Indiana HOA Mediation & Dispute Resolution

Key Findings

• Indiana is not a pure "no-ADR" state. Both the Condominium Act and the Homeowners Associations Act make a claimant complete a pre-suit grievance process — a notice of claim, an optional negotiation meeting, and optional mediation or binding arbitration after an impasse — before filing suit on a covered dispute.¹
• The pre-suit obligation covers less than it first appears to. Assessment- and dues-collection actions count as exempt claims, so the association dispute that arises most often heads straight to court.²
• Fee-shifting flows mainly from the recorded declaration, not the statute. The general fee statute leaves the award to the court's discretion, and it reaches only litigation that is frivolous, unreasonable, groundless, or filed in bad faith.³
• Recent legislation changed budgets and fees but left dispute resolution alone. HB 1152, enacted in 2026, did not touch the grievance, mediation, and arbitration framework; a 2025 bill that would have folded fines and fee recovery into the grievance process died in committee.⁴

Details

Section 1: Overview, how HOA disputes are resolved in Indiana

Indiana settles community-association disputes through a contract-and-court model that sits on top of a limited statutory grievance framework, and the rules that apply turn on a single question: is the community a condominium or a homeowners association? Two separate statutes do the governing. The Condominium Act (Ind. Code art. 32-25) regulates condominiums. The narrower Homeowners Associations Act (Ind. Code art. 32-25.5) reaches non-condominium associations formed after June 30, 2009 that impose mandatory dues — and older associations only when their members vote to opt in.⁵ Here a common assumption breaks down: Indiana is not a pure "no-ADR" state. Both statutes carry a Grievance Resolution chapter, added in 2015, that makes a claimant finish a pre-suit notice-and-negotiation process before filing suit on most non-monetary disputes — though neither statute forces the parties into mediation or arbitration.¹ When a declaration contains an arbitration clause, Indiana enforces it under the Indiana Uniform Arbitration Act (Ind. Code art. 34-57, ch. 2), and the Federal Arbitration Act preempts state law wherever the underlying contract involves interstate commerce.⁶ Courts can also refer a case to mediation under the Indiana Rules for Alternative Dispute Resolution, but they do so at their discretion, not automatically.⁷ Nationally, Indiana lands between the hands-off states and the heavy-regulation ones: it has a two-statute structure and a limited grievance statute, but nothing like the administrative dispute machinery of California or Florida. The sections that follow map the statutory framework, the general civil ADR tools, the role of the recorded declaration, and the practical order in which an Indiana dispute actually moves.

Section 2: The dispute resolution framework

2A. Statutory dispute resolution under the Condominium Act and the Homeowners Associations Act

The Condominium Act (art. 32-25) is the more developed of the two statutes, and it handles assessment liens in detail. An unpaid common-expense assessment becomes a lien on the unit the moment it is assessed, and that lien outranks every other lien except tax liens and a recorded first mortgage. The board can foreclose it by suit under Indiana's mechanic's- and materialmen's-lien procedures, or it can skip foreclosure and sue for a money judgment instead.⁸ The Act also carries a Grievance Resolution chapter (Ind. Code art. 32-25, ch. 8.5), added in 2015, that sets up a pre-suit claim-and-negotiation process for disputes over how the condominium instruments are interpreted, applied, or enforced. Assessment- and dues-collection actions sit outside that process.⁹

The Homeowners Associations Act (art. 32-25.5) is a limited governance statute, not a full common-interest-community code. Its five core chapters cover applicability, definitions, general governance — rosters, budgets, meetings, records, borrowing, and voting — Attorney General enforcement actions, and grievance resolution.¹⁰ It creates no condominium-style statutory lien; a separate statute governs homeowners-association liens (Ind. Code art. 32-28, ch. 14).¹¹ Its Grievance Resolution chapter (Ind. Code art. 32-25.5, ch. 5) tracks the condominium chapter step for step: the claimant gives written notice of the claim, the respondent may ask for a negotiation meeting within ten business days, and only after the parties hit an impasse may either side request mediation or binding arbitration.¹

So both statutes impose a mandatory pre-suit grievance step for covered claims — a real obligation that Indiana practitioners sometimes overlook. But neither one mandates mediation or arbitration the way California or Florida does. Under the grievance chapters, mediation and arbitration are elective; they happen only when a party asks for them after negotiation fails. And the claim that associations bring most often, collection of unpaid assessments, drops out of the process entirely as an exempt claim.² The provision that once told associations to write grievance procedures into their governing documents (formerly Ind. Code 32-25.5-5-8) has since been repealed, but the pre-suit sequence described in the sections that follow remains in force.¹²

2B. General civil ADR and arbitration

When a declaration contains an arbitration clause, Indiana enforces it under the Indiana Uniform Arbitration Act (Ind. Code art. 34-57, ch. 2). A written agreement to arbitrate is valid and enforceable except on the grounds that would let a court revoke any contract, and any circuit or superior court holds the power to compel arbitration and enter judgment on an award. The Act does carve out one exception: it exempts consumer leases, sales, and loan contracts as defined in the Uniform Consumer Credit Code — a distinction that can matter when someone characterizes a dispute as a consumer-credit matter.¹³ For any association contract or declaration that involves interstate commerce, the Federal Arbitration Act (9 U.S.C. § 1 et seq.) takes over and preempts conflicting state limits, so an arbitration clause that looks shaky under a narrow reading of state law often still stands under federal law.¹⁴

