District of Columbia HOA Foreclosure

Section 1: Overview — How HOA foreclosure works in the District of Columbia

The District of Columbia Condominium Act governs condominium foreclosure in the District, and you'll find it at D.C. Code § 42-1901.01 and following, with the assessment lien and its enforcement laid out in § 42-1903.13.¹ The statute hands a unit owners' association a lien for unpaid assessments. Under § 42-1903.13(a)(2), it also grants a six-month super-priority that ranks ahead of a first mortgage or first deed of trust, covering the common expense assessments that the periodic budget would have made due during the six months right before the association acts to enforce the lien.¹ In Chase Plaza Condominium Ass'n v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., 98 A.3d 166 (D.C. 2014), the District of Columbia Court of Appeals held that a non-judicial power-of-sale foreclosure on that six-month super-priority portion wipes out a first deed of trust when the sale proceeds fall short of satisfying it.² The District allows two routes: non-judicial power-of-sale foreclosure, which is the primary method, and judicial foreclosure through the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.³ After Chase Plaza, the DC Council amended § 42-1903.13 — most significantly in 2017 — to add notice requirements and a notice to the first mortgagee.⁴ Keep in mind that the District is a federal district, not a state. Its court structure runs from the Superior Court of the District of Columbia up to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, the highest local court and the functional equivalent of a state supreme court, which stands separate from the federal U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. For property managers and association counsel, a strong statutory lien combined with the Chase Plaza extinguishment doctrine makes the District one of the strongest-lien jurisdictions in the country — and makes procedural precision essential.

Section 2: The statutory framework

2A. The DC condominium assessment lien

D.C. Code § 42-1903.13(a) provides that any assessment levied against a condominium unit becomes a lien in favor of the unit owners' association from the moment the assessment falls due and payable. That lien sweeps in the applicable interest, late fees, the reasonable expenses and legal fees actually incurred, the costs of collection, and other reasonable amounts the condominium instruments make payable.¹ When an owner pays an assessment in installments, the full amount becomes a lien from the time the first installment comes due. The association does not need to record anything to perfect the lien: under § 42-1903.13(b), recording the condominium instruments serves as record notice, and no further recordation of any claim of lien is required.¹ The lien generally stays subordinate to three things — a lien or encumbrance recorded before the declaration, a first mortgage or first deed of trust for an institutional lender recorded before the assessment went delinquent, and liens for real estate taxes and municipal charges, under § 42-1903.13(a)(1). The six-month super-priority is the decisive exception. Under § 42-1903.13(a)(2), the association's lien takes priority over such a first mortgage or deed of trust recorded after March 7, 1991, to the extent of the common expense assessments that the association's adopted periodic budget would have made due, absent acceleration, during the six months right before the association starts an enforcement action or records a memorandum of lien.¹ Beyond that six-month window, the rest of the association's lien keeps its ordinary junior spot behind the first deed of trust. The lien lapses if the association does not start foreclosure or other enforcement within three years from the date the assessment fell due, under § 42-1903.13(e). A separate provision, § 42-1903.13(h), extinguishes the lien as to a unit if the association fails to furnish a requested statement of unpaid assessments within 10 days. The DC Council last amended the permanent text of § 42-1903.13 through D.C. Law 21-241, effective April 7, 2017, after an earlier amendment by D.C. Law 20-109 took effect June 21, 2014; pandemic-era foreclosure moratorium measures touched the section only on a temporary and emergency basis.⁴

2B. Foreclosure procedure

The association enforces its lien primarily by non-judicial power of sale under § 42-1903.13(c). When an owner accepts a deed to a unit, the law deems the owner to have appointed the association's chief executive officer as trustee for the power of sale, and that officer may exercise the power on direction of the executive board under § 42-1903.13(c)(1) and (c)(3).¹ The association may not hold a foreclosure sale until at least 31 days after it records a Notice of Foreclosure Sale of Condominium Unit for Assessments Due in the land records and sends it to the unit owner by a tracked delivery service and by first-class mail, under § 42-1903.13(c)(4)(A). The notice must state the past due amount, and it must say plainly whether the sale covers the six-month priority lien and is not subject to the first deed of trust, or covers more than the six-month priority lien and is subject to the first deed of trust, under § 42-1903.13(c)(4)(B)(ii). This express-election requirement is the central post-Chase Plaza change. At least 31 days before the sale, the association must also send a copy of the notice to the Mayor or the Mayor's designee, to junior lienholders of record, and to any holder of a first deed of trust or first mortgage of record — including assignees, trustees, substitute trustees, and MERS — under § 42-1903.13(c)(4)(E). The association gives public notice by advertising in at least one newspaper of general circulation in the District, running the advertisement on at least three separate days during the 15-day period before the sale, under § 42-1903.13(c)(5). The District also allows judicial foreclosure through the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, where the association files a complaint, obtains a decree, and the court oversees the sale; § 42-1903.13(g) preserves actions at law to recover the sums the lien secures. A separate general foreclosure statute, § 42-815, governs power-of-sale foreclosures by mortgage lenders and requires a notice of default and a notice of intention to foreclose, sent to the borrower with a copy to the Mayor at least 30 days before the sale.³

