Michigan HOA fine rules

What this means for homeowners

• Michigan has no statute governing fines by a homeowners association in a platted single-family subdivision. None of the Michigan acts reviewed for this entry requires notice before a fine, sets a cure period, guarantees a hearing, or caps the amount of a fine for such an association. Whether the association may fine at all, and what procedure it must follow, is set by the recorded deed restrictions — the declaration of covenants, conditions and restrictions — together with the association's articles and bylaws.
• Michigan's fine statute sits in the Condominium Act and reaches condominiums only. Mich. Comp. Laws § 559.206 is headed "Default by co-owner; relief" and provides that a default by a co-owner entitles the association to relief; its subsection (c) covers the "levying of fines against co-owners after notice and hearing thereon and the imposition of late charges for nonpayment of assessments." That notice-and-hearing requirement has no counterpart for non-condominium associations. The section's history line is 1978 Act 59, effective July 1, 1978, amended by 2000 Act 379.
• Which body of law applies turns on how the community was created, not on what the houses look like. Many Michigan neighborhoods of detached single-family homes are organized as "site condominiums" under a recorded master deed, and the Condominium Act does not limit itself by building type: Mich. Comp. Laws § 559.104 defines a "Condominium unit" as "that portion of the condominium project designed and intended for separate ownership and use, as described in the master deed, regardless of whether it is intended for residential, office, industrial, business, recreational, use as a time-share unit, or any other type of use." A community created by a recorded master deed under the Condominium Act is a condominium and § 559.206 applies to it; a community created by recorded deed restrictions on a platted subdivision is not, and no fine statute applies to it.
• Two Michigan statutes do reach non-condominium homeowners associations, but neither addresses fines. The Homeowners' Energy Policy Act, 2024 PA 68, codified at Mich. Comp. Laws §§ 559.301 through 559.317 with an effective date of April 2, 2025, invalidates homeowners' association provisions that prohibit energy-saving improvements or the installation of solar energy systems, requires each association to adopt a written solar energy policy statement, sets application and approval procedures, and at § 559.315 allows a member to bring a civil action for a violation. The Nonprofit Corporation Act, Mich. Comp. Laws § 450.2101 et seq., supplies corporate mechanics for incorporated associations: § 450.2304 lets a corporation create "1 or more classes of members", provides that unless otherwise stated each member has "1 vote on each matter submitted to a vote of members" while a homeowners association may base voting "on the number of lots owned by each member", and permits membership qualification and expulsion rules that are "equally enforced as to all members"; § 450.2487 gives a member the right to inspect corporate records "during regular business hours" on written demand for a "proper purpose", defined as "a purpose that is reasonably related to a person's interest as a shareholder or member."