2026-09-12 · Minnesota · Compliance

What happened. Minnesota's HOA Bill of Rights applies to communities “created before, on, or after the date of enactment.” That sentence, in section 15 of Laws 2026, ch. 82, has been widely read as meaning the act reaches every Minnesota association. It does not.¹

Chapter 82 amends the Minnesota Common Interest Ownership Act. It can only reach as far as MCIOA reaches, and MCIOA's own applicability statute — Minn. Stat. § 515B.1-102 — leaves a large category of Minnesota communities outside it.²

The line, as the statute draws it

Condominiums. Subsection (b)(1)–(2) reaches condominiums created under the older chapters — ch. 515, the Apartment Ownership Act, and ch. 515A, the Minnesota Condominium Act — through a listed set of MCIOA sections. That list includes § 515B.3-102, the powers section Chapter 82 rewrites with the fine cap, and § 515B.3-103, the board section carrying the bidding and meeting rules.

Planned communities and cooperatives. Subsection (b)(3) is the exclusion: MCIOA “shall not apply to cooperatives and planned communities created prior to June 1, 1994,” nor to planned communities created between 1 June 1994 and 1 August 2006 with more than two but fewer than 13 units — except by election under subsection (d).

The consequence, stated plainly

A 1979 condominium is covered by Chapter 82's fine cap. A 1979 townhome development — a planned community — is not, unless it has recorded an election to opt in.

Same vintage, same city, same kind of owner, opposite answers. The variable is community type, not age.

A Minnesota court said so this year

The Court of Appeals restated the rule in April 2026, in a case about whether an association's assessment lien was valid: “The MCIOA generally does not apply to planned communities that, like the association, were created before June 1, 1994. Minn. Stat. § 515B.1-102(b)(3).”³

The decision is nonprecedential — under Minn. R. Civ. App. P. 136.01, subd. 1(c), persuasive authority only. But it is a recent, direct application of the applicability statute in a real dispute.

1. Laws 2026, ch. 82 (S.F. 1750), full session-law text — Minnesota Revisor of Statutes ↩
2. Minn. Stat. § 515B.1-102 — applicability of MCIOA by community type and creation date ↩
3. Reed v. Highlands of Edinburgh Sixth Ass’n, No. A25-1442 (Minn. Ct. App. 27 Apr. 2026) (nonprecedential) — slip opinion ↩
4. Laws 2026, ch. 61 (S.F. 3622), full session-law text — Minnesota Revisor of Statutes ↩
5. Madgett Law, LLC, “Minnesota HOA owner rights under ch. 515B” (21 Aug. 2026) — Minneapolis practitioner alert on the applicability split ↩