January 26, 2026 | Mark Luis Foster

As you likely know by now if you’ve been following us since at least last fall, the Minnesota legislature approved the creation of an HOA Ombudsman, who is now hired and part of the Department of Commerce.  Joe LeBlanc is the new hire for the position and we’ve been talking with him off and on as he gets his office set up.  We’ve invited him to speak to our chapters this year and we hope to get him scheduled.

In talking to Joe today, he told me that his website on the Department of Commerce’s platform is live, and since it’s public I am sharing it with you too. The mission is one of the first things you see when you hit the site, stated plainly:

To help unit owners, unit owners’ tenants and associations understand their rights and to facilitate the resolution of disputes between unit owners and associations.

I haven’t spent a lot of time on the site but at first glance, it seems complete and functional.  There’s a procedure in place on the site to file a dispute, although I didn’t test that out specifically.

Give it all a spin through.  The site is located here: https://mn.gov/commerce/consumer/realestate/cic/welcome.jsp