Michigan HOA Board Elections

Section 1 — Overview

In Michigan, the rule that governs a board election depends first on what kind of community is holding it. The Michigan Condominium Act runs condominium elections, and because Michigan leans so heavily on site condominiums, that Act reaches a great many detached-home communities that look exactly like platted subdivisions. The Act — Act 59 of 1978, Mich. Comp. Laws § 559.101 et seq. — is the state's bespoke condominium statute, and it defines what counts as a condominium project and prescribes how the association and its board operate.¹ A site condominium is a development of single-family detached homes in which each unit is typically the building site itself rather than airspace in a shared structure, and the law requires those developments to comply with the Condominium Act — so its association, board, and election provisions cover communities that resemble ordinary subdivisions.² True non-condominium HOAs — think subdivision lot associations under recorded plat covenants — have no comprehensive Michigan statute at all; their elections run on the declaration and bylaws, with the Michigan Nonprofit Corporation Act, Mich. Comp. Laws § 450.2101 et seq., supplying the corporate director defaults.³ Michigan never adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, so UCIOA's board-governance and declarant-control features do not apply here. That makes Michigan a non-UCIOA state with a comprehensive condominium statute and a distinctive site-condominium pattern — apart from both the uniform-act states and the detailed-procedure states. The sections that follow lay out the framework, the mechanics by community type, and the recent activity.

Section 2 — The election framework

2A. The Michigan Condominium Act and condominium board elections

The Michigan Condominium Act is the framework statute for condominium governance in Michigan. It defines a condominium project as a plan of not less than two condominium units established in conformance with the Act, and it requires that condominium bylaws — attached to the recorded master deed — govern how each project is administered.⁴ The Act fixes a phased period of declarant (developer) control and sets when the first owner elections happen. Under Mich. Comp. Laws § 559.152, the developer must establish an advisory committee of nondeveloper co-owners, and nondeveloper co-owners must be entitled to elect at least one director and not less than 25% of the board within 120 days after 25% of the units that may be created are conveyed; not less than 33-1/3% of the board after 50% are conveyed; and the entire board after 75% are conveyed (before 90%), though the developer may keep one seat while it still owns and offers for sale at least 10% of the units.⁵ A separate trigger fires 54 months after the first conveyance to a nondeveloper co-owner if title to less than 75% of the units that may be created has not yet been conveyed.⁵ The transitional control date is the date a board takes office through an election in which the votes of co-owners unaffiliated with the developer outnumber the developer's votes.⁶ Beyond that transition, the Act largely leaves the recurring election machinery — board size, terms, nomination, quorum, vote thresholds — to the condominium bylaws, requiring only that the bylaws name persons to administer the project and allocate votes either in proportion to percentage of value or equally per unit.⁷ Unlike UCIOA, the Act carries no uniform-act declarant-control schedule and no deemed-ratification rules; the Michigan formula is its own.

2B. Site condominiums and the reach of the Condominium Act

A developer creates a site condominium by recording a master deed that describes detached single-family homes sitting on condominium units — commonly the building site itself — rather than on platted subdivision lots. The Condominium Act does not define the term, but the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) explains in its Condominium Buyer's Handbook that the term "is not legally defined in the Condominium Act. It is used to describe a condominium development with single-family detached housing instead of two or more housing units in one structure. Site condominium developments must comply with the Act."² Because a site condominium is a condominium project under the Act, the Act's association, board, declarant-control transition, and election provisions all apply in full — even when the streetscape looks like a conventional subdivision. The practical lesson for a manager or board is blunt: you cannot tell the controlling election rule from how the community looks. You have to read the recorded master deed. If a master deed exists, the community is a condominium and the Condominium Act governs, site condominiums included; if there is no master deed but a recorded declaration of covenants over platted lots, the community is a true non-condominium HOA that contract and corporate law govern.⁸

2C. Non-condominium HOAs, corporate law, and order of precedence

True non-condominium HOAs fall outside the Condominium Act and have no comprehensive Michigan governing statute. Their board elections run on the recorded declaration of covenants and the association bylaws. Most Michigan associations of both types organize as nonprofit corporations, so the Michigan Nonprofit Corporation Act supplies the corporate gap-fillers for director election, number, term, removal, and vacancies.³ That Act is corporate scaffolding — it provides director defaults only. It is not an HOA election statute, and it imposes no community-association-specific election procedures. The order of precedence differs by community type. For a condominium, including a site condominium, the Condominium Act controls where it speaks, then the recorded condominium bylaws, then the Nonprofit Corporation Act at the corporate level, then duly adopted rules. For a true non-condominium HOA, the declaration controls, then the bylaws, then the Nonprofit Corporation Act gap-fillers, then rules. The takeaway: the controlling election rule depends first on whether the community is a condominium or a true HOA, and only after you settle that classification do the specific notice, quorum, and voting rules fall into place.

Section 3 — Election mechanics

A. Eligibility and nominations

The Condominium Act sets no qualifications for directors, so the Nonprofit Corporation Act governs director eligibility for both condominiums and true HOAs at the corporate level: a director need not be a member unless the articles or bylaws require it, and the articles or bylaws may prescribe qualifications.¹¹ No Michigan statute addresses nomination procedures for either community type; they are contractual, set by the condominium bylaws or by the HOA declaration and bylaws.⁷

B. Notice, annual meeting, and quorum

For both community types organized as nonprofit corporations, an annual meeting to elect directors must be held on a date the bylaws designate, and a failure to hold the meeting does not void otherwise valid corporate acts.¹² The Condominium Act sets no election-meeting notice period, so the bylaws set notice; at the corporate level, the default window is not less than 10 nor more than 60 days before the meeting.¹³ The Condominium Act does not define a quorum, so the bylaws set quorum for condominiums; the corporate default is a majority of members entitled to vote unless the articles or bylaws provide a greater or lesser number.¹⁶

C. Voting methods, proxies, and ballots

For both community types, the Nonprofit Corporation Act permits proxy voting, and a member may grant proxy authority by a writing delivered by any reasonable means.¹⁴ Action by written ballot in place of a meeting is permitted only if the articles or bylaws authorize it.¹⁵ The Condominium Act itself touches voting only by allocating to each unit a number of votes either proportionate to percentage of value or equal per unit — a bylaw-level choice; it does not mandate secret ballots, independent inspectors of election, or fixed ballot timelines.⁷ Electronic and cumulative voting apply only when the governing documents provide for them.

