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.

The CTA filing deadline is approaching with no immediate relief in sight so if your association(s) intends to file (see below regarding whether your association falls under the regulations), we recommend beginning to gather the information necessary to do so. One designated person can file the required report for FREE using the MEEB portal.

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?

We all know that “time flies when you’re having fun“. It also accelerates at warp speed when you’re anticipating a deadline for an undesirable task. Condominium associations are facing such a deadline January 1, 2025. That is when most associations must comply with the Corporate Transparency Act, (CTA), requiring them to identify the people who own and control them.

CTA Reporting

Our board is preparing to file the “Beneficial Ownership Information” report, but one member flatly refuses to provide the information we need. What can we do either to compel his cooperation or to avoid the penalties for filing late, or not filing at all, if he does not?

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.