Colorado HOA Collections & Liens

Section 1 — Overview: How assessment collection and liens work in Colorado

Colorado's Common Interest Ownership Act — CCIOA for short, found at C.R.S. § 38-33.3-101 and following — hands every incorporated association a statutory lien on a unit for any assessment levied against it, and it grants that lien a limited priority ahead of the first mortgage.¹ But the defining feature of Colorado practice isn't the lien itself. It's the collection rules wrapped around it. Starting with HB 22-1137 in 2022 and running through HB 24-1233, HB 24-1337, and HB 25-1043, the legislature built what practitioners call the most restrictive pre-foreclosure regime in the country: a mandatory long-term payment-plan offer, caps on late fees, interest, and collection costs, a prohibition on foreclosing for fine-only debt, and a requirement that the board itself vote to pursue legal action.² Read the current rules from the amended statute as it stands in June 2026 — not the original 2022 enactment.

The lien arises automatically on the date an assessment becomes due. Because recording the declaration constitutes record notice and perfection, the association does not need to record a separate claim of lien for the lien to attach.³ Colorado grants a super-priority lien ahead of the first mortgage — but only for the common-expense assessments that would have come due during the six months immediately before a foreclosure begins.⁴ Association foreclosure is judicial only; the public-trustee process used for deeds of trust is not available.⁵ A statutory minimum bars foreclosure unless the total lien equals or exceeds six months of common-expense assessments, and a lien composed only of fines or related charges cannot be foreclosed at all.⁶ On the national map, Colorado sits in the threshold-restricted group — alongside California and Arizona — while retaining a UCIOA-style super-priority smaller than Nevada's nine-month lien.⁷ The sections that follow detail the lien, its priority, the collection and foreclosure sequence, and recent legislative and judicial activity.

Colorado HOA Collections & Liens at a glance

Source: C.R.S. § 38-33.3-209.5, § 38-33.3-316, § 38-33.3-316.3, § 38-33.3-123, § 38-33.3-315, and C.R.S. § 38-38-302 (leg.colorado.gov). Last verified: June 9, 2026.

Section 2 — The lien and its priority

2A. Lien creation, authority, and what it secures

The assessment lien flows from C.R.S. § 38-33.3-316(1): an incorporated association — or one organized as a limited liability company — holds a statutory lien on a unit for any assessment levied against that unit or any fine imposed against its owner.¹ The lien arises automatically: the amount includes the listed items from the time they become due, and where assessments are payable in installments, each installment becomes a lien when it comes due.³ Under the UCIOA structure Colorado follows, recording the declaration is itself record notice and perfection of the lien, and § 38-33.3-316(4) states expressly that no further recordation of a claim of lien for assessments is required.³ Practitioners nonetheless record a notice of lien in the county clerk and recorder's office where the unit sits as additional notice to title searchers, but recording is not a condition of attachment.¹⁷ This applies to both condominiums and planned communities.

What the lien secures is broad but bifurcated. Section 38-33.3-316(1) allows the lien to capture assessments, fees, charges, late charges, attorney fees, fines, and interest — but it draws a sharp line: fees, charges, late charges, attorney fees, fines, and interest "may be subject to a statutory lien but are not subject to a foreclosure action."¹⁵ The lien attaches to the unit or lot only and does not reach the owner's other property; an association seeking to reach other assets must obtain a personal money judgment.¹⁸ HB 22-1137 also reordered the application of payments so that money received goes first to unpaid assessments and only then to other charges, which directly affects how quickly a balance crosses the foreclosable assessment threshold.¹⁹

2B. Lien priority and any super-priority component

The general priority rule sits in § 38-33.3-316(2). The association lien is prior to all other liens except three categories: encumbrances recorded before the declaration; a first security interest recorded before the assessment became delinquent; and liens for real-estate taxes and other governmental charges.⁹ Against that baseline, Colorado carves out a super-priority portion. Section 38-33.3-316(2)(b) elevates the association ahead of an otherwise-senior first security interest "in an amount equal to the common expense assessments based on a periodic budget adopted by the association under section 38-33.3-315(1) which would have become due, in the absence of any acceleration, during the six months immediately preceding institution by either the association or any party holding a lien senior to any part of the association lien of an action or a nonjudicial foreclosure."⁴ The figure is six months, capped at six months of regular common-expense assessments; the practical lien stack in Colorado runs real-estate taxes first, the six-month super-priority portion second, the first deed of trust third, and the remaining association balance fourth.²⁰ The statute also preserves the priority of mechanics' and materialmen's liens.⁹

