What Happens If You Don't Pay HOA Fees

• Interest: if the declaration or bylaws name no rate, simple interest runs at 18 percent a year, and compound interest is not allowed (s. 720.3085(3) for HOAs, s. 718.116(3) for condos).
• Late fee: if the documents allow one, up to the greater of $25 or 5 percent of each late installment.
• Payments are applied to interest first, then the late fee, then collection costs and attorney fees, then the assessment itself.
• HOA attorney fees: none until the association sends a "NOTICE OF LATE ASSESSMENT" giving 30 days to pay (s. 720.3085(3)(d)).
• HOA lien: no lien until a notice gives the owner 45 days to pay, sent by certified or registered mail and by first-class mail (s. 720.3085(4)). Condo: no lien until 45 days after a notice of intent to file one (s. 718.121(4)).
• Foreclosure: an HOA cannot file until 45 days after a notice of intent to foreclose (s. 720.3085(5)). A condo cannot get a foreclosure judgment until 45 days after its written notice (s. 718.116(6)(b)).

• Payment plans: an HOA of more than 14 lots must adopt payment plan guidelines. The plan runs at least 3 months and need not run past 18 (Tex. Prop. Code 209.0062).
• Payments are applied to delinquent assessments first, then current assessments, then collection costs, other attorney fees and fines (209.0063).
• Collection agency fees: the owner owes them only after a certified-mail notice giving at least 45 days to pay (209.0064).
• Lien: a first notice by mail or email, a second by certified mail at least 30 days later, and no lien before the 90th day after the second notice (209.0094).
• Foreclosure: an HOA needs a court order through an expedited foreclosure application, or a regular court judgment, unless the owner waives it in writing at that time (209.0092). It may not foreclose when the debt is only fines, attorney fees tied to fines, or records charges (209.009).
• Buying back: the owner may redeem the home up to the 180th day after the association mails notice of the sale (209.011).
• Condos: the declaration creates the lien and gives the association a power of sale. A condo association may foreclose in or out of court, but never for fines alone, and the owner may redeem up to 90 days after the sale (82.113).

The Department of Real Estate's booklet RE 39 says an assessment unpaid 15 days after its due date is delinquent. The association can then add a late fee of $10 or 10 percent of the monthly assessment, whichever is greater, unless the CC&Rs set less. After 30 days it can charge interest of up to 12 percent a year. The association "has the right to lien your property" and "can foreclose and take your property for your failure to pay assessments." Once a year it sends each owner its collection policy.

RE 39 was revised in June 2016, and the booklet itself says it gives general information only. California's Civil Code sets the current steps, and we could not open it on 31 October 2026.

Anything owed shows up when the home is sold. In Florida the association issues an estoppel certificate, a statement of what the owner owes, within 10 business days of a request. In Texas the resale certificate lists amounts owed and must arrive within 10 business days. A lender that takes a Florida home through foreclosure pays the lesser of 12 months of unpaid assessments or 1 percent of the original mortgage debt, if the association joined it in the foreclosure case.

• Write down the due date, the late fee and the interest rate your documents allow, and charge nothing above them.
• Send each notice the state requires, by the method it names, and keep proof of mailing.
• Keep every owner's account in writing. Florida and Texas both let owners inspect association financial records.
• Offer a payment plan before a lien. In Texas an HOA of more than 14 lots must have one.
• Texas HOAs must have a management certificate on record. Without one, an owner does not owe the association's collection attorney fees or interest (209.004(e)).