2 Crocker Blvd. Suite 301 • Mount Clemens, MI 48043 • (586) 465-9529 • steve@sowell-law.com
Steve Sowell has written numerous articles regarding real estate issues. If there is a hyperlink, click on it to view the article. Note, some are pdfs, some are web pages, and some links take you to other web sites. NOTE: While these articles were accurate as of the date of publication, the law may have changed since publication. DO NOT RELY on these articles as accurate statements of the current state of the law!
- Why Charging for Status Letters May Be a Bad Idea - article published in the 4th Quarter 2018 edition of Community Association News, the newsletter of the Michigan Chapter of the Community Associations Institute.
- Board Responsibilities and Liabilities - A joint presentation with John Stevens at a CAI Michigan annual conference.
- Securing Co-owner Compliance: the Remedies Available to a Condominium Association - A discussion of the condominium association's escalating arsenal of methods of getting a co-owner to comply with the condominium documents. CAVEAT: this article was written prior to the 2000 amendments to the MI Condominium Act and is no longer an accurate statement of the law, especially regarding fines.
- Getting Your Money - an outline of Steve's presentation at the 2003 CAI Michigan annual conference on collecting assessments.
- Pre-foreclosure Losses–A trap for the Unwary Mortgagee - an article discussing the consequences to a lender who forecloses before an insurance claim for a casualty loss is resolved.
- The Importance of Taking and Keeping Good Minutes - A primer for the secretary of a community association.
- Six Steps to Control Parking - a discussion of various methods and remedies an association can use to control its limited parking resources.
- Foreclosure by Advertisement vs. Foreclosure by Judicial Action: Which is the Best Remedy? - an article published in the Community Association News.
- Fitting the Round Peg into the Square Hole: Condominium Assessments in Bankruptcy - an analysis of treatment of condominium assessments in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case. CAVEAT: this article was written before the passage of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005. Published in the Michigan Real Property Review.
- The Automatic Stay: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow? - a joint presentation along with Deborah K. Ebner, Kelly M. Hagan, and the Honorable Jack Schmetterer at the 2006 American Bankrupty Institute Central States Bankruptcy Workshop. Sorry, no link due to copyright issues.
- Understanding Proxies, Absentee Ballots, and Now Electronic Ballots - a discussion of how votes are cast in community association elections. CAVEAT: this article was written before the 2008 amendments to the Michigan Nonprofit Corporation Act which facilitate electronic voting.
- Service of Process and the Statute of Limitations: Tuning the Standards - a discussion of the interrelation between service of process and the statutes of limitations. Published in the Michigan Bar Journal.
- Ten Things I Wish Process Servers Knew - some musings on process servers from a lawyer's perspective. Published in the Michigan Bar Journal.
- Condominium Associations Get a Break–Or Do They? - an article in the Michigan Real Property Review discussing the initial version of 11 USC §523(a)(16). The provision was subsquently amended, so this article is out of date, but it was Steve's first published article.
- Forms of Business Ownership - an article published in the Olive Branch Journal discussing the various forms of ownership of a business available to entrepreneurs.