The Community Associations Institute’s Motion for a Preliminary Injunction has been Denied In CAI’s Corporate Transparency Act Lawsuit

By P. Thomas Murray, Jr.

As I previously noted in a blog I prepared in September, the Community Associations Institute (the “CAI”) filed suit on September 10, 2024, against the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Secretary Janet Yellen, and the director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) concerning the Corporate Transparency Act, the “CTA”. Tom Skiba, the Chief Executive Officer of the CAI, reported that on October 24, 2024, a motion for preliminary injunction was denied. The injunction was sought to postpone the deadline for community associations to comply with the CTA’s filing requirements until the case could be fully heard by the court. As a result of the ruling, community associations are still required to comply with the CTA’s requirements by Jan. 1, 2025.

Thus, if you serve as an Officer or Board member of a typical Indiana community association such as a homeowners association, condominium association or planned unit development, you should comply with the December 31, 2024, reporting requirements. That is because under the CTA’s definitions, you are almost certainly considered a “Beneficial Owner”. By the December 31st deadline, you must file a “Beneficial Owner Interest” report with FinCEN that includes your full legal name, date of birth, residential street address, and a “unique identifying number from an acceptable identification document” such as an unexpired State-issued driver’s license.

The suit was filed in federal court for the Eastern District of Virginia in part because the CAI is headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia. CAI is an international not-for-profit research and education organization with 63 chapters and 47,000 members. I have been a member of the Central Indiana Chapter of the CAI for about 35 years. All of our firm’s attorneys are active in the CAI. Our firm encourages ALL of our community association clients to be members of the CAI, regardless of whether they use the services of a property management company.