A.R.S. 33-1807: HOA Liens and Foreclosure in Arizona

When you do not pay an assessment, the HOA gets a lien on your lot for it automatically, the teeth behind HOA dues that A.R.S. 33-1807 provides. But Arizona puts real limits on how far that can go: the HOA cannot foreclose on your home until you are 18 months behind or owe $10,000 or more in assessments, whichever happens first. The lien also ranks behind your first mortgage, so it does not jump ahead of your home loan. Here is how the lien arises and where the lines are.

How the lien arises and where it ranks

The lien is automatic. The moment an assessment becomes due and goes unpaid, the HOA has a lien on that property for the amount owed:

The association has a common expense lien on a property for any assessment levied against that property from the time the assessment becomes due.

That lien covers the unpaid assessment, plus late charges, reasonable collection fees and costs, and any attorney fees a court awards. On priority, the HOA lien ranks ahead of most later claims on the property, but it sits behind three things: liens recorded before the declaration, a recorded first mortgage or first deed of trust, and property tax liens. In plain terms, your bank's first mortgage and the county's tax lien come first, then the HOA.

The foreclosure limits that protect you

This is the part homeowners should know. Even with a lien, the HOA cannot drag you into foreclosure over a small or short-lived balance. It may foreclose only when:

the owner has been and remains delinquent in the payment of any assessment or portion of the assessment for a period of eighteen months or in the amount of $10,000 or more, whichever occurs first, not including any charges other than assessments, late charges, reasonable collection fees and reasonable attorney fees and costs.

Read that carefully: the $10,000 counts only real assessments and allowed collection costs. An HOA cannot pile on fines for, say, a brown lawn to inflate the number to the foreclosure trigger. The clock and the dollar amount are about unpaid dues, not penalties. The board also has to make reasonable efforts to reach you and offer a reasonable payment plan before it files. And the HOA loses the lien entirely if it does not start enforcement within six years after the assessment came due.

For example, if your Apache Junction HOA charges $300 a year and you stop paying, you would not hit the $10,000 figure for decades, so the 18-month clock is the real limit. Miss 18 months of dues and the HOA can move to foreclose, but only after trying to reach you and offering a payment plan first.

How it connects to the rest of the law

The amounts that feed this lien, the assessments and the late fees, are limited by A.R.S. 33-1803 , which caps both how fast dues can rise and how big a late fee can be. Any unpaid balance also has to be disclosed to a buyer under A.R.S. 33-1806 , so a lien does not stay hidden through a sale. The "association" with this lien power is defined in A.R.S. 33-1802 , and the duty to pay traces to the recorded CC&Rs . You can confirm what the HOA claims you owe using your records-inspection right in A.R.S. 33-1805 . For a buyer's overview of HOA life, see our FAQ on HOA design review and your custom home .

Full text and source

Read the current version, including any amendments, on the legislature's site: View A.R.S. 33-1807 on azleg.gov .

How the lien and foreclosure limits apply to a specific account depends on the facts, so confirm your situation with a qualified attorney before relying on it.