Michigan Home Owners Association Formation

Question

Our subdivision has a total of 50 lots with about 65 owners of those 50 lots (e.g. a lot jointly owned by husband and wife).

My question is around formation of a Home Owners Association.

A little background : There are 4 pieces of land in our subdivision that are jointly owned by all lot owners as per the original 1903 Plat dedication. We will call these properties "jointly owned properties" or JOPs from here on. These JOPs are adjacent to a lake and provide lake access to non-riparian property owners of our subdivision. As per a couple of court orders in 1990 and 1991 borne out of conflict between riparian and non-riparian property owners of our subdivision, a non-profit voluntary HOA needs to be formed to govern the use of these JOPs which we are trying to form now after so many years. A copy of these orders can be found here : 1990 Court Order 1991 Court Order

I have the following question :

Q1) Is there a minimum number of lot owners that must agree to join the HOA for a voluntary non-profit HOA to be viable?

Answer 1

Is there a minimum number of lot owners that must agree to join the HOA for a voluntary non-profit HOA to be viable?

I don't know about viability, as that's opinion based and would hinge on things like its operating practices and how it's managed / governed, but it seems there may not be a specific legal requirement for a minimum number of members.

According to this source:

Michigan does not have a specific statute governing homeowners’ associations. However, if an association is organized as a non-profit, as is the case with most Michigan associations, it will be governed by the Michigan Nonprofit Corporation Act, specifically with regard to corporate structure and procedure.

And Section 304 of that Act states:

(1) Except as otherwise provided in this act, the articles of incorporation or bylaws of a corporation organized on a membership basis may prescribe the number, voting rights, qualifications, liquidation rights, preferences, and limitations, and other rights, preferences, and limitations of or on the members of the corporation.

[...]

The articles of incorporation or the bylaws may provide that members of a homeowners or property owners association are entitled to voting rights based on the number of lots owned by each member.