If you’re in the building industry, you run into government challenges at all levels. If you have had to get a site plan approved, or even if you’re just pulling permits on what you thought was a straightforward project, you’ve probably faced situations that made you question whether a local government could require you to do something (whether it be a zoning rule, code interpretation, or excessive permit fee among other things). To state the obvious, government can act in unlawful ways that negatively impact our industry. When they do, we need the resources necessary to challenge them. As I point out below, there are a number of challenges that must be undertaken by the HBA of Michigan in the months and years ahead. These include:

• Stopping the 2021 residential code from going into effect (lawsuit against the State active);
• Finalizing a court decision that struck down excessive permit fees for residential construction (lawsuit against the City of Troy active);
• Upon completion of #2, pursue local governments that continue to charge excessive permit fees (compiling a list and awaiting final Troy decision)
• Stopping communities from requiring sprinklers in residential homes under the International Fire Code 
• Pushing back against local water and sewer tap-in fees that aren’t justified (lawsuit against the City of Owosso active); and
• Stepping in as an “interested party” to appeal local building department decisions that aren’t consistent with the MRC or state law. Fear of retribution keeps too many builders from filing complaints that should be made and we believe HBA’s themselves have standing to appeal on some issues that arise.

As you can see, at the time of this publication, your state association has three active lawsuits underway with the potential for several times that many in the years ahead. I’m often asked how governments can do this or that if it violates state law. My answer: it happens all the time. Sometimes it happens out of a lack of knowledge of the law and sometimes it happens because there is a motivation to interpret state law out of context—to generate more revenue or, let’s be honest, to remind you they’re in charge.

Given all the aforementioned litigation (and potential litigation), your state association’s leaders have established a goal of raising $1 million for our Legal Action Fund. If you or your company wish to make a contribution, go to www.hbaofmichigan.com/legal. These dollars are reserved for legal action only and do NOT get commingled with general operational monies.

In addition to individual contributions, our $1 million target will likely require some type of additional funding from your local HBA. Your 2025 HBAM President, Aaron Hovestadt, has created a task force to develop a funding recommendation. That recommendation will likely be considered at our November 7th board meeting and meeting of the members. Stay tuned and if you have any questions about the cases above, don’t hesitate to give me a call or shoot me an email message.