Connecticut HOA Collections & Liens

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

Connecticut gives community associations one of the broadest assessment-lien priorities in the country. Under the Connecticut Common Interest Ownership Act (CIOA), the association lien takes priority over a first mortgage to the extent of nine months of common-expense assessments that precede a foreclosure action, plus the association's enforcement costs and reasonable attorney's fees.¹ The lien arises automatically when an assessment falls due, and recording the declaration perfects it — no separate claim of lien is required.^2,3 The statutory super-priority runs nine months — Connecticut expanded it from six months through Public Act 13-156, § 1, effective June 24, 2013.⁴ Foreclosure of the lien is judicial, and Connecticut's default form is strict foreclosure, in which title vests in the foreclosing party after court-set law days expire rather than through a foreclosure sale.⁵ An association may not commence a foreclosure unless the owner owes at least two months of common-expense assessments, the association has made a demand for payment, and the executive board has voted to foreclose against the unit or adopted a standard foreclosure policy; there is no fixed dollar threshold.⁶ These features place Connecticut among the super-priority-lien states alongside Nevada, distinct from threshold-restricted states such as California and Arizona that bar foreclosure below a dollar or time minimum,^7,8 and distinct from pure judicial-sale and CC&R-primary states. The sections below detail lien creation and priority, the collection and foreclosure sequence, recent activity, and national positioning.

Connecticut HOA Collections & Liens at a glance

Source: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-258 (ch. 828). Last verified: June 9, 2026.

Section 2: The lien and its priority

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

The assessment lien is a creature of statute. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-258(a) provides that the association holds a statutory lien on a unit for any assessment attributable to that unit or fines imposed against its unit owner.² That same subsection makes reasonable attorney's fees and costs, other fees, charges, late charges, fines, and interest charged under § 47-244(a)(10), (11), and (12), and any other sums due under the declaration, the chapter, or an administrative, arbitration, mediation, or judicial decision, enforceable in the same manner as unpaid assessments.¹² Where an assessment is payable in installments, the full amount becomes a lien from the time the first installment falls due.²

The lien arises automatically; it does not depend on a recorded notice or a demand letter for its validity. Section 47-258(d) states that recording the declaration constitutes record notice and perfection of the lien, and that no further recordation of any claim of lien for assessment is required.³ That is a meaningful operational point: unlike states that require an association to record and serve a claim of lien before it attaches, Connecticut treats the recorded declaration as the perfecting instrument. On a request made in a record, the association must furnish a recordable statement of unpaid assessments within ten business days, and that statement binds the association.¹³

The lien attaches to the unit and its allocated interests, not to the owner's other property. CIOA separately preserves the association's right to sue the owner personally on the debt, so an association is not limited to in-rem enforcement.¹⁴

2B. Lien priority and any super-priority component

Section 47-258(b) sets a split priority. As a baseline, the association lien is prior to all other liens and encumbrances on a unit except: liens recorded before the declaration; a first or second security interest recorded before the date the enforced assessment became delinquent; and liens for real-property taxes and other governmental assessments.¹ That leaves the association junior to a pre-existing first mortgage and to tax liens, but senior to most later-recorded interests, including judgment liens.¹⁵

The distinctive feature is the super-priority. In any action to foreclose the lien (or to foreclose a covered security interest), the association lien is also prior to first and second security interests to the extent of (A) the common-expense assessments based on the adopted periodic budget that would have become due, absent acceleration, during the nine months immediately preceding institution of the action, excluding any late fees, interest, or fines assessed during that nine-month period, and (B) the association's costs and reasonable attorney's fees in enforcing the lien.¹ The nine-month figure is a Connecticut expansion of the Uniform Act's six-month default, enacted in 2013.⁴ Connecticut's Supreme Court confirmed the inclusion of enforcement costs and reasonable attorney's fees within the priority portion in Hudson House Condominium Assn., Inc. v. Brooks, 223 Conn. 610 (1992), holding that the priority covers attorney's fees, title-examination fees, and other costs of foreclosing the lien.¹⁶ Late fees, interest, and fines remain part of the overall lien but fall outside the super-priority amount.¹

