2026-09-12 · Michigan · Courts

What happened. The Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed a condominium association's collection judgment in nearly all respects on 11 August 2025, including $24,086.10 in attorney fees and costs, and remanded only to strike paralegal fees and to consider increasing the award for fees incurred defending the appeal. Farmington Square Condominium Association v Mitan, No. 366946, Oakland Circuit Court — unpublished per curiam, panel of Patel, P.J., Riordan and Swartzle.¹

It is the cleanest association win in Michigan collections in this period, and each holding is worth reading separately.

The manager could authorise the suit

The co-owner argued the action was void because the board never voted to file it, invoking MCL 450.1501. The panel rejected it: the community association manager could authorise filing under the management agreement and Article X of the bylaws, and no separate board vote was required.

Eviction and money damages are not alternatives

The association was not required to evict the co-owner's tenants in order to collect. MCL 559.212(5) permits an action for eviction and, simultaneously, an action for money damages. The choice is the association's.

A contractor's lien is not the association borrowing

A construction lien filed unilaterally by a renovation company is not the association “borrowing money or issuing evidences of indebtedness” for the purposes of a bylaw restricting that power. A third party's unilateral filing is not an act of the association.

1. Farmington Square Condominium Ass'n v Mitan, Mich Ct App No. 366946 (11 Aug 2025, unpublished) ↩
2. Keith J. Mitan v Farmington Square Condominium Ass'n, Mich Ct App No. 364595 (25 July 2024, unpublished) ↩