Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Michigan

Re: condo's legal right

It depends on your bylaws, which likely require a majority vote re: taking out a loan. Rarely is a 100% vote required to approve something like this.

While each homeowner is not on the loan individually, the condo complex as a whole is, and then the association will divide up the payments accordingly and spread out to each owner by way of either a one-time assessment or an additional monthly assessment spread out over X years (in adddition to your standard dues).

If your bylaws don't provide authority for the association to vote on the issue, then they cannot take this action until the bylaws are amended.

This is a common procedure when a complex needs expensive repairs and actually, taking out a loan is better than assessing each owner a one-time fee of $5K or something, which they likely have authority to do. Spreading it out over time helps everyone. However, you, along with other owners, want to make sure the loan money is used for the purpose it is intended - repairs to the complex. Always keep tabs on the association and any management company handling your dues - funds are often misappropriated, especially by board members, because nobody has time to pay attention to how money is being spent, and the annual budget and accounting can easily be altered.

Good luck.

Thanks.