When looking at your family cottage, look who it goes to, the various family members and places you visit.

If a child is given love, he becomes loving . . . If he is helped when he needs help, he becomes helpful. And if he has been truly valued at home . . . he grows up secure enough to look beyond himself to the welfare of others.
Dr. Joyce Brothers
1974

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Did you know that just watching and listening to a water sprinkler on your lawn provides solace and serenity. Our chocolate Labradors back from their vacation at the lake and family cottage seem eager to chase squirrels and lay in the sun on the moist grass in their own yard. What a beautiful day in July. We finally got a break from the humidity for a few days.

The labs enjoying air conditioning tire from sunning outside and decide to siesta in the family room. Jake, our chocolate lab, probably dreaming about the lake vacation romp at the family cottage, promptly starts snoring. Ahh – the life of a dog. Our backyard has a pond with four fish. The water rushes over rocks giving that soothing sound. The scenery changes at home. There is no big lake or cottage to sit by, but there is peace in the backyard with the birds chirping and butterflies flying on the bushes. Returning from a cottage always amazes me at how much you miss the beauty of the water.

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To watch a Labrador Retriever swim in the lake is like watching a sea otter. Their heads are above water and they meander with such ease in the water. Our chocolate labs have grown up swimming at our family cottage in Suttons Bay, Michigan. This year, a family friend took them for a weekend vacation to their lakeside family cottage near Elkhart, Indiana. Now if you have never owned a lab, they love the water. These beautiful creatures believe this is paradise at its best. Labs have webbed feet. If you spread their paws, there is a built-in paddle – each webbed paw is in the in-between parts like a duck. They can spend more time swimming after a stick or a ball, until you have to declare the game is over.

Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring – it was peace.
– Milan Kundera

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The Cottage-Law Dogs of Summer!

Our beautiful chocolate Labradors summer with us at the family cottage. Each year, they become dogs at the beach. They love the water and would jump off the docks in Suttons Bay, Michigan to swim. It’s usually Ginger first, and then Jake.

This year, a family friend offered to give our labs a vacation at a farm in Elhart, Indiana. I hope you enjoy the photos and their adventures on the farm. Ginger is the princess and very mild mannered and then there is Jake – the lab who does everything with robust and character. My husband and I should have known why he was the last puppy left in the litter.

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Drinking a cup of joe, on a beautiful 4th of July weekend, I experienced solace as I watched swans swimming and boats heading out of the marina in Suttons Bay, Michigan. The sun was beautiful on the water. The boats were heading out for adventure at the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City, Michigan. What a different world from our other home in Farmington, Michigan. The air is crystal clear. Ahh – the joys of summer – relaxation and peace.

My teens are happier. We always have a friend in tow. Our eldest, now 18, has college in the fall, but with a summer job and other activities, his summer has changed. The twins, now fifteen, are not working yet and can enjoy the summers of yesterday romping on the beach, biking, and staying up way past midnight. Adventure is always looming for our family at the cottage. New friendships, new experiences filled with laughter, and the stress of the daily grind seems to disappear. These experiences make owning a family cottage absolutely the best moments in life.

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“As reported by the Detroit Free Press (see article below) there is unprecedented opportunity for those who have dreamed of owning a vacation home, cottage or cabin to make that dream come true.

After the purchase is completed, furniture moved in and the first family barbeque is voted a success – and cleaned up after, and your children and/or grandchildren are nursing their first sunburn of the summer season, what’s next?

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Launching a boat in Michigan waters during the month of April is not very common. Boat insurance policies, however, generally begin to provide coverage on April 15. If you’ve not given much thought to your boat insurance policy, this spring might be a good time to review your policy and determine if you need more protection as you navigate the Great Lakes or Michigan’s inland lakes while at the family cottage.

Although many homeowner and automobile companies offer boat insurance, the coverage your existing policy provides may not be adequate. Many policies provide a list of “named perils” outlining situations the policy covers, such as fire, vandalism and malicious mischief. If you need more coverage, look for an “all risks” policy that covers more predicaments in which you might find yourself.

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As weather in Michigan becomes warmer signaling the approach of summer, family cottage owners of waterfront property begin thinking about boats, docks, jet skis, etc. Every summer, unfortunate accidents occur which affect family cottage owners and their guests that are related to water and recreational activities: swimmers make a wrong judgment regarding the depth of the water and dive off the cottage dock into shallow water resulting in severe neck injuries, boaters and those driving personal watercraft can be blinded by the sun and fail to see someone skiing or tubing behind a boat resulting in a catastrophic accident, a “slip and fall” during a game of volleyball played on the beach or in shallow water can cause unexpected and long-lasting injuries.

In 1987 the Michigan Supreme Court consolidated two cases, one involving an individual who was injured while slipping on logs that property owners installed at the edge of a lake to prevent erosion. The resulting neck injury caused paralysis from the shoulders down. Three neighborhood associations and individual subdivision lot owners were sued for damages. The defendants included over 200 individuals. The other case involved a child who drowned while she and her mother were visiting relatives. The child died in the shallow part of a pond owned by her aunt and uncle. The Supreme Court determined that the cases could proceed to trial despite the protections afforded property owners in the Michigan Recreational Land Use Act (RUA). The Court determined that the RUA was only applicable to large, undeveloped tracts of land.

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The Michigan General Property Tax Act (the Act) requires real property in Michigan be assessed yearly and taxed at one-half (1/2) of its true cash value (true cash value is the same as market value). However, with the passage of the Headlee Amendment to the Michigan Constitution in 1994, limitations were placed on how much assessments and taxes could go up each year. Since 1994-1995, annual property tax increases have been “capped” at levels specified in the Act and remain capped until a “transfer of ownership” occurs. Once a transfer of ownership occurs, the property is reassessed at one-half (1/2) of the “true cash value” as of that date and the taxes, in most cases, go up substantially. The property tax is capped at the new, higher amount until the next transfer of ownership takes place (Michigan property tax bills show a “Taxable Value” and a “State Equalized Value.” The Taxable Value is the capped value upon which the property tax is assessed. The State Equalized Value approximates one-half (1/2) of the true cash value/market value of the property. Once the property tax is uncapped, the State Equalized Value and the Taxable Value become the same for the year in which the uncapping occurred and the cap goes back into effect at that amount).

The key term in all of this is “transfer of ownership,” which basically means a conveyance of title to, or a present interest in, real property. However, not all conveyances constitute a transfer of ownership. One such exclusion is for a transfer of ownership between two or more persons that creates or terminates a joint tenancy if
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Why should your cottage be in jeopardy and need saving? Cottage-Law.com expert Dan A. Penning has invaluable strategies to pro-actively plan how to protect your cottage first and secure its future. Why risk an emergency rescue plan when you can plan to avoid the crisis with a cottage succession plan?