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.

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.

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?

The Massachusetts housing crisis has been at the top of the Healy administration’s priority list since Governor Healy took office in January 2023. Over the last several decades, the housing inventory has fallen far short of the need created by the Commonwealth’s impressive economic expansion, and the cost of purchasing or renting a home in Massachusetts is beyond the reach of many.

It may be time to replace the expression “death and taxes” with “death, taxes and NH Condo Act amendments.” Year in, and year out, it seems the legislature will continue to make tweaks to the statute. We will utilize this space to keep you informed of such changes. Thankfully the changes in question are good ones in that they give a board more flexibility for informal meetings.

In the early morning hours on August 1, 2024, on the very last day of formal sessions for the 2023-2024 Massachusetts legislative session, the House and Senate passed a comprehensive housing bill allowing for electronic meetings and voting in condominiums. The Governor is expected to sign the legislation in the coming days. This is a tremendous victory for Massachusetts condominiums and one that MEEB attorneys have supported for many years.