The successive, or rolling, lien question is where associations most often overstate their position. The Supreme Court in Linden Condominium Assn. v. McKenna, 247 Conn. 575 (1999), limited the priority to assessments accruing during the months immediately preceding commencement of the foreclosure action, and Hudson House rejected an association's attempt to claim priority for all common expenses accruing during the pendency of its action on the theory that it could file a fresh foreclosure each priority period.^16,17 The Appellate Court reinforced the ceiling in 2024 in Stonybrook Gardens Cooperative, Inc. v. NewRez, LLC, 225 Conn. App. 168 (2024), holding that a redemption amount that included sums beyond the nine months of pre-foreclosure assessments plus enforcement costs and reasonable attorney's fees was inconsistent with § 47-258(b), and that a court's equitable powers and the omitted-party statute, § 49-30, do not enlarge the statutory priority.¹⁵ Whether an association may re-file a new action to capture a fresh nine-month window remains unsettled at the appellate level, with Superior Court decisions divided; no controlling Connecticut appellate or Supreme Court decision authorizes a true continuously rolling priority that captures more than a single nine-month window per action. The safe reading: per action, the priority is nine months of assessments plus enforcement costs and reasonable fees, and nothing more.

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

The recorded declaration interacts with the statute in defined ways. Section 47-258(a) allows the declaration to vary what additional sums (beyond assessments) are enforceable as the lien, using the phrase "unless the declaration otherwise provides."¹² The priority scheme in § 47-258(b), by contrast, opens with "notwithstanding any provision in the declaration or bylaws to the contrary," so a declaration cannot shrink or rearrange the statutory priority.¹ Where two or more associations hold liens on the same property, those liens carry equal priority unless the declaration provides otherwise.¹⁸

The limitations period is statutory. Section 47-258(e) extinguishes a lien for unpaid assessments unless proceedings to enforce it begin within three years after the full amount of the assessments became due, with tolling until 30 days after any bankruptcy automatic stay is lifted.¹⁹ The underlying debt may carry a different period depending on the theory: the Supreme Court in Canner v. Governors Ridge Assn., 348 Conn. 726 (2024), held that CIOA claims sounding in tort follow the three-year tort period, while claims based on the declaration or bylaws sound in contract and follow the six-year contract period.²⁰

Federal frameworks operate on top of the CIOA structure. The federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act can reach association collection activity conducted by third-party collectors and law firms. The automatic stay under 11 U.S.C. § 362 halts collection and foreclosure on a bankruptcy filing. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act constrains foreclosure against covered servicemembers.

Section 3: The collection and foreclosure process

3A. Pre-lien collection sequence

Because the lien is automatic and perfected by the recorded declaration, Connecticut imposes no statutory pre-lien notice as a condition of the lien attaching.³ This applies to condominiums, planned communities, and cooperatives governed by CIOA. In practice, the operative statutory notices attach to foreclosure, not to lien creation. An owner holds a statutory right, on a request made in a record, to a recordable statement of the amount of unpaid assessments, which the association must furnish within ten business days and which binds the association, the executive board, and every unit owner.¹³ CIOA does not require an association to offer a payment plan before recording or enforcing, and there is no statutory mandatory mediation prerequisite to collection, although § 47-278 makes alternative dispute resolution available. Many declarations add their own demand-letter and late-notice steps; those are contractual, not statutory.

3B. Recording and the pre-foreclosure sequence

No separate claim of lien need be recorded; the recorded declaration already perfects the lien.³ The statutory sequence governs the run-up to foreclosure and applies to all CIOA communities. Under § 47-258(m)(1), an association may not commence a foreclosure unless three conditions are met: the owner, at the time the action is commenced, owes a sum equal to at least two months of common-expense assessments based on the last adopted periodic budget; the association has made a demand for payment in a record and simultaneously provided a copy to the holder of any covered security interest; and the executive board has either voted to commence a foreclosure action specifically against that unit or has adopted a standard policy providing for foreclosure against that unit.⁶ The Appellate Court treats these as jurisdictional prerequisites: in Merritt Medical Center Owners Corp., Inc. v. Gianetti, 197 Conn. App. 226 (2020), a board's authorization merely to send accounts to "collections" was held inadequate to satisfy the vote-or-policy requirement.²¹

