2026-09-12 · Minnesota · Regulation

What happened. Minnesota's Common Interest Community Ombudsperson, the state office created in 2025 to help owners and associations resolve disputes, is currently declining the service it was built around.

From the office's own page at the Department of Commerce:

“Because demand for our services currently exceeds our resources, our response to requests for assistance may be delayed. Requests for informal mediation are not being accepted at this time.”¹

The office, and what it was given

The position was created by Laws 2025, First Special Session, ch. 4, art. 7, § 2, codified at Minn. Stat. § 45.0137, signed 14 June 2025. The appropriation: “$347,000 each year is for the common interest community ombudsperson.”²

Its statutory job, under subdivision 2, is to “assist unit owners, unit owners' tenants, and associations in understanding the rights each possesses under chapter 515B and the applicable governing documents” and to “facilitate the resolution of disputes between unit owners and associations.”

Subdivision 4(b) is where mediation lives, and it is discretionary on its face: “Upon the request of a unit owner or an association, the ombudsperson may provide informal mediation services” — excluding disputes already in a judicial or administrative proceeding or another ADR process, or where a harassment order under § 609.748 is in effect.

What the office cannot do, by statute

Subdivision 5 is explicit. The ombudsperson and the commissioner are “prohibited from providing legal advice” and “from making a formal determination or issuing an order.”

So: no legal advice, no investigations, no power to compel an association's cooperation, no enforcement of agreements or rules, no oversight of elections, budgets or management. A complaint routed there is not an enforcement action and imposes no deadline on the association.

The current ombudsperson is Robert Morneau, at 85 7th Place East, Suite 280, St. Paul.

Why this becomes a problem on 1 January 2027

Chapter 82 does two things that point owners at this office. Boards must hear grievances free of charge and, where resolution fails, refer the owner to the ombudsperson. And every fine and assessment notice must tell the owner that “dispute resolution and other information services are available from the common interest community ombudsperson.”³

1. Common Interest Community Ombudsperson — Minnesota Department of Commerce (services, statutory limits, current capacity notice) ↩
2. Minn. Stat. § 45.0137 — Common Interest Community Ombudsperson ↩
3. Laws 2026, ch. 82 (S.F. 1750) — grievance referral duty and fine-notice content ↩
4. Minnesota Department of Commerce, CIC/HOA Ombudsperson presentation to a Minnesota House committee (23 Feb. 2026) ↩
5. S.F. 4300 bill status (state register of common interest communities; never heard) — Minnesota Revisor of Statutes ↩