2C. Federal overlays

Several federal regimes operate on top of the District's local statute. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692 and following, governs third-party collection of consumer debt, and pre-foreclosure dunning by outside collectors and law firms counts as debt collection under the Act.⁵ In Obduskey v. McCarthy & Holthus LLP, 139 S. Ct. 1029 (2019), a case that arose from a Colorado non-judicial foreclosure, the Supreme Court held that a business whose principal purpose is enforcing security interests through non-judicial foreclosure is not a "debt collector" for most FDCPA purposes, except for the limited prohibitions in 15 U.S.C. § 1692f(6).⁶ That narrow holding likely reaches DC non-judicial power-of-sale enforcement, but communications that go beyond the steps the foreclosure statute requires — including pre-sale dunning — stay fully covered. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, 50 U.S.C. § 3901 and following, requires a court order before anyone sells, forecloses, or seizes property securing a pre-service obligation that a servicemember owns during military service or within one year after it, under 50 U.S.C. § 3953; a knowing violation is a strict-liability criminal offense.⁷ Because the District's condominium foreclosure is ordinarily non-judicial, an association moving against a servicemember's unit must satisfy this court-order requirement. The bankruptcy automatic stay under 11 U.S.C. § 362 halts all foreclosure activity the moment someone files a petition, and pressing ahead with a sale without relief from the stay exposes the association to sanctions.⁸ The District's status as a federal district sharpens the line between federal and local law: the District of Columbia Court of Appeals interprets local condominium law, while the federal courts and federal agencies administer these federal statutes.

Section 3: The procedural sequence

A. Lien establishment and priority

The lien attaches automatically when an assessment falls due and payable under § 42-1903.13(a) — and when assessments come in installments, from the date the first installment is due. The association need not record anything, because recording the condominium instruments already serves as record notice under § 42-1903.13(b).¹ From the start, the lien carries the split-priority structure that Chase Plaza describes: a six-month super-priority piece that primes a first deed of trust under § 42-1903.13(a)(2), and a subordinate piece for everything beyond that window, which holds ordinary junior priority behind the first deed of trust.² The adopted periodic budget measures the super-priority by the common expense assessments that would have come due in the six months right before the association starts the enforcement action or records a memorandum of lien. Associations should calendar the three-year lapse period in § 42-1903.13(e), which bars enforcement of assessments the association does not pursue within three years of their becoming due.

B. Pre-foreclosure notice and cure period

Before a non-judicial sale, the association must record and serve the Notice of Foreclosure Sale of Condominium Unit for Assessments Due at least 31 days in advance under § 42-1903.13(c)(4)(A), and the notice must make the express election between a six-month-priority sale not subject to the first deed of trust and a larger sale subject to it under § 42-1903.13(c)(4)(B)(ii).¹ The post-Chase Plaza notice to the first mortgagee is mandatory: the association must send a copy to any holder of a first deed of trust or first mortgage of record, along with their successors, assignees, trustees, substitute trustees, and MERS, at least 31 days before the sale under § 42-1903.13(c)(4)(E), and the association complies if it sends notice to the lienholders as their names and addresses appear in the land records. This notice gives the lender a practical chance to protect its position by paying the six-month sum. The unit owner holds a statutory right to cure at any time before the sale by paying, in full, the past due assessments plus any late charge or interest due and reasonable attorney's fees and costs, under § 42-1903.13(c)(2). When a third-party collector or law firm sends pre-sale demand letters, the FDCPA validation requirements of 15 U.S.C. § 1692g apply to that communication.⁵

C. Foreclosure sale procedure

In a non-judicial sale, the sale date may fall no sooner than 31 days from the date the association mails the notice, and the association gives public notice by newspaper advertisement on at least three separate days during the 15-day period before the sale, under § 42-1903.13(c)(5).¹ The trustee — the association's chief executive officer — conducts the sale and may deed the unit to the purchaser; the deed recitals serve as prima facie evidence of the truth of the statements and as conclusive evidence in favor of bona fide purchasers for value, under § 42-1903.13(c)(3). The executive board may buy the unit at the sale on the association's behalf and may take, hold, lease, encumber, or convey title, under § 42-1903.13(d), which serves as the District's credit-bid mechanism for the association. In a judicial foreclosure, the association proceeds by complaint, decree, and court-supervised sale through the Superior Court. When the unit belongs to a servicemember and secures a pre-service obligation, 50 U.S.C. § 3953 requires a court order before the sale.⁷ The Chase Plaza extinguishment effect applies in the non-judicial super-priority context: if the association forecloses on only the six-month super-priority portion and the proceeds fall short of satisfying the first deed of trust, that lien is extinguished and the purchaser takes free and clear — a result the court confirmed in Liu v. U.S. Bank Nat'l Ass'n, 179 A.3d 871 (D.C. 2018), even when the sale notice purports to leave the first deed of trust in place.⁹

