Condo associations are powerful under Ohio law

In my Toledo Blade column on Sunday, a reader asked whether he could fight his condominium association's decision to paint the complex. He didn't think his condo needed to be painted, so he didn't want to incur the assessment. The association responded by telling him it would place a lien on his condo if he didn't pay up. Understandably, he wanted to avoid this. The gist of my answer was that under the Ohio Condominium Act condo associations have tremendous power to assess individual owners provided they follow state law regarding the creation of the association. Unit owners can challenge associations, but if they're wrong, the association could for the owner to pay for its legal fees. That places unit owners in a tough situation because it may be much cheaper in the long run just to pay the assessment.