2026-09-10 · Massachusetts · Courts

What happened. A section of the Massachusetts Condominium Act that most boards treat as dormant was used to force an association to buy a unit from an owner who objected to a post-fire restoration.

In Samuels v. Stratford Condominium Trust, Suffolk Superior Court civil action 1784 CV 0413, the court ordered the trust to purchase the objecting owner's unit at fair market value. The trust satisfied the judgment — $835,000 — in January 2025. Counsel involved describe it as the first known court-ordered buy-back of its kind in Massachusetts.¹

How it arose

• A seven-alarm fire on 1 February 2014 damaged the Stratford 31 Condominium in Boston's Back Bay.
• Martin Samuels had owned commercial office space in the building for 31 years.
• The trustees sought owner approval to restore. Seventy-five percent of owners consented. Samuels refused to waive his statutory rights, objecting to proceeding without detailed cost information.
• The restoration cost roughly $8 million and produced a $59,892 special assessment against him.
• He contended the contractor's negligent work caused additional damage.

The statute

The basis was M.G.L. c. 183A §17 — specifically §17(a), the casualty-loss procedure, and §17(b)(2), the objecting owner's buy-back right.

Section 17 governs what happens when a condominium suffers a casualty: whether it is restored, on what vote, and what becomes of an owner who does not agree. The buy-back provision is the pressure valve — an owner who objects to the restoration can, in defined circumstances, require that their interest be acquired at fair market value rather than be carried along with a project they opposed.

Why this matters

Section 17 has been on the books for decades and is rarely litigated to judgment. Boards planning a post-fire or post-flood reconstruction have generally treated the 75 percent consent threshold as the operative hurdle, and the objecting owner as a problem that resolves itself once the threshold is met.

It does not necessarily resolve itself. It can become an $835,000 line item.

1. Moriarty Bielan & Malloy, first known court-ordered buy-back after fire damages condominium (case note) ↩
2. M.G.L. c. 183A §17, casualty loss and restoration (codified text) ↩