May 1, 2025
Understanding Easement Rights Between Adjoining Condos: What Hunters Woods Teaches Us Easement disputes between adjoining condominium associations can often lead to complicated and contentious legal battles. This is especially true in phased developments where multiple condominium communities share infrastructure, utilities, or access roads, yet their ownership and use rights may not always be clearly defined. One such case, Hunters Woods…
Read More →
April 17, 2025
“[R]estrictions for residence purposes, if clearly established by proper instruments, are favored by definite public policy. The courts have long and vigorously enforced them by specific mandate.” Oosterhouse v Brummel, 343 Mich 283, 287; 72 NW2d 6 (1955). Property owners within community associations across Michigan and the nation are increasingly installing swim spas in their backyards, though often in violation…
Read More →
March 26, 2025
3 Legal Essentials for Michigan Condo Boards Adopting Rules The governing documents of a condominium association are intended to address the various provisions and restrictions that apply to the co-owners and the association. The condominium documents, however, simply cannot address each and every specific situation that may arise. Or a provision in the condominium documents may address a topic in…
Read More →
March 20, 2025
Michigan Court Confirms: Tax Foreclosure Sale Does Not Eliminate Obligation to Pay HOA Assessments On May 12, 2000, the Michigan Court of Appeals issued an important decision in Lakes of the North Association v. Twiga Limited Partnership, clarifying that a Michigan tax foreclosure sale does not cancel the obligation to pay HOA assessments. This case is critical for condominium and…
Read More →
March 18, 2025
Michigan Court Rules that Livestock, Unauthorized Fences, and Off-Road Vehicles Violated HOA’s Restrictive Covenants Disputes over whether exotic animals, such as chickens, can constitute pets under restrictive covenants are becoming increasingly common. In Nemeth v DiGirolamo, unpublished opinion of the Court of Appeals, issued March 12, 2025 (Docket No. 366595), 2025 WL 796149, the Michigan Court of Appeals considered whether…
Read More →
March 13, 2025
Michigan Court of Appeals Confirms HOA Board’s Right to Hire a Property Manager The Michigan Court of Appeals recently reaffirmed that a homeowners association (HOA) board has the authority to hire a property management company for compensation, even when an HOA’s bylaws state that “agents” must serve without compensation. In Neuman v. Long Lake Shores Association, the court clarified that…
Read More →