Whether Colorado's super-priority resets in successive periods — the "rolling lien" question litigated in Nevada under SBT Realty and Hogan-style analysis — has no controlling Colorado appellate answer. Colorado's statute fixes the super-priority by reference to the six months preceding the institution of a foreclosure action, which functionally ties the amount to a single foreclosure rather than repeatedly resetting it; the seminal Colorado decision on the scope of the super-lien, First Atlantic Mortgage, LLC v. Sunstone North Homeowners Association, confirmed the six-month-plus-associated-charges measure but predates the recent reforms.²¹ Multi-state operators should not import Nevada's rolling-lien reasoning into Colorado without counsel. The priority rule, stated plainly: real-estate taxes outrank everyone; the association's six months of assessments outrank the first mortgage; everything else the association is owed is junior to the first mortgage.

2C. CC&R interaction, corporate-law overlay, and federal overlay

Recorded covenants (CC&Rs) supplement the statutory lien and can vary some defaults; the statute repeatedly uses the phrase "unless the declaration otherwise provides."¹ But CCIOA contains unwaivable provisions: C.R.S. § 38-33.3-104 bars varying CCIOA by agreement except where the act expressly permits, so a declaration cannot contract around the consumer-protection rules in §§ 38-33.3-209.5, 316, and 316.3.²² Where a declaration and CCIOA conflict, § 38-33.3-319 makes CCIOA control. The underlying assessment debt is also subject to a limitations period: § 38-33.3-316(5) extinguishes the lien unless enforcement proceedings begin within six years after the full amount of the assessments became due, which is consistent with the six-year period for liquidated debt under C.R.S. § 13-80-103.5.²³

A federal overlay applies on top of the Colorado framework. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act reaches association debt when collected by third-party debt collectors and law firms; the automatic stay in 11 U.S.C. § 362 halts collection the moment an owner files bankruptcy; and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act constrains foreclosure against active-duty servicemembers. These operate independently of CCIOA.

Section 3 — The collection and foreclosure process

This is the operational core of the page. Each step below cites its statutory source, indicates condo versus planned-community applicability (CCIOA's collection rules apply to both, with a narrow time-share carve-out), and flags any requirement imposed only by typical CC&Rs.

3A. Pre-lien collection sequence

Before any lien enforcement, the association must comply with the notice rules in C.R.S. § 38-33.3-209.5. The association must contact the owner about the delinquency and keep records of each contact, including the type, date, and time. The notice of delinquency must go out by certified mail, return receipt requested, and the association must also reach the owner — or the owner's designated contact — by two of three means: telephone, text, or email.¹⁰ That two-additional-methods requirement took effect August 7, 2024 under HB 24-1233, which also removed the earlier requirement to physically post the notice on the unit.²⁴ The owner may designate a preferred language other than English, and the association must then send correspondence and notices in that language; the owner may also name a designated third-party contact.²⁵ The association must send monthly itemized statements of all assessments, fees, fines, and charges owed to any owner with a delinquent balance.²⁶ These rules apply to both condominiums and planned communities.

Before the association turns the account over to an attorney or collection agency, it must give the owner notice specifying the total amount due with an accounting, whether a payment plan is available with instructions to request one, the contact for obtaining a ledger to verify the debt, and that action is required to cure.²⁷ The owner has at least 30 days to cure a delinquency.¹⁰ The payment-plan right is central: under § 38-33.3-316.3, before sending the matter to an attorney or collection agency, the association must offer a payment plan with a repayment period of at least 18 months, with the owner choosing the installment amount so long as each installment is at least $25 (in addition to currently accruing assessments).¹² The association need not offer a plan to an owner who previously entered one, and an owner defaults by failing to make at least three monthly payments within 15 days after the installments were due, or by failing to stay current on assessments coming due during the plan.²⁸ The owner also has the right to request, in writing, a statement of the amount owed; if the association fails to furnish it within 14 days, it loses the right to assert a lien for the amounts due as of the request date.²⁹