Separately, § 47-258(m)(2) requires that, not less than 60 days before commencing a foreclosure, the association provide written notice by first-class mail to the holders of covered security interests, setting out the unpaid assessment amount, attorney's fees and costs to date, a statement of intent to foreclose if not paid within 60 days, and association contact information.¹¹ Failure to give this 60-day notice does not destroy priority for the nine months of common-expense assessments, but in that situation the priority amount cannot include costs or attorney's fees.¹¹

3C. Foreclosure mechanics and thresholds

Foreclosure is judicial. Section 47-258(j) provides that the association's lien may be foreclosed in the same manner as a mortgage on real property, which routes enforcement through the Superior Court rather than any power of sale.¹⁰ Connecticut recognizes two judicial forms: strict foreclosure, which is the default, and foreclosure by sale, which a court may order under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 49-24 at its discretion, typically where the property carries equity above the debt or where a federal lien requires a sale.⁵ In strict foreclosure, there is no auction; the court sets law days, and each interest holder receives a law day in the inverse order of priority on which it may redeem by paying the debt, after which title vests in the foreclosing party when the law days pass.⁵

The threshold to file is two months of common-expense assessments owed; there is no minimum dollar figure and no separately stated minimum number of months of delinquency.⁶ Fines are part of the statutory lien and are foreclosable, but because § 47-258(m)(1)(A) keys the right to foreclose to owing at least two months of common-expense assessments, a debt consisting only of fines may not by itself support commencement, and fines are in any event excluded from the nine-month super-priority.^6,1 Every aspect of a foreclosure, sale, or other disposition under the section must be commercially reasonable.²² A typical contested association foreclosure runs several months from complaint to vesting, with timing driven by the court's calendar, appraisal, and the law-day schedule.

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

Connecticut does not provide a post-sale statutory redemption period of the kind found in many sale states. In strict foreclosure, the redemption right is the law day: an owner or junior lienholder redeems by paying the debt on or before its assigned law day, and once the law days pass, title becomes absolute in the foreclosing party with no further right to redeem.⁵ In foreclosure by sale, the equity of redemption is cut off at the sale, subject to court confirmation. A deficiency judgment is available; under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 49-14 a motion must generally be filed within 30 days after title vests, and the Supreme Court has confirmed that a deficiency judgment may be obtained in a condominium lien foreclosure.²³ The judgment or decree in any action under the section includes costs and reasonable attorney's fees for the prevailing party.²⁴ In a foreclosure by sale, surplus proceeds are distributed by the court to interest holders in order of priority, with any remainder to the owner. Where a first or second security holder forecloses, § 47-258(l) provides that the purchaser is not liable for unpaid assessments that became due before the sale other than the priority amount, and any unsatisfied assessments become common expenses collectible from all unit owners, including the purchaser.¹⁴ There is no separate statutory reinstatement-by-arrears right beyond the redemption mechanism described above; an owner may, however, satisfy the judgment debt before the law day or sale.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent and relevant legislation

Connecticut's 2024 and 2025 General Assembly sessions left the assessment-lien, priority, and foreclosure provisions of § 47-258 unchanged. The most recent statutory change to the collection framework came through Public Act 23-119, § 1, which amended § 47-258 — the latest in the section's amendment history running from P.A. 83-474 through P.A. 23-119.²⁵

