Section 1: Overview

Alabama settles community-association disputes through a contract-and-court model, and it imposes no statutory pre-suit mediation or ADR mandate on homeowners associations or condominiums. The recorded declaration and the courts do most of the work.

The condominium statutes themselves say little about dispute resolution: the Alabama Uniform Condominium Act of 1991 lets an association, "after notice and an opportunity to be heard," levy fines for violations, but it lays out no comprehensive internal-dispute-resolution, mediation, or arbitration program.¹

That gap plays out differently across a split structure. Condominiums created on or after January 1, 1991 fall under the Uniform Condominium Act (Ala. Code § 35-8A-101 et seq.);² condominiums created before that date stay under the predecessor Alabama Condominium Ownership Act (Ala. Code § 35-8-1 et seq.);³ and planned-community HOAs created on or after January 1, 2016 operate under the corporate-form Alabama Homeowners' Association Act (Ala. Code § 35-20-1 et seq.), layered on their recorded CC&Rs.⁴

Alabama's arbitration posture stands out. State law disfavors pre-dispute arbitration agreements under Ala. Code § 8-1-41,⁵ but the Federal Arbitration Act generally controls and enforces declaration arbitration clauses in transactions that affect interstate commerce.⁶

Once litigation begins, courts may send the parties to mediation under the Alabama Civil Court Mediation Rules.⁷ And because Alabama follows the American rule on attorney fees, the recorded declaration's dispute-resolution and fee-shifting clauses frequently decide the practical outcome.⁸ Nationally, this puts Alabama among the contract-and-court states, in contrast to mandatory-ADR states such as California and Florida. The sections that follow lay out the framework, the pathways, and recent activity.

1. Ala. Code § 35-8A-302(a)(11) (Powers of unit owners' association) ↩ ↩ ↩
2. Ala. Code § 35-8A-101 (Short title, Alabama Uniform Condominium Act of 1991) ↩
3. Ala. Code § 35-8-1 et seq. (Alabama Condominium Ownership Act, applicable to condominiums created before January 1, 1991) ↩
4. Ala. Code § 35-20-5 (Alabama Homeowners' Association Act; organization as nonprofit corporation and Secretary of State filing for HOAs created on or after January 1, 2016) ↩ ↩
5. Ala. Code § 8-1-41(3) (Obligations which cannot be specifically enforced: "An agreement to submit a controversy to arbitration") ↩ ↩ ↩
6. Allied-Bruce Terminix Cos. v. Dobson, 513 U.S. 265 (1995) ↩ ↩
7. Alabama Civil Court Mediation Rules, Rule 11 (Confidentiality) ↩ ↩
8. Reynolds v. First Alabama Bank of Montgomery, 471 So. 2d 1238 (Ala. 1985) (American rule; "in Alabama, attorney's fees are recoverable only where authorized by statute, when provided in a contract, or by special equity") ↩ ↩ ↩
9. Ala. Code § 35-8A-102 (Applicability; enumerated sections, including § 35-8A-302(a)(1)-(6) and (a)(11)-(16), applied to condominiums created before January 1, 1991) ↩
10. Ala. Code § 35-20-11 (Powers of board, Alabama Homeowners' Association Act) ↩ ↩
11. 9 U.S.C. § 2 (Federal Arbitration Act, validity and enforceability of arbitration agreements in contracts evidencing a transaction involving commerce) ↩ ↩
12. Coastal Ford, Inc. v. Kidder, 694 So. 2d 1285 (Ala. 1997) (FAA applies under "commerce in fact" test where contract in fact involves interstate commerce, preempting Ala. Code § 8-1-41(3)) ↩
13. Ala. Code § 6-6-20 (Mandatory Mediation Act; mediation on party motion or court's own motion; cost allocation) ↩ ↩ ↩
14. Alabama Center for Dispute Resolution (administrative arm of the Alabama Supreme Court Commission on Dispute Resolution) ↩
15. Alabama Judicial System, Court of Civil Appeals (court structure and jurisdiction overview) ↩
16. Ala. Code § 12-3-10 (Appellate jurisdiction of Court of Civil Appeals; civil cases where amount involved does not exceed $50,000) ↩
17. Ala. Code § 35-8A-414 (Effect of violations on rights of action; attorney's fees: "The court, in an appropriate case, may award reasonable attorney's fees to either party.") ↩
18. Ala. Code Title 6, Chapter 2 (Limitations of Actions) and Chapter 6 (Remedies) ↩
19. Alabama Legislature, HB260 (2026 Regular Session), House First Readings, Third Legislative Day (bill title and amended sections) ↩
20. Alabama HB260, 2026 Regular Session (status: pending House Judiciary; companion SB121 pending Senate Judiciary) ↩
21. Englund v. Dauphin Island Property Owners Association, Nos. SC-2024-0414, SC-2024-0437 (Ala. Aug. 29, 2025) ↩
22. Howard Ross v. West Wind Condominium Association, No. CL-2025-0064 (Ala. Civ. App. July 25, 2025) ↩
23. Cal. Civ. Code §§ 5900-5965 (Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act; internal dispute resolution and pre-litigation ADR) ↩
24. Fla. Stat. § 718.1255 (condominium pre-suit dispute resolution) and § 720.311 (homeowners' association pre-suit mediation) ↩