Homebuilders, mobile home group sue to block new construction codes

LANSING — Two statewide housing trade groups have sued the state of Michigan, challenging new residential construction and energy-conservation codes they contend will raise costs and price would-be buyers out of the market.

The Home Builders Association of Michigan and the Michigan Manufactured Housing Association say the rules filed May 1 are invalid and should not take effect Aug. 29, according to lawsuits filed Friday seeking injunctive and declaratory relief from the state Court of Claims. The defendant is the state’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, which declined to comment on the litigation.

The complaints, which were expected, allege that:

• Pending energy-efficiency changes will not meet a requirement that homeowners recoup the additional costs within at least seven years. 
• Builders will have to buy and cross-reference three separate code books while the law says all rules must be found in one document.
• The state failed to hold open, two-way public hearings in which questions could be answered and did not provide a regulatory impact statement analysis on roughly 98% of the rule changes.

The adoption of the 2021 edition of the International Residential Code as Michigan’s code “is contrary to legislative intent, is arbitrary and capricious and is therefore invalid,” one lawsuit states. The other lawsuit says the adoption of the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code “is unnecessary and redundant, is likely to cause confusion, is arbitrary and capricious, and is therefore invalid.”

“Although the Governor (Gretchen Whitmer) has recognized the need for more and diverse homebuilding in Michigan, the State of Michigan through LARA has chosen to adopt two new Codes that work against that objective,” the complaints say.

The plaintiffs are being represented by the law firms Clark Hill; Cohl, Stoker & Toskey; and Dykema.

Pointing to the fast-approaching effective date, the organizations note that homebuilders must purchase copies of the codes at least 45 days before then — by mid-July — and get up to speed on the new regulations, change existing building plans and order different materials.

“Clients may cancel contracts due to additional construction costs,” attorneys wrote. “The harm to the public from the pending implementation of the new codes is present today as potential home buyers are priced out of the market for new homes built by Plaintiffs’ members because of added construction costs.”