B. Recent appellate ruling

C. Active legislative debates

Connecticut lawmakers have recently directed their attention to common interest communities on solar access, condominium construction deposits, and association financial records — not collections or lien priority. No active proposal would change the nine-month super-priority or the foreclosure prerequisites.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Connecticut sits at the strong-association end of the collections spectrum. Its nine-month super-priority, expanded from the Uniform Act's six months, parallels the prominent super-priority-lien states. Nevada's nine-month priority under NRS 116.3116(2) is the most litigated reference point; the Nevada Supreme Court in SFR Investments Pool 1 v. U.S. Bank, 334 P.3d 408 (Nev. 2014) (en banc) held that the HOA lien priority is a true lien priority — not merely payment priority — such that an HOA foreclosure may extinguish a first deed of trust.²⁷ Connecticut differs from threshold-restricted states such as California, where Cal. Civ. Code § 5720(b) bars foreclosing an assessment lien unless delinquent assessments equal or exceed $1,800 (excluding accelerated assessments, late charges, fees, collection costs, attorney's fees, and interest) or are more than 12 months delinquent,⁷ and from Arizona and Colorado, where Colorado caps the super-priority at six months of pre-action assessments under C.R.S. § 38-33.3-316(2)(b) and Arizona's A.R.S. § 33-1807 gates planned-community foreclosure at 18 months or $10,000 (with condominiums at one year or $1,200 under § 33-1256).^28,8 Connecticut also differs from pure judicial-sale states because strict foreclosure, not a sale, is its default. For a multi-state operator, the practical implication is clear: a Connecticut delinquency can move to a title-vesting outcome through law days without an auction, and the recoverable priority against a senior lender is fixed and narrow, so collection strategy should front-load the statutory prerequisites and isolate the nine-month figure early. Connecticut's current direction of travel is static on collections: the priority amount and foreclosure prerequisites have held steady since 2013, with recent legislative energy directed elsewhere.

1. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-258(b), split priority; super-priority for nine months of pre-action common-expense assessments excluding late fees, interest, and fines, plus the association's costs and reasonable attorney's fees; baseline priority subject to pre-declaration encumbrances, prior first/second security interests, and tax/governmental liens, Connecticut General Assembly, Chapter 828 (Common Interest Ownership Act) ↩
2. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-258(a), statutory lien for assessments and fines; installment lien from time first installment becomes due, Connecticut General Assembly, Chapter 828 ↩
3. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-258(d), recording of declaration constitutes record notice and perfection; no further recordation of a claim of lien required, Connecticut General Assembly, Chapter 828 ↩
4. Public Act 13-156, § 1, substituting "nine months" for "six months" re common-expense-assessment period covered by the lien, adding exclusion of late fees, interest, or fines, and adding reasonable attorney's fees to the priority; effective June 24, 2013, applicable to all actions pending on and filed on or after that date, Connecticut General Assembly, Chapter 828 (statutory history) ↩
5. Connecticut strict-foreclosure practice, strict foreclosure is the default; foreclosure by sale is the exception; law days set in inverse order of priority; title becomes absolute on passing of law days, Connecticut Judicial Branch Law Libraries, Foreclosure pathfinder ↩
6. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-258(m)(1), prerequisites to commencing foreclosure: at least two months of common-expense assessments owed; demand for payment in a record with copy to security-interest holder; executive-board vote against the unit or adopted standard policy, Connecticut General Assembly, Chapter 828 ↩
7. Cal. Civ. Code § 5720(b), assessment-lien foreclosure barred unless delinquent assessments equal or exceed $1,800, excluding accelerated assessments, late charges, fees, collection costs, attorney's fees, and interest, or are more than 12 months delinquent, California Legislative Information ↩
8. Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 33-1807, planned-community assessment-lien foreclosure barred unless the owner is delinquent 18 months or owes $10,000 or more, whichever occurs first; § 33-1256, condominium counterpart: one year or $1,200, Arizona State Legislature, Title 33 ↩
9. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-200 et seq., CIOA governs communities created on or after Jan. 1, 1984; Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-77, ch. 825, Condominium Act, assessment liens and foreclosure for pre-1984 condominiums, Connecticut General Assembly, Chapter 828 ↩
10. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-258(j), association's lien may be foreclosed in like manner as a mortgage on real property, Connecticut General Assembly, Chapter 828 ↩
11. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-258(m)(2), (5), 60-day pre-foreclosure written notice by first-class mail to security-interest holders, with required contents; failure to give notice does not affect priority for nine months of common-expense assessments, but the priority amount then excludes costs and attorney's fees, Connecticut General Assembly, Chapter 828 ↩
12. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-258(a), attorney's fees, costs, other fees, charges, late charges, fines, and interest under § 47-244(a)(10)–(12), and other sums due under the declaration or chapter, enforceable as unpaid assessments unless the declaration otherwise provides, Connecticut General Assembly, Chapter 828 ↩
13. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-258(h), association must furnish a recordable statement of unpaid assessments within ten business days of a request made in a record; statement binds the association, executive board, and every unit owner, Connecticut General Assembly, Chapter 828 ↩
14. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-258(f), (l), action against unit owner on the debt preserved; deed in lieu permitted; foreclosing first/second security-interest purchaser not liable for pre-sale assessments other than the priority amount; unsatisfied assessments become common expenses collectible from all unit owners, Connecticut General Assembly, Chapter 828 ↩
15. Stonybrook Gardens Cooperative, Inc. v. NewRez, LLC, 225 Conn. App. 168 (officially released April 23, 2024), redemption amount limited to nine months of pre-action assessments plus enforcement costs and reasonable attorney's fees; § 49-30 and equitable powers do not enlarge the § 47-258(b) priority, Connecticut Judicial Branch, slip opinion (AP225.168) ↩
16. Hudson House Condominium Assn., Inc. v. Brooks, 223 Conn. 610 (1992), priority portion includes attorney's fees, title-examination fees, and other costs of foreclosing the lien; rejecting priority for all assessments accruing during pendency, Connecticut Judicial Branch Law Libraries, Foreclosure of Condominium Liens pathfinder ↩
17. Linden Condominium Assn. v. McKenna, 247 Conn. 575 (1999), priority limited to common-expense assessments accruing during the months immediately preceding commencement of the foreclosure action, Connecticut Judicial Branch Law Libraries, Foreclosure of Condominium Liens pathfinder ↩
18. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-258(c), two or more association liens on the same property have equal priority unless the declaration otherwise provides, Connecticut General Assembly, Chapter 828 ↩
19. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-258(e), lien extinguished unless enforcement proceedings instituted within three years after the full amount of assessments became due; bankruptcy tolling until 30 days after the automatic stay is lifted, Connecticut General Assembly, Chapter 828 ↩
20. Canner v. Governors Ridge Assn., Inc., 348 Conn. 726 (2024), CIOA tort claims governed by three-year period under § 52-577; claims on the declaration or bylaws sound in contract and are governed by the six-year period under § 52-576, Connecticut Judicial Branch Law Libraries, Connecticut Law About Condominiums ↩
21. Merritt Medical Center Owners Corp., Inc. v. Gianetti, 197 Conn. App. 226 (2020), board authorization merely to send accounts to "collections" inadequate to satisfy § 47-258(m)(1)(C); prerequisites are jurisdictional, Connecticut Judicial Branch Law Libraries, Foreclosure of Condominium Liens pathfinder ↩
22. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-258(n), every aspect of a foreclosure, sale, or other disposition under the section must be commercially reasonable, Connecticut General Assembly, Chapter 828 ↩
23. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 49-14, deficiency judgment; motion within 30 days after title vests; deficiency available in condominium lien foreclosure (255 Conn. 379), Connecticut Judicial Branch Law Libraries, Postjudgment Proceedings in Foreclosure pathfinder ↩
24. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-258(g), judgment or decree in any action under the section shall include costs and reasonable attorney's fees for the prevailing party, Connecticut General Assembly, Chapter 828 ↩
25. Public Act 23-119, § 1, amending § 47-258 to provide that an association's provision of a notice required under CIOA shall not be deemed a violation of, or give rise to liability under, specified debt-collection statutes; reflected in the § 47-258 amendment history, Connecticut General Assembly, HB 6631 / Public Act 23-119 bill status ↩
26. House Bill 7002 (2025), An Act Concerning Solar Installations in Certain Common Interest Ownership Communities, Connecticut General Assembly, HB 7002 bill status ↩
27. Nev. Rev. Stat. § 116.3116(2), nine-month super-priority; SFR Investments Pool 1, LLC v. U.S. Bank, N.A., 334 P.3d 408 (Nev. 2014) (en banc), HOA super-priority is a true lien priority capable of extinguishing a first deed of trust, Nevada Legislature, NRS Chapter 116 ↩
28. Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-33.3-316(2)(b), super-priority capped at common-expense assessments that would have become due during the six months immediately preceding the action, Colorado General Assembly, Title 38 ↩