2026-09-10 · Massachusetts · Legislation · Did not pass

What happened. A bill that would have imposed the first statutory records-production deadline in Massachusetts condominium law died in the 194th General Court. It is not law, and the qualifier matters: Massachusetts still has no deadline at all.

The provisions appeared in identical form in S.980 (Sen. Lydia Edwards) and H.4826 (Rep. Meghan K. Kilcoyne), each as sections 2 and 3 of an eight-section rewrite of M.G.L. c. 183A.¹ Formal sessions ended on 31 July 2026 with neither bill reaching a vote.

The clock the bill would have set

Section 2 would have added a new c. 183A §10(c)(4)(vi) splitting the deadline by how the association is run:

• 10 business days for a self-managed organization of 50 units or fewer
• 5 business days for an organization with a managing agent

Delivery would have had to be electronic, over secure HTTPS, and at no cost to the owner — a direct answer to the per-page copying charge, which is the practical barrier in most Massachusetts records disputes.

The penalty

A $100.00 fine for each day past the applicable deadline. The House version, H.4826, went one step further than the Senate text and named the forum: the fine would have been enforceable in small claims court.²

That is a meaningful drafting choice. A penalty with no named forum leaves an owner to file in Superior Court or the Land Court, where the cost of enforcement exceeds the penalty. A small claims route makes the fine self-enforcing.

Engineering reports

Section 3 would have added §10(c)(4)(vii), requiring disclosure of architectural reports and engineering studies — the category most often withheld from Massachusetts unit owners, and the one that matters most when a building has a structural problem.

1. S.980 bill text, sections 2 and 3, Massachusetts General Court ↩
2. H.4826 bill text, sections 2 and 3, Massachusetts General Court ↩
3. H.4826 bill history, Massachusetts General Court ↩