The two traps, and both are common

Trap one: the reminder goes to someone who left. If the only contact on the entity record is a former treasurer or a management company the association parted with in 2022, the association silently stops receiving reminders. It then has two years of not knowing before it is dissolved. Michigan volunteer boards turn over constantly and the register record does not turn over with them.

Trap two: the MiLogin account belongs to a person. A board that habitually mailed a paper form now needs an individual to hold credentials — and it needs that individual to still be on the board next October, or to have handed the credentials over in a way that survives the handover.

Why losing good standing is worse than it sounds

It is not a paperwork problem. A Michigan association that is not in good standing runs into difficulty:

• Recording and enforcing liens. An association's capacity to act is tied to its corporate existence.
• Filing suit. Collection actions and covenant enforcement both assume a corporation that exists.
• Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac project review. Now that Limited Review has been retired and more Michigan projects face Full Review, the association's corporate status is a document a lender will actually look at.
• Insurance and banking. Both counterparties ask, at renewal and at account opening.

And the fix is retroactive paperwork done under pressure, usually discovered at the worst possible moment — a closing, a claim, a lawsuit.

The ten-minute board task

1. Look up the association on the MiBusiness Registry Portal and read its status. Not what anyone remembers — what the record says.
2. Check the resident agent and the contact email. If either names someone who is gone, update it now.
3. Create or confirm a MiLogin for Business account held by someone who will plausibly be around, and record in the minutes who holds it.
4. Diarise 1 October as a board task, not a management task. Management contracts end; the filing obligation does not.

What LARA does not do, which is most things

Worth stating alongside this, because boards routinely assume LARA is a regulator of associations. Its own published FAQ says otherwise: “LARA has no authority to take complaints or enforce any requirements of the Condominium Act regarding the actions of condominium associations.”²

LARA produces the Condominium Buyer's Handbook required by section 84a, distributes the Act and its administrative rules on request, and maintains the condominium website. It does not investigate a board, it does not order production of records, and it does not adjudicate a dispute.

The corporate filing is one of the very few things LARA does that an association can get wrong — and, correspondingly, one of the few where the state will act, by dissolving it.

What to watch next

Nothing announced. LARA's Annual Regulatory Plan for 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026 flags only a general review of Manufactured Housing rules under the Mobile Home Commission Act. There is no condominium or community-association-manager rulemaking in the pipeline.