D. Terms, vacancies, removal, and recall

The Condominium Act fixes neither director terms nor term limits; the corporate default is service until the next annual meeting unless the bylaws say otherwise, and staggered terms are available through up to five director classes.^9,10 Removal of directors is corporate, not the product of a comprehensive HOA statute: members may remove a director with or without cause (unless the articles require cause) by majority vote, and a circuit court may remove a director.^17,18 Members or the remaining directors may fill mid-term vacancies unless the governing documents limit that authority.¹⁹ A leading appellate decision holds that when a condominium fails to hold annual elections, the existing directors hold over and keep the authority to act.²⁰

Section 4 — Recent legislative and judicial activity

Michigan has not reworked its board-election statutes lately. No bill in the current session changes how condominium or HOA boards are elected, and the one appellate decision that speaks to a board's authority to keep acting predates the last three years. Here is what the recent record actually shows.

A. Recent bills (board-election provisions)

A search of the Michigan Legislature for the 2025–2026 session turns up no bill in the past 24 months that changes board elections — not director election or removal, not the declarant-control transition under Mich. Comp. Laws § 559.152, not voting or proxy procedure for community associations. The one recently enacted measure that touches associations does something else entirely.

B. Recent appellate rulings (board elections)

No Michigan Court of Appeals or Michigan Supreme Court opinion in the past 36 months squarely decides a condominium or HOA board-election dispute — not a contested election, director removal, declarant-control transition, election quorum, or a proxy or voting fight. The leading Michigan authority on a board's power to keep acting is older than that window.

C. Active legislative debates

As of mid-2026, one condominium proposal is pending — and it is not about elections.

Section 5 — National positioning and related coverage

Michigan is a non-UCIOA state with a comprehensive condominium statute — the Michigan Condominium Act — and it stands apart from both the uniform-act states that adopted UCIOA and the detailed-procedure states such as California and Florida. Its signature feature is the site condominium. Because so many Michigan detached-home communities are organized as condominiums under recorded master deeds, the Condominium Act's board and election provisions reach neighborhoods that look like ordinary subdivisions, while true non-condominium HOAs run on their declarations, bylaws, and the Nonprofit Corporation Act. For a multi-state operator, the practical rule is specific to Michigan: before you apply any election rule to a detached-home community, read the recorded master deed to learn whether you are dealing with a site condominium (Condominium Act) or a true non-condominium HOA (declaration, bylaws, and Nonprofit Corporation Act).

Federal frameworks reach Michigan associations no matter what the state framework says — the Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and the FCC's OTARD rule all apply alongside it.

1. Mich. Comp. Laws § 559.101 et seq. (Michigan Condominium Act, Act 59 of 1978) ↩
2. Mich. Dep't of Licensing & Regulatory Affairs, Condominium Buyer's Handbook (rev. Oct. 2018) ↩
3. Mich. Comp. Laws § 450.2101 et seq. (Michigan Nonprofit Corporation Act, Act 162 of 1982) ↩
4. Mich. Comp. Laws § 559.153 (bylaws governing administration of condominium project; recording) ↩
5. Mich. Comp. Laws § 559.152 (advisory committee; right to elect directors; transitional formula) ↩
6. Mich. Comp. Laws § 559.110 (definitions; transitional control date) ↩
7. Mich. Comp. Laws § 559.154 (bylaws; mandatory provisions; allocation of votes) ↩
8. Mich. Comp. Laws § 559.108 (master deed defined) ↩
9. Mich. Comp. Laws § 450.2505 (board; number, term, election of directors) ↩
10. Mich. Comp. Laws § 450.2506 (dividing directors into up to five classes) ↩
11. Mich. Comp. Laws § 450.2501 (board manages corporation; director need not be a member; qualifications) ↩
12. Mich. Comp. Laws § 450.2402 (annual meeting to elect directors) ↩
13. Mich. Comp. Laws § 450.2404 (notice of meeting; 10 to 60 days) ↩
14. Mich. Comp. Laws § 450.2421 (proxy voting) ↩
15. Mich. Comp. Laws § 450.2408 (action without a meeting; written ballot) ↩
16. Mich. Comp. Laws § 450.2415 (quorum of members) ↩
17. Mich. Comp. Laws § 450.2511 (removal of director; vote) ↩
18. Mich. Comp. Laws § 450.2514 (removal of director by circuit court) ↩
19. Mich. Comp. Laws § 450.2515a (filling vacancies on the board) ↩
20. Channel View E. Condo. Ass'n, Inc. v. Ferguson, No. 344149 (Mich. Ct. App. July 2, 2019) (unpublished per curiam) ↩
21. Mich. Comp. Laws § 559.301 et seq. (Homeowners' Energy Policy Act, 2024 PA 68) ↩
22. Michigan Court of Appeals (intermediate appellate court) ↩
23. H.B. 5784, 2025–2026 Reg. Sess. (Mich. 2026) (reserve studies; Mich. Comp. Laws § 559.205) ↩