3B. Recording and the pre-foreclosure sequence

Recording a claim of lien is optional for attachment but common in practice; counsel files it with the county clerk and recorder where the property sits and typically adds the association's mailing address to the recorded notice.¹⁷ Whatever the recording practice, enforcement must begin within six years of the date the full amount became due.²³ The board-vote prerequisite is strict: under § 38-33.3-316(11) and § 38-33.3-209.5, an association — or a management or property-management company acting for it — may not refer a delinquent account to a collection agency or attorney unless a majority of the board votes to do so in a recorded vote at a meeting, and the board must authorize foreclosure on an individual-unit basis. The board cannot delegate this authority to a manager, attorney, or insurer.¹³ The vote may take place in executive session, but the affected owner may request and receive the result.³⁰

At least 30 days before initiating a foreclosure, the association must send a notice of intent to foreclose — in writing and electronically — advising that foreclosure could result in sale of the unit at auction and loss of equity, that the owner may seek mediation, that the owner may obtain credit counseling, and that free information is available through the state HOA Information and Resource Center.¹¹ HB 25-1043 added the credit-counseling advisement, effective October 1, 2025.³¹ The association must also give at least 30 days' written and electronic notice of the pending foreclosure to all lienholders identified in the owner's property records.³² Mediation is owner-elected, not mandatory: to trigger it, the owner must respond within 30 days of the notice, and if the owner does not respond, the association may proceed.³³ These requirements apply to both condominiums and planned communities.

3C. Foreclosure mechanics and thresholds

Association foreclosure in Colorado is judicial. Section 38-33.3-316(11) requires the association to foreclose its lien in the same manner as a mortgage, and because Colorado mortgages must be foreclosed judicially, the association must file a lawsuit in district court.⁵ This differs from ordinary residential foreclosures, which proceed nonjudicially through the public trustee under the C.R.C.P. Rule 120 process for deeds of trust; that route is not available to associations, whose liens are not deeds of trust naming the public trustee.³⁴ Judicial foreclosure runs through C.R.S. § 38-38-101 et seq. and culminates in a sheriff's sale; practitioners report that uncontested association foreclosures commonly take several months.³⁵

Two thresholds gate the action. First, the total amount secured by the lien must equal or exceed six months of common-expense assessments based on the adopted periodic budget.⁶ Second, fines are not foreclosable: § 38-33.3-316(1) bars foreclosure where the debt consists solely of fines, or of collection costs or attorney fees associated only with fines.¹⁵ HB 24-1337 added a further prerequisite, effective August 7, 2024: before commencing a judicial foreclosure, the association must first obtain a personal money judgment against the owner, unless an exception applies — death or incapacity of the owner, an active bankruptcy, or the owner having avoided service for six months — and the judgment prerequisite does not apply where the unit is not the owner's principal residence or is corporate-owned and not used for workforce housing.³⁶ These rules apply to both condominiums and planned communities.

3D. Post-sale: redemption, deficiency, surplus, reinstatement

Colorado's general foreclosure law gives a post-sale redemption right to junior lienors, not to the foreclosed owner: a junior lienor must file a notice of intent to redeem within eight business days after the sale, and the most senior such lienor may then redeem during a window that opens 15 and closes 19 business days after the sale, with each successive junior lienor receiving a five-business-day period.¹⁴ HB 24-1337 overhauled this for association foreclosures. For a "unit association lien," the statute created categories of "alternate lienors" — including the former unit owner, family members, tenants, nonprofits, community land trusts, and the state or a political subdivision — who need not hold a recorded lien; an alternate lienor has 30 days after the sale to file a notice of intent to redeem and may redeem no sooner than 35 days and no later than 180 days after the sale.³⁷ Where the foreclosed lien is an association lien and no lienor files an intent to redeem, § 38-38-501(3) sets a 30-day period before title vests.³⁸ This redemption overhaul is specific to common-interest-community foreclosures and applies to both condominiums and planned communities.

