criminal activity, the demand for smart doorbells continues to grow. With these devices, someone is virtually always home and can easily respond to the delivery person, scare off a porch pirate or...
Michigan Court of Appeals Rules That Short-Term Rentals May Violate Single-Family Residential Use Ordinances
Michigan Court of Appeals (unpublished), Docket No. 342831, Decided October 25, 2018 With the advent of Airbnb and similar services, the issue of short-term rentals has increasingly become a problem for condominium and homeowners associations over the last few years....
Recreational Marijuana: What Every Association Should Know
The legalization of marijuana in Michigan concurrently provides a framework for its regulation and control. Association boards will be able to look to the Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marihuana Act (“MRTMA”) (MCL 333.27951 et seq.), and the regulatory scheme...