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

What happened. A bill that would have given Massachusetts condominium owners somewhere to complain other than a courtroom cleared its policy committee and then went nowhere. H.1523, An Act establishing an office of the condominium ombudsman, was filed by Representative Kevin G. Honan, reported favorably on 11 August 2025, and referred to House Ways and Means.¹ It received no further action before formal sessions ended on 31 July 2026.

The distinction matters for anyone reading the docket: this bill was not sent to study. It was reported favorably and then left alone.

What the office would have been

The bill added new sections 23, 24 and 25 to M.G.L. c. 183A, creating an Office of the Condominium Ombudsman “located for administrative purposes within the Office of the Attorney General.”

Its duties would have run in both directions — the office was to receive, investigate and resolve complaints from unit owners, boards and community associations alike, report to the Attorney General and the Legislature, act as a liaison, publish educational material on rights and responsibilities, and recommend rule changes.

The funding mechanism

This is the provision that made the bill concrete, and the one most likely to have attracted scrutiny in Ways and Means: a $50 fee on condominium sales exceeding $100, dedicated exclusively to funding the ombudsman's office and an accompanying mediation pilot.²

A per-transaction fee on real estate conveyances is, in Massachusetts, a politically loaded instrument regardless of its size — the same mechanism sits at the centre of the long-running local-option transfer fee debate.

1. H.1523 bill history, Massachusetts General Court ↩
2. H.1523 bill text, Massachusetts General Court ↩
3. Joint Committee on Housing hearing, 4 June 2025 (condominium bills) ↩