A deficiency may remain a personal obligation of the former owner where the association has reduced its claim to a money judgment — which after HB 24-1337 is the ordinary path. Surplus sale proceeds, after satisfaction of the foreclosing lien and senior claims, get distributed to junior lienholders in order and then to the former owner, who may apply for surplus funds under C.R.S. § 38-38-111(2).³⁹ The owner's practical cure right is the statutory payment plan and the right to bring the account current before sale; an owner who keeps a qualifying plan current cannot be foreclosed, because the missed-installment default condition has not occurred.²⁸

Section 4 — Recent legislative and judicial activity

Recent Legislation

Colorado has moved steadily in one direction on HOA collections: tighter restrictions on associations and stronger protections for homeowners. The foundational 2022 bill, HB 22-1137, introduced the payment-plan mandate, interest cap, and board-vote requirement. The three bills below built on that foundation in 2024 and 2025. A separate 2026 measure, HB 26-1099 (signed April 13, 2026, effective August 12, 2026), addresses reserve studies and management-company record turnover — but it does not touch the collection or foreclosure framework.⁴³

Recent Court Rulings

Colorado's appellate courts have not yet issued a published opinion construing the HB 22-1137 or HB 24-1337 collection requirements, the six-month super-priority, or post-2022 association foreclosure procedure — the reforms are recent enough that appellate case law has not yet developed. One published ruling from late 2024 does stand out, however, as it addresses a foundational question about whether an association even had the authority to assess in the first place.

Active Legislative Debates

Colorado's legislature continued its multi-session tightening of association rules in 2026, but the enacted measures — notably HB 26-1099 on reserve studies and record turnover — addressed financial preparedness rather than collections or lien priority, leaving the HB 22-1137 through HB 25-1043 framework as the operative collections regime.

Section 5 — National positioning and related coverage

Colorado occupies a middle position on the national collections spectrum. It is a super-priority state, granting associations a limited priority ahead of the first mortgage equal to six months of assessments — smaller than Nevada's nine-month super-lien under NRS 116.3116(2) and comparable to the priority portions in Connecticut and other UCIOA states. It is simultaneously a threshold-restricted state, like California and Arizona, because foreclosure is barred unless the lien reaches a statutory floor of six months of assessments and cannot rest on fine-only debt. And it is a judicial-only foreclosure state, unlike the nonjudicial-by-election regimes used for deeds of trust. For a multi-state operator, the practical implication is clear: a collection sequence, notice packet, or payment-plan offer valid in one state can be defective or outright barred in another. Colorado's 18-month plan offer, two-method notice, board vote, money judgment, and strict-compliance rules have no analog in many states. Colorado's direction of travel is one-directional — toward stronger owner protections — given the HB 22-1137 through HB 25-1043 trajectory.

Caveats

• Statutory numbers were read from current CCIOA text and the enacted bill versions, but verify each day-count and dollar figure against the live statute before each release, since the legislature has amended this area in four of the last five sessions.
• The attorney-fee cap is inflation-adjusted: HB 24-1337's enrolled text adjusts the fee limitations for inflation on August 1, 2025, and each year thereafter, measured by the annual change in the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index for Denver-Aurora-Lakewood for all items paid by urban consumers, so the $5,000 figure is a base amount, not a fixed current cap.
• No Colorado appellate court has yet construed the HB 22-1137/HB 24-1337/HB 25-1043 reforms, so several operational questions — including whether strict-compliance challenges will routinely stay foreclosures — remain open and should be monitored.

