Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: Michigan’s Condominium Act sets no owner-ratification vote or notice requirement for special assessments at all; approval is governed entirely by each association’s bylaws.
Key statute: MCL 559.169 (assessment of common expenses, cost-allocation methodology, not an approval procedure); no dedicated “special assessment approval” statute was found in the Michigan Condominium Act (Act 59 of 1978); related sections: MCL 559.205 (reserve fund), MCL 559.208 (lien/foreclosure), MCL 559.190 (document amendment, 2/3 vote, does not itself govern ordinary special assessments)
How Michigan lets an association approve it
Michigan’s Condominium Act does not set an owner-ratification or vote-threshold requirement for special assessments at all. MCL 559.169 addresses only how expenses are allocated once an assessment is made, not how it’s approved: subsection (1) provides that “common expenses associated with the maintenance, repair, renovation, restoration, or replacement of a limited common element shall be specially assessed against the condominium unit to which that limited common element was assigned at the time the expenses were incurred,” and subsection (3) provides that “the amount of all common expenses not specially assessed under subsections (1) and (2) shall be assessed against the condominium units in proportion to the percentages of value or other provisions as may be contained in the master deed.” No section of the Act sets a statutory vote threshold for levying a special assessment; that procedure is left entirely to each condominium’s own bylaws.
The notice you’re owed
Michigan’s statute has no notice requirement specific to special assessments. The only statutory notice period found in the Act applies to amending the master deed or bylaws, not to levying a special assessment: MCL 559.190(5) requires amendment notice “not less than 10 days before the amendment is recorded.” Special-assessment notice, like the approval vote itself, is left to the bylaws.
Paying it: plan, interest, and late fees
Michigan’s statute doesn’t address a payment-plan right for special assessments either; that is left to the bylaws. It also sets no specific interest rate or late-fee cap. MCL 559.208(1) includes in the association’s lien “[s]ums assessed to a co-owner by the association of co-owners that are unpaid together with interest on such sums, collection and late charges, advances made by the association of co-owners for taxes or other liens to protect its lien, attorney fees, and fines in accordance with the condominium documents.” The rate and amount are set “in accordance with the condominium documents,” meaning the bylaws, not fixed by the statute itself.
Unpaid assessments become a lien on the unit under MCL 559.208, foreclosable “by an action or by advertisement” after a notice of lien is recorded and served “at least 10 days in advance of commencement of the foreclosure proceeding.”
Does Michigan require a reserve study?
No. Michigan law requires associations to maintain reserve funding but not to commission a reserve study. MCL 559.205 states, “A reserve fund for major repairs and replacement of common elements shall be maintained by the associations of co-owners. The administrator may by rule establish minimum standards for reserve funds.” A bill that would have added a reserve-study requirement, House Bill 5019, was introduced in the 2023-2024 legislative session but has not been enacted, so it is not current Michigan law.
Honest gaps
Michigan’s official legislature website could not be reached this session, so the statutory text here was confirmed against a reliable secondary mirror of the Michigan Compiled Laws instead of the state’s own site. The finding that Michigan has no statutory ratification vote for special assessments is a genuine, verified absence, not a research gap, though the resulting bylaws-based approval process will vary by association and could not be verified further here.
Source note. Read from https://law.onecle.com/michigan/chapter-559/559.169.html (primary statutory text mirror, read and quoted, after www.legislature.mi.gov repeatedly failed to answer securely); corroborating sections read at https://law.onecle.com/michigan/chapter-559/559.208.html, https://law.onecle.com/michigan/chapter-559/559.190.html, https://law.onecle.com/michigan/chapter-559/559.205.html, https://law.onecle.com/michigan/chapter-559/559.156.html, https://law.onecle.com/michigan/chapter-559/559.204.html on September 4, 2026.
Related: HOA rules in a 55+ community · how a special-assessment foreclosure actually works · lump sum vs. a payment plan.
General information drawn from each state’s own statutes as read at its official legislature or code-publisher site (or a verbatim codified mirror where noted), not legal advice. Special-assessment law is state law, and every association’s own declaration and bylaws add rules on top of the statutory floor described here. We are not a law firm and this is not legal advice.