A Massachusetts Appeals Court has rejected a long-standing interpretation of the Massachusetts state statute (which prohibits housing-related discrimination) that required condo associations in many cases to pay for common area modifications requested by disabled owners and residents.

The holidays arrived early for one of our condominium association clients, which found $22,000 that belonged to it on the list of unclaimed property held by the State Treasurer’s Office.  The money was in the form of a bank CD the board had not been able to redeem.   

Residents of a Cape Code manufactured housing community (a/k/a mobile home park) appear to have won a five-year legal battle to purchase their community.  At trial, a Superior Court judge ruled that the residents had not met the procedural requirements for exercising their statutory right of first refusal provided under the state Manufactured Housing Act, clearing the way for an investor to purchase the park.  But on appeal, the Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled that the Superior Court erred on several key points of law and fact.  The Appeals Court remanded the case back to the lower court and ordered the judge to correct the errors and issue a new ruling based on those corrections.

As previously reported, MEEB filed a pro bono legal action in Federal District Court against the U.S. Treasury Department and FinCEN seeking a declaration from the Court that the Corporate Transparency Act’s (“CTA”) beneficial interest filing requirements do not apply to unincorporated associations or condominium trusts. In response to the suit, the Department of Justice took the position that the case should be dismissed because the CTA’s filing requirements and enforcement mechanisms do not apply to condominium trusts in Massachusetts as MEEB set out in the Complaint. MEEB replied to this motion to dismiss seeking further confirmation from the Court that the CTA did not apply to the Lewis Wharf Condominium Trust, which was the lead plaintiff in this matter.

Do you hear what I hear? Holiday music is already playing everywhere. Children are creating pages-long lists of the gifts they want. And association board members are envisioning the holiday decorations – from the divine to the detestable – that owners will want to display and wondering what on earth to do about them. Decorating tastes differ, and when it comes to holiday decorations, tastes differ a lot. These differences may seem trivial, but the disputes they trigger and the issues they raise are anything but. Freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and anti-discrimination laws all may come into play if these arguments end up in court, as they sometimes do.

Newly enacted revisions to the Massachusetts Homestead Act increase the ability of homeowners to protect their homes from the claims of creditors. The changes allow homeowners to retain up to $1 million of the equity in their primary residence – up from $500,000 under the old law.

The CTA filing deadline is approaching with no immediate relief in sight so if your association(s) intends to file (see below regarding whether your association falls under the regulations), we recommend beginning to gather the information necessary to do so. One designated person can file the required report for FREE using the MEEB portal.

When considering the maintenance obligations of community associations and condominium owners, the governing principal seems clear: Unit owners are responsible for maintaining and repairing anything within the boundaries of their units; the association is responsible for common areas and components outside of them. But few aspects of community association governance are perfectly clear, and maintenance obligations are not among them.

RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANSWERING LENDER QUESTIONNAIRES

An owner in our community has reached an agreement with a buyer who wants to purchase the owner’s unit.  The lender providing the buyer’s mortgage has submitted a questionnaire seeking extensive information about the community’s finances, its structural condition and pending litigation among other things.  Is the board required to respond?

We all know that “time flies when you’re having fun“. It also accelerates at warp speed when you’re anticipating a deadline for an undesirable task. Condominium associations are facing such a deadline January 1, 2025. That is when most associations must comply with the Corporate Transparency Act, (CTA), requiring them to identify the people who own and control them.