Need help on forming HOA in Michigan

Started by AllisonS1 • 5 replies • 2796 views

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AllisonS1 (Michigan)
Posts: 1

Posted:

Hi. I need information on how to start a HOA in southeast Michigan. It will be a small HOA that will only contain 4 households. We live on a private road and we do have a road maintenance agreement but I think that needs to be enforced by a HOA.
Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

JanetB2 (Colorado)
Posts: 4,219

Posted:

Hi Allison:

Let me explain some potential facts for you first:

1) All four homeowners would have to agree to have Declaration of CCR’s attached to and running with their properties for potentially the life of the property.

2) If I was one of only four homes who already had a road maintenance agreement … I would not agree to #1 above.

3) There may come a point in time where the local city/county could potentially end up maintaining said “private road”, but which might be a less likely scenario if an HOA with Declaration was attached to the properties and already in place.

4) Michigan has what I consider crummy HOA statutes currently in place, so at this time not real good property protection.

I would recommend you first discuss this issue with the current other homeowners, because as I stated in #1 above without 100% agreement from all owners you will not be able to implement the HOA. If all agree and want this even after you have considered all aspects above, let us know and we will tell you know how to proceed.

SusanW1 (Michigan)
Posts: 5,202

Posted:

You are not detached site condos - right?
There will be no other common areas or CCRs - right?

Somewhere there needs to be a deed that signed over the roads to ????
WHO is the owner right now?

You can form a non profit community association, with all four homes as members and set the dues.

MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836

Posted:

You may be able to find the documentation you need at an office supply store. Look in the area of "rental agreements". The store may not have it on their shelf but should be able to order it. There are options of just paperwork or with a CD. Your looking for "Article of Incorporation", "Non-Profit corporation" or other similar titles. They may have HOA specific documentation as well. This will save you some time and expense in hiring an attorney. You still may need a lawyer to file the documentation at the court house. If you do hire a lawyer, make sure they are familiar with CONTRACTUAL law or business law. It's counter-intuitive to NOT want to hire a Real Estate attorney I know. But your dealing with a Corporation/Contracts.

Good luck! It may be a good thing if it works well and together. Don't be frightened by the horror stories. Sometimes HOA are a good thing for different situations. Yours may be that different situation.

Former HOA President

TimL2 (Texas)
Posts: 11

Posted:

Hi. Has this been a consensual discussion among all four households already and you were appointed to research this, or is this your idea and you're gathering information before presenting an idea to your neighbors. I don't guess it really matters as far as the info your likely to get, but I think the followup conversation with your neighbors will most likely have a different tone.

For four households, I cannot likely see real benefit in establishing an HOA. At that size, in my opinion, it would be harmful to resale value of any of those four homes on the market. It's too easy for two or three households to gang up and pass votes with that small of a mix.

I'm curious.

Regards,

Tim

SusanW1 (Michigan)
Posts: 5,202

Posted:

The only reason would be the care of the road. She doesn't say how long it is, if it is paved, and what the long range goals are for maintenance/repair.

IMHO the 4 homes need a structured plan for the maintenance and replair/replacement of this road. But it must be mandatory upkeep.

Still in question is the deed for the road. Someone had to have deeded it over to the informal HOA now in existence.

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