Michigan appeals court: an Airbnb guest is your association's invitee
Michigan appeals court: an Airbnb guest is your association's invitee
2026-09-12 · Michigan · Courts
What happened. The Michigan Court of Appeals held, for publication and as a matter of first impression, that “a short-term rental guest of a condominium unit owner is an invitee, not a licensee, of the condominium association on the common elements that the association maintains.” Letvin v The Village at Grand Traverse Commons Condominium Association, No. 376558, decided 13 July 2026.1
The panel was M.J. Kelly, P.J., Patel and Korobkin, with Judge Korobkin writing. Summary disposition for the association was reversed; fact questions on breach remain for trial.
Why this needed deciding
Michigan had two incompatible answers on the books. In Gabrielson v The Woods Condominium Association, 349 Mich App 496 (2024), a published decision from January 2024, a person renting a room in a unit was held to be a licensee of the association — no direct business relationship, no pecuniary gain. Six months later the Supreme Court decided Janini and dismantled the framework Gabrielson had reasoned from.
Letvin resolves it directly: Janini abrogated Gabrielson. With Francescutti gone, the panel followed the landlord-tenant analogy of Stanley v Town Square Cooperative, 203 Mich App 143 (1993), using the first-out rule to prefer Stanley over Gabrielson, and distinguished DeBoard v Fairwood Villas, 193 Mich App 240 (1992).
The fact that decided the breach question
The guest slipped on ice in the car park while leaving for an Uber and broke his arm. What kept the case alive was testimony, not law: the board president testified that the board took no responsibility for monitoring its snow contractor, and the contractor, A.M.O. Inc., was unaware of anyone from the association who inspected its work.
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Related Michigan HOA Topics
- Letvin v The Village at Grand Traverse Commons Condominium Ass'n, Mich Ct App No. 376558 (13 July 2026, published) ↩
- Janini v London Townhouses Condominium Ass'n, Mich Sup Ct No. 164158 (11 July 2024) ↩
- Gabrielson v The Woods Condominium Ass'n, 349 Mich App 496 (2024) — the decision Letvin holds abrogated ↩
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