When is turnover "official"?

Are you a Condominium?

This is a definition from the Condominium statutes and which states:
(7) “Transitional control date” means the date on which a board of directors for an association of co-owners takes office pursuant to an election in which the votes that may be cast by eligible co-owners unaffiliated with the developer exceed the votes which may be cast by the developer.

What I would recommend is sending a “Certified Return Receipt” letter to the developer with your requests for any of the documentation he is suppose to provide to the non developer board. Check things out especially any financial information, if he now is all of a sudden playing hard to get and avoiding the new HOA Board … it possibly sends up a red flag and there potentially may be a reason, so proceed with caution.

Here is a good document that RogerB has previously posted and describes items regarding transitioning from developer.

You will also want to get a copy of your documentation if possible. The Convenants and Restrictions should be on file at your local court house. The Incorporation documentation is filed as state level but may be there as well. The by-laws may not be filed and aren't required to be so in some state. YOu can find this at your RECORDS department in the court house.

The HOA will need to update the documentation to remove the developer's name and voting system. The HOA may want to do some updating at the same time. I'd recommend a lawyer familiar with contractual or corporate/business law. The changes may require a special meeting of the general membership and 51 - 90% vote to pass. All that will be in the documentation on the vote requirement to change.

This process took us about 2 years and about $2K to file. This cost didn't include making copies for each owner. However, your HOA is just forming and may be easier to set up than ours. I'd strongly advise getting a lawyer to assist. Be careful as they do charge for phone calls and email correspondence.

Hi Valerie:

Maybe Susan or someone else from Michigan will have more advice. From what I have reviewed it appears that Michigan does not have HOA statutes, unless there is something I hopefully missed. I only found Condominium statutes.

While I understand that HOA’s are necessary and needed for Condominiums and sometimes Single Family HOA Developments. What I find harmful is states and more counties/cities are requiring; however, they are not taking into consideration certain circumstances.

Your HOA should have had better protection in insuring that after developer control you have at least a certain amount of money set aside. An HOA needs a certain amount of funds for initial operation and potential attorney fees to start the association under the homeowners properly.

Sorry … this is one item that irritates me a little and which all of us HOA owners need to potentially mail letters to our legislators to try and insure proper protections are in place for transition from developers. How do some states think an HOA after electing a homeowner board is suppose to set up bank accounts, order checks, purchase office supplies, pay bills, etc. and essentially operate a business with no initial operating capital? HELLO …