Articles

As the January 1, 2025 deadline for registering with FinCen under the newly enacted Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) approaches for hundreds of Michigan cooperative board members, many remain in the dark as to the Act’s application to them. Others remain unsure as to what information is required and how that information is filed to avoid steep fines. Others may not even be aware that even if they are not a board member, they could still be considered a beneficial owner in their cooperative, subject to FinCen filing requirements under the CTA.

Squatters are defined as individuals who illegally occupy a property without compensation and without documentation. It is becoming more common and, unfortunately, in many situations, dangerous. In a housing cooperative, squatting can occur under a couple of different scenarios. The first is they start off as an invited guest of a Member and then they just never leave thereby establishing legal residence. Legal residence occurs when the law recognizes your use of a particular address as your home where you receive mail. This is generally a 30-day window and is generally dealt with effectively through the use of appropriately drafted guest policies and enforcement of your governing documents. Typically, you want a registration process for planned stays that are longer than a week and shorter than a month. This assures the Cooperative that occupants are authorized occupants and visitors are just visitors.

Among those horrifying things cooperative attorneys at our office, hear about are Board members who still do not get it! Did you know that there is such a thing as a “Fair Housing Tester?” Did you also know that these Testers are paid employees and that they are paid to contact your cooperative to see if your Board members and Management Staff are ensuring an equal opportunity to housing for all persons in protected classes? Can you even name all of the protected classes?

Dear Co-op Counselor: Our annual meeting is fast approaching and with all this information going around about the coronavirus we are not certain we should be holding this meeting. We want to do our part to flatten the curve but our Bylaws require us to hold our annual meeting on a certain time and we can’t adjourn it without a vote of the membership. There just isn’t time. What do we do?

All housing cooperatives either have a requirement that all members of the Board are to also be members of the corporation, or, that at least a majority of the Board must be members of the corporation. Not all housing cooperatives, however, have any requirement when it comes to how the members themselves are qualified to be on the Board of Directors.

For many years, Randall Pentiuk and his team, April Gallup and Creighton Gallup, have presented various classes to Board members and Management alike, on the legal issues facing cooperatives.

One of the most important tenets of any corporation is its public image and its members’ perception of how the individual responsible for managing a corporation acts outside of the board room.

Make sure virtual meetings are legally permissible in your State. Sometimes it may require a Bylaw amendment, and/or written policy to maintain the integrity of the meeting and voting process. According to Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised, 11th edition, virtual meetings must be authorized in your bylaws. For local governments, if you State has laws permitting you to meet remotely or if your Governor has issued an Executive Order permitting remote meetings, that will supercede Robert’s Rules.