Am I a member of the Association?

Yes, if you own a platted lot in one of the Lake of the Pines subdivisions. Membership is not something you apply for or sign up for. It comes with owning the lot.

The nine plats are Birchwood Heights, Pinehurst Estates, Pinehurst Estates No. 2, Pinehurst Estates No. 3, Tamarack Trails, Lake of the Pines Villa, Lake of the Pines Villa No. 2, Woodland Heights, and Woodland Heights No. 2. All nine are in Freeman Township, Clare County.

The covenants put it simply: owning a lot makes you a member of the Association.

A few details that come up:

- **Ownership means the real thing** You either hold legal title, or you are the buyer under a land contract with the legal owner's consent. Holding an interest in a lot only as security — a mortgage, for example — is not ownership and does not make you a member.

- **A lot has one ownership.** No lot carries more than one membership interest.

- **The Association's own lots don't count.** Where the Association owns a lot, that does not make the Association a member.

- **You can be a member without being in good standing.** Membership comes with the lot. Good standing depends on your assessments being paid.

There is one other category. The covenants allow people who do not own a lot here to become **non-voting** members, on terms outlined in the Covenants and based on a specific familial relationship to the lot owner.

*Source: By-Laws (Revised 2021), Sections 2.1 and 13.3; Restrictive Covenants, Article III, Section 1.*