8 records
How much written notice must a homeowners association give, and how delinquent must an owner be, before the HOA can record a lien or start foreclosure over unpaid assessments?
8 records, one fact each. Every value is transcribed from the source that states it and carries the sentence it was taken from: 9 sources across 8 sites, last checked 2026-09-02, due for re-check by 2027-09-02. Every record is listed below, each linking the page its value came from.
About this data
An HOA or condo association can put a lien on a unit for unpaid dues and, in most states, eventually foreclose on it — but state statutes (not the association's own governing documents) set a floor on how much written notice the owner gets first, and in some states a minimum dollar or time delinquency before the association may foreclose at all. The notice periods are not comparable on their face, because each state hangs its period on a different step, so every record here quotes the step alongside the period. California requires at least 30 days before recording a lien (Civ. Code § 5660) and bars foreclosure below $1,800 or 12 months delinquent (§ 5720). Florida requires 45 days before recording a claim of lien, and a further separate 45 days before filing a foreclosure action, with no dollar floor (Fla. Stat. § 720.3085). Colorado requires at least 30 days before initiating a foreclosure action — added by HB 24-1337 and present only from the 2024 edition of the revised statutes onward — and bars foreclosure below six months of common-expense assessments (C.R.S. § 38-33.3-316(10.7)(a), (11)(a)(I)). Nevada requires not less than 30 days between the notice of delinquent assessment and the recorded notice of default (NRS 116.31162(1)(b)). Arizona requires at least 30 days before the association may refer the account to an attorney or outside collector, and bars a foreclosure action until the owner is 18 months or $10,000 behind, whichever comes first (A.R.S. § 33-1807(A), (L)). Washington requires a second delinquency notice no sooner than 60 days after the first, and a floor of three months or $2,000 of assessments (RCW 64.90.485(22)). Virginia requires at least 10 days before filing a memorandum of lien and bars nonjudicial foreclosure below $5,000 (Va. Code § 55.1-1833). North Carolina requires no fewer than 15 days before filing the lien, on an account unpaid 90 days or more (N.C. Gen. Stat. § 47F-3-116). Each record is one state's homeowners'/property-owners' association or common-interest-community act — not judicial mortgage foreclosure law generally, and not that state's separate condominium act, which can state different numbers for a condo unit. Several general compilers (Nolo, FindLaw) publish separate per-state encyclopedia articles on HOA foreclosure, but none of them join the notice-day and delinquency-floor numbers into one comparable table across states — checked 2026-09-02, no 50-state table found. Answers 'how many days notice before my HOA can put a lien on my house' and 'how much do I have to owe before an HOA can foreclose in [state]'.
The data
| State | Written notice required | Notice required before | Minimum delinquency before foreclosure | Statute |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona | at least thirty days | authorizing an attorney, or a collection agency that is not acting as the association's managing agent, to begin collection activity on behalf of the association | a period of eighteen months or in the amount of $10,000 or more, whichever occurs first | A.R.S. § 33-1807(A), (L) |
| California | At least 30 days | recording a lien upon the separate interest of the owner of record to collect a debt that is past due under Section 5650 | equals or exceeds one thousand eight hundred dollars ($1,800) or the assessments secured by the lien are more than 12 months delinquent | Cal. Civ. Code § 5660 |
| Colorado | At least thirty days | initiating legal action to foreclose a lien under this section | equals or exceeds six months of common expense assessments based on a periodic budget adopted by the association | C.R.S. § 38-33.3-316(10.7)(a), (11)(a)(I) |
| Florida | 45 days following the date the notice is deposited in the mail | file a record of lien against a parcel for unpaid assessments | Fla. Stat. § 720.3085(4) | |
| Nevada | Not less than 30 days | a notice of default and election to sell the unit to satisfy the lien | NRS 116.31162(1)(b) | |
| North Carolina | No fewer than 15 days | filing the lien | unpaid for 90 days or more | N.C. Gen. Stat. § 47F-3-116(b), (f) |
| Virginia | at least 10 days | filing a memorandum of lien | in excess of $5,000, exclusive of attorney fees and costs | Va. Code § 55.1-1833(C), (I) |
| Washington | no sooner than 60 days after the first preforeclosure notice required in subsection (21)(a) of this section is mailed | commence an action to foreclose a lien on a unit under this section | at least a sum equal to the greater of: (i) Three months or more of assessments, not including fines, late charges, interest, attorneys' fees, or costs incurred by the association in connection with the collection of a delinquent owner's account; or (ii) $2,000 of assessments | RCW 64.90.485(22) |
Where this came from
Every record above links the page it was taken from and quotes the sentence that states it. These are the 9 sources this dataset was assembled from.
- azleg.govhttps://www.azleg.gov/ars/33/01807.htm
- leginfo.legislature.ca.govhttps://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=5660.
- leginfo.legislature.ca.govhttps://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=5720.
- leg.colorado.govhttps://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/images/olls/crs2024-title-38.pdf
- leg.state.fl.ushttps://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0720/Sections/0720.3085.html
- leg.state.nv.ushttps://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/nrs-116.html#NRS116Sec31162
- ncleg.govhttps://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_47F/GS_47F-3-116.html
- law.lis.virginia.govhttps://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter18/section55.1-1833/
- app.leg.wa.govhttps://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=64.90.485
Machine-readable
- data.jsonThe whole dataset — every record with its source URL and source quote.
- Open Knowledge Format bundleOne JSON object per line — every record's frontmatter and quoted span exactly as it is held here, in one fetch.
- data.csvThe same records as one flat table, for a spreadsheet or a dataframe. The last four columns are the source URL, the quoted sentence it was read from, the date we last checked it, and which columns are our reading rather than the page's words.
- How this is made and checkedWhat "verified against source" does and does not mean.
Set your AI assistant up to use this
Two files and no account. Put this in .mcp.json at the root of your project — Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code and Codex all read that file — and your assistant can look this dataset up instead of recalling it. The server is remote, keyless and read-only.
{
"mcpServers": {
"referencesource": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://referencesource.org/mcp"
}
}
}Add to Cursor · or, on the command line: claude mcp add --transport http referencesource https://referencesource.org/mcp --scope project
Then one line in the project's CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md, so the assistant knows when to reach for it:
When a question needs "HOA/condo assessment lien and foreclosure notice requirements by US state — quoted from the state common-interest-community statute", call the referencesource MCP server at https://referencesource.org/mcp (tool `search_records`, dataset_slug `hoa-lien-foreclosure-notice-requirements-by-state`) instead of answering from memory — every record it returns carries its source URL and a verbatim quote from that page.What each tool does, and the servers built over single registers: Connect your AI assistant.