Michigan · Related laws

Miscellaneous & related Michigan laws

Beyond the core condominium, corporate, and civil-rights acts, Michigan scatters a handful of provisions that can reach your community — including a 2022 tool that lets an HOA erase discriminatory deed restrictions — plus a few laws people often assume apply but don't.

Michigan statutes What applies — and what doesn't
Overview

HOPB hosts the full text of the Michigan statutes that most affect homeowners' and condominium associations — you'll find them all on the Michigan HOA laws hub. This page covers the edges: HOA-specific provisions tucked into the conveyancing and property chapters, older laws that some communities are organized under, and a short list of laws that are commonly assumed to apply but do not.

Because these are scattered provisions we don't reproduce in full, each entry below is a brief plain-language summary with its citation; the official text is available from the Michigan Legislature.

Related & HOA-specific provisions

Provisions that can reach your community.

A mix of recent, squarely HOA-specific tools and broader Michigan laws that can bear on a community and its members.

Discriminatory deed restrictions — void, and your HOA can erase themMCL 565.863–565.870

Under a 2022 law, a recorded “prohibited restriction” — a discriminatory covenant limiting ownership or occupancy based on a protected characteristic — is void and unenforceable, and new ones may not be recorded (§§ 565.863, 565.864). Notably for communities, a homeowners' or property owners' association may, by a simple majority vote of its board, record a discharge form to remove such a restriction from a deed affecting property it governs (§ 565.866). A property owner has the same power for their own parcel (§ 565.867), and anyone who refuses to remove a prohibited restriction before recording can be liable for court costs and attorney fees (§ 565.870). This complements the void-covenant rule in the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (§ 37.2505).

Transfer-fee covenants don't run with the landMCL 565.882

A transfer-fee covenant — a private arrangement requiring a fee on every future sale of a property — executed on or after the statute's effective date does not run with the title and is not enforceable against a later owner, purchaser, or mortgagee. This protects Michigan buyers from being locked into a recurring cut of the sale price to a developer or third party. (It does not affect an association's ordinary assessments, which come from the governing documents and the Condominium Act.)

Solar, energy, and the flag — covered by their own lawsAct 68 of 2024; MCL 559.156a

Michigan's strongest homeowner protections here have their own pages. The Homeowners' Energy Policy Act (Act 68 of 2024) bars an association from prohibiting solar-energy systems and a list of energy-saving improvements (clotheslines, heat pumps, EV charging, and more) and requires a written solar policy. And within the Condominium Act, a co-owner's right to display a United States flag on the exterior of the unit is protected (§ 559.156a).

Renting your home or unitMCL 554.601c; Acts 348 of 1972 & 454 of 1978

When a member rents out a home or unit, the tenancy is governed by Michigan's Landlord and Tenant Relationships Act (Act 348 of 1972) and the Truth in Renting Act (Act 454 of 1978), on top of any leasing rules in the community's documents. Separately, a landlord may not discriminate against a tenant based on the tenant's source of income (§ 554.601c).

Summer-resort & park associationsMCL Ch. 455

Some older Michigan lake and resort communities are not organized under the modern Nonprofit Corporation Act at all, but under a set of century-old summer-resort and park association acts (Chapter 455, dating to 1887–1929, including the Incorporation of Summer Resort Owners, Act 137 of 1929). If your community is a summer-resort corporation, its powers and governance may come from one of these older acts — check your articles of association.

Debt collection — federal law protects you15 U.S.C. § 1692

When a third-party collector or attorney pursues unpaid assessments, the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) applies — HOA assessments are “debts” and homeowners are protected “consumers” — and it bars abusive, unfair, or deceptive collection practices, letting a homeowner sue a violator within one year.

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Commonly assumed — but they don't apply here

The myths worth clearing up.

These come up constantly in association disputes. In Michigan, they don't work the way people assume — but the rights people are reaching for usually exist under a different law.

Repealed
The old “Fair Housing Act of 1968” is goneMCL Ch. 564

Michigan's original state Fair Housing Act of 1968 was entirely repealed in 1977 and folded into the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (Act 453 of 1976). If you see a reference to Chapter 564, it points to a repealed law. Michigan fair housing today lives in Elliott-Larsen and, for disability, the Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act (Act 220 of 1976).

Does not exist
There is no Michigan “HOA Act”No general HOA statute

Michigan has a comprehensive Condominium Act, but no comprehensive statute for non-condominium homeowners' associations. A standard subdivision HOA's authority comes from its recorded declaration (covenants) and bylaws, backed by the Nonprofit Corporation Act if it is incorporated. Don't expect the Condominium Act's protections to apply to a site-condo-free subdivision HOA — they generally do not.

Does not apply
Open Meetings Act & FOIA don't reach your HOAMCL §§ 15.262, 15.232

Michigan's Open Meetings Act and Freedom of Information Act reach only a “public body.” The Open Meetings Act (§ 15.262) defines that as a state or local body empowered by the state constitution, statute, charter, ordinance, resolution, or rule to exercise governmental authority; the FOIA (§ 15.232) reaches state and local government bodies and any body created by, or primarily funded by or through, state or local authority. A private homeowners' or condominium association is created by its recorded declaration and funded by member assessments — not a public body — so you can't invoke these acts against your board. The rights you're reaching for — to attend meetings and inspect records — come instead from the Condominium Act (§ 559.157) or the Nonprofit Corporation Act (§ 450.2485) and the community's bylaws.

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General information, not legal advice. The laws summarized here are scattered provisions HOPB does not reproduce in full; for the official current text, see the Michigan Legislature. Always confirm the current law and how it applies to your situation.

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