1. C.R.S. § 38-33.3-316(1), Lien for assessments (CCIOA), leg.colorado.gov ↩
2. HB 22-1137, HOA Board Accountability & Transparency, Colorado General Assembly ↩
3. C.R.S. § 38-33.3-316(1), (4), leg.colorado.gov ↩
4. C.R.S. § 38-33.3-316(2)(b), leg.colorado.gov ↩
5. C.R.S. § 38-33.3-316(11), leg.colorado.gov ↩
6. C.R.S. § 38-33.3-316(1), (11), leg.colorado.gov ↩
7. HB 24-1337, Real Property Owner Unit Association Collections, Colorado General Assembly ↩
8. CCIOA, C.R.S. § 38-33.3-101 et seq.; foreclosure C.R.S. § 38-38-101 et seq., leg.colorado.gov ↩
9. C.R.S. § 38-33.3-316(2), leg.colorado.gov ↩
10. C.R.S. § 38-33.3-209.5, leg.colorado.gov ↩
11. HB 25-1043, Owner Equity Protection in HOA Foreclosure Sales, Colorado General Assembly ↩
12. C.R.S. § 38-33.3-316.3; HB 22-1137 (repayment period of at least 18 months), leg.colorado.gov; see also Colorado Division of Real Estate HOA delinquency guidance ("payments must be at least $25.00 per month in addition to the payment of currently accruing assessments") ↩
13. C.R.S. § 38-33.3-316(11), § 38-33.3-209.5, leg.colorado.gov ↩
14. C.R.S. § 38-38-302, leg.colorado.gov ↩
15. C.R.S. § 38-33.3-316(1), leg.colorado.gov ↩
16. C.R.S. § 38-33.3-316, § 38-33.3-117, leg.colorado.gov ↩
17. Colorado Foreclosure Law and Your Association's Superlien, cohoalaw.com ↩
18. HB 24-1337 (money judgment prerequisite), leg.colorado.gov ↩
19. HB 22-1137 (application of payments), leg.colorado.gov ↩
20. Lien Priorities in Colorado, Orten Cavanagh Holmes & Hunt ↩
21. First Atlantic Mortgage, LLC v. Sunstone North Homeowners Ass'n, discussed at frascona.com ↩
22. C.R.S. § 38-33.3-104, § 38-33.3-319, leg.colorado.gov ↩
23. C.R.S. § 38-33.3-316(5); C.R.S. § 13-80-103.5, leg.colorado.gov ↩
24. HB 24-1233, HOA Delinquency Payments Enforcement Procedures, Colorado General Assembly ↩
25. HB 22-1137 (preferred language; designated contact), leg.colorado.gov ↩
26. C.R.S. § 38-33.3-209.5 (monthly itemized statements), leg.colorado.gov ↩
27. C.R.S. § 38-33.3-209.5 (pre-referral notice contents), leg.colorado.gov ↩
28. C.R.S. § 38-33.3-316.3 (payment-plan default: failure to make at least 3 monthly payments within 15 days after due), leg.colorado.gov ↩
29. C.R.S. § 38-33.3-316(8), leg.colorado.gov ↩
30. HB 22-1137, § 38-33.3-308(4)(e) (executive session vote), leg.colorado.gov ↩
31. HB 25-1043 (credit counseling advisement), Colorado General Assembly ↩
32. HB 24-1337 (lienholder notice), leg.colorado.gov ↩
33. C.R.S. § 38-33.3-316 (mediation election), leg.colorado.gov ↩
34. Foreclosure of Assessment Liens (judicial process; no public trustee), Altitude Community Law ↩
35. Foreclosure of Assessment Liens (timeline), Altitude Community Law ↩
36. HB 24-1337 (money-judgment prerequisite and exceptions), leg.colorado.gov ↩
37. HB 24-1337, C.R.S. § 38-38-302, § 38-38-305.5 (alternate lienors; 35-180 day redemption), leg.colorado.gov ↩
38. C.R.S. § 38-38-501(3), leg.colorado.gov ↩
39. C.R.S. § 38-38-111(2), leg.colorado.gov ↩
40. HB 24-1337, Real Property Owner Unit Association Collections (official bill summary, $5,000/50% attorney-fee limit), Colorado General Assembly ↩
41. HB 24-1233, HOA Delinquency Payments Enforcement Procedures, Colorado General Assembly ↩
42. HB 25-1043, Owner Equity Protection in HOA Foreclosure Sales, Colorado General Assembly ↩
43. HB 26-1099, Protect Financial Condition of HOAs, Colorado General Assembly ↩
44. Frisco Lot v. Giberson Preserve, 2024 COA 125, Colorado Judicial Branch ↩