D. Post-sale rights

After a non-judicial sale, § 42-1903.13(c)(6) sets the order in which the proceeds get applied: first to any unpaid assessment with interest or late charges, then to the cost of foreclosure including reasonable attorney's fees, and the balance to any person legally entitled to it — the mechanism that distributes surplus funds to junior lienholders and the former owner.¹ The District grants no statutory right of redemption after a non-judicial or a judicial foreclosure sale; a borrower may pay off the full balance only before the sale. Section 42-815.05 constrains eviction of a foreclosed owner or occupant: it bars a foreclosure-sale purchaser from issuing a notice to quit or starting an action for possession until the land records show a recorded deed transferring the property.¹⁰ A deficiency judgment remains available in the mortgage context: under § 42-816, a court in a foreclosure action may enter a decree in personam against the party liable for the residue of the debt that remains after the sale proceeds are applied, and the District has no anti-deficiency statute.¹¹ Whether the association forecloses on only its super-priority lien or on more than six months of assessments decides whether the first deed of trust survives the sale — the distinction the District's recent appellate decisions clarify.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

The District's recent lawmaking leans toward keeping owners in their homes rather than reopening the lien statute itself. One enactment matters most for associations.

Separately, the foreclosure moratorium coordination provision at § 42-851.11, enacted through D.C. Law 25-212, can pause a sale that the association has started under § 42-1903.13(c) while a qualifying DC Homeowner Assistance Fund application stays pending, so counsel should confirm the current status before scheduling a sale.¹³

B. Recent appellate rulings

These rulings come from the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, the highest local court for District matters — and a court distinct from the federal U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

C. Active legislative debates

District policy attention stays focused on coordinating association and lender foreclosures with homeowner-assistance funding, rather than on reopening the six-month super-priority itself. No verified pending measure would change the six-month duration or the Chase Plaza extinguishment doctrine.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

The District sits among the strongest HOA-lien jurisdictions in the United States. It pairs a six-month super-priority under § 42-1903.13(a)(2) with the Chase Plaza extinguishment doctrine, under which a non-judicial super-priority foreclosure can wipe out a first deed of trust — a combination that few jurisdictions match. Other six-month super-priority jurisdictions share the six-month measure but differ in how extinguishment works. Colorado, under the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act, C.R.S. § 38-33.3-316(2)(b), gives the association priority over a first deed of trust in an amount equal to the common expense assessments that would have come due, absent acceleration, during the six months right before the association starts an action or non-judicial foreclosure, and UCIOA-based states such as Alaska and Delaware follow the same six-month measure with their own mechanics.¹⁷ Connecticut goes further, affording a nine-month super-priority under C.G.S. § 47-258(b) — raised from six months by Public Act 13-156, effective June 24, 2013 — and it runs judicial-only, with different sale and strict-foreclosure mechanics.¹⁸ Arizona and California provide no comparable lien priority. The District modeled its condominium statute on the Uniform Condominium Act framework rather than adopting the UCIOA the way Alaska, Colorado, and Connecticut did. On method, the District uses non-judicial power-of-sale foreclosure as its primary route, with judicial foreclosure available. For multi-state operators, Chase Plaza serves as a national reference case, and the District's strong-lien posture means a single missed notice can void a sale or extinguish the wrong lien.

Managers and counsel operating in the District should treat the six-month election, the lender notice, and the publication schedule as hard deadlines. The same statutory lien that makes the District a strong-lien jurisdiction also lets a single procedural error void a sale or leave the wrong lien in place.

Footnotes

1. D.C. Code § 42-1903.13 ↩
2. Chase Plaza Condominium Ass'n v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., 98 A.3d 166 (D.C. 2014) ↩
3. D.C. Code § 42-815 ↩
4. D.C. Law 21-241, Condominium Owner Bill of Rights and Responsibilities Amendment Act of 2016 (permanent text of § 42-1903.13 last amended Apr. 7, 2017) ↩
5. 15 U.S.C. § 1692 ↩
6. Obduskey v. McCarthy & Holthus LLP, 139 S. Ct. 1029 (2019) ↩
7. 50 U.S.C. § 3953 ↩
8. 11 U.S.C. § 362 ↩
9. Liu v. U.S. Bank Nat'l Ass'n, 179 A.3d 871 (D.C. 2018) ↩
10. D.C. Code § 42-815.05 ↩
11. D.C. Code § 42-816 ↩
12. D.C. Law 25-324, Fairness and Stability in Housing Amendment Act of 2024 (Bill 25-418) ↩
13. D.C. Code § 42-851.11 (enacted via D.C. Law 25-212) ↩
14. Wonder Twins Holdings, LLC v. 450101 DC Housing Trust, No. 23-CV-0719 (D.C. Nov. 21, 2024) ↩
15. Flagstar Bank, FSB v. Advanced Financial Investments, LLC, No. 23-CV-0267 (D.C. Apr. 10, 2025) ↩
16. New Penn Financial, LLC v. Daniels, 319 A.3d 997 (D.C. 2024) ↩
17. C.R.S. § 38-33.3-316 (Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act, six-month super-priority) ↩
18. C.G.S. § 47-258(b) (Connecticut nine-month priority, raised from six months by Public Act 13-156 effective June 24, 2013) ↩