Contractual arbitration is one track; court-annexed ADR runs on another, through the Indiana Rules for Alternative Dispute Resolution. Under those rules a trial court may refer a civil case to mediation, but the referral is a matter of judicial discretion and party selection, not an automatic ticket the parties punch before trial. The rules set mediator qualification and registration requirements through a state registry, divide mediation costs among the parties, and keep mediation communications confidential and inadmissible, treating mediation as settlement negotiation.⁷ For lower-value assessment and covenant disputes, the small claims docket is the practical forum. Outside Marion County, small claims is a docket of the circuit or superior court, capped at $10,000 under Ind. Code § 33-28-3-4(b)(1) ("Civil actions in which the amount sought or value of the property sought to be recovered is not more than ten thousand dollars ($10,000)") and the parallel superior-court provisions in Ind. Code art. 33-29, ch. 2.¹⁵ Marion County runs its own system of nine township-based small claims courts, capped at $8,000 (excluding interest and attorney's fees) under Ind. Code § 33-34-3-2 — a limit that Senate Enrolled Act 523 (2015) raised to that level, effective July 1, 2015.¹⁶

2C. CC&R-based dispute resolution and order of precedence

The recorded declaration — the CC&Rs — is the operational center of most Indiana association disputes. Declarations routinely carry their own dispute-resolution machinery: mediation-as-condition-precedent clauses, arbitration clauses, venue and choice-of-forum provisions, and prevailing-party attorney-fee provisions.¹⁷ Many also set up internal grievance procedures and architectural-review appeal processes that a board must run through before it acts. These contractual mechanisms operate alongside the statutory grievance chapters, and often push harder than the statutes do.

The order of precedence is straightforward. The governing statute — the Condominium Act or the Homeowners Associations Act — controls over the declaration; the declaration controls over the bylaws; and the bylaws control over the rules the board adopts. In practice, that means a manager facing a live dispute has to do two things in order: first pin down which statute governs the community, then read the declaration against that statute to see which pathway applies — internal appeal, statutory grievance process, declaration arbitration, or court — and in what sequence.

Section 3: Dispute resolution pathways and obligations

A. Internal and association-level resolution

Before an association takes adverse action such as a fine, its own governing documents usually require notice and an opportunity to be heard, and architectural denials commonly come with an internal appeal to the board or a committee (CONTRACTUAL, declaration- and bylaw-based; applies to BOTH condominiums and homeowners associations). For covered, non-exempt disputes, the statutory grievance chapters add a mandatory pre-suit layer: the claimant must serve a written notice of claim that states the nature and basis of the claim, what the claimant seeks, and the respondent's right to request a meeting (STATUTORY; Ind. Code art. 32-25.5, ch. 5 for homeowners associations and art. 32-25, ch. 8.5 for condominiums).¹ Indiana keeps no administrative HOA forum, so an owner or board has no state agency to which it can escalate a routine governance or fine dispute; the Attorney General's authority reaches only narrow abuses such as misappropriation and fraud.¹⁸

B. Mediation

Mediation is available, but it is not generally mandatory. Under the statutory grievance chapters, either party may request mediation only after the two sides reach an impasse in negotiation, and the party that requests it pays the mediator's cost (STATUTORY; art. 32-25.5, ch. 5; art. 32-25, ch. 8.5; applies to BOTH).¹⁹ Once a case is filed, court-annexed mediation becomes available too, but the trial court refers a case at its discretion (RULE-BASED; Indiana Rules for Alternative Dispute Resolution; applies to BOTH). Mediation communications stay confidential and inadmissible, and the ADR rules spread mediation costs among the parties.⁷

C. Arbitration

If a declaration contains an arbitration clause, the Indiana Uniform Arbitration Act makes it enforceable, and a circuit or superior court will compel arbitration and enter judgment on the award (CONTRACTUAL as to the clause, STATUTORY as to enforcement; Ind. Code art. 34-57, ch. 2; applies to BOTH).¹³ Where the contract involves interstate commerce, the Federal Arbitration Act governs and preempts inconsistent state limits (FEDERAL; 9 U.S.C. § 1 et seq.; applies to BOTH).¹⁴ Under the statutory grievance chapters, arbitration after an impasse binds the parties if they elect it; a declaration clause may specify binding or non-binding arbitration, and court-annexed arbitration under the ADR rules is non-binding.¹⁹

D. Litigation and appeals

Trial-level disputes play out in the Indiana Circuit Courts and Superior Courts, both of which exercise general jurisdiction, with lower-value matters heard on small claims dockets (outside Marion County) or in Marion County's township small claims courts (STATUTORY/RULE-BASED; applies to BOTH).¹⁵ Assessment-collection suits are the association litigation courts see most, and they are exempt from the pre-suit grievance requirement.² Attorney fees follow the American rule: each party pays its own unless a statute or contract shifts them, and the general fee statute permits — but does not require, since the text says the court "may award" — a fee award against a party that litigates a frivolous, unreasonable, or groundless claim or acts in bad faith (STATUTORY; Ind. Code 34-52-1-1).³ In practice, fee-shifting most often comes from the declaration's prevailing-party clause, which Indiana courts enforce as a contract term.¹⁷ The limitations period depends on the claim: actions on written contracts other than for the payment of money — including most recorded covenants — run for ten years, while written contracts for the payment of money, along with unwritten or account claims, run for six.²⁰ Appeals go to the Indiana Court of Appeals, with discretionary transfer to the Indiana Supreme Court.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

B. Recent appellate rulings

C. Active legislative debates

Indiana's 2026 session drew organized opposition from the Community Associations Institute to HB 1152's fee and budget provisions, but no bill that would change the state's grievance, mediation, or arbitration framework for associations advanced.²³ As of mid-2026, the dispute-resolution provisions of both statutes stand unchanged.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Indiana is a contract-and-court state, built on a two-statute structure and a deliberately limited homeowners-association statute. It has not adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, and it keeps no dedicated HOA regulator, no ombudsman, and no community-association-manager licensing regime; the Attorney General's authority reaches only narrow abuses such as misappropriation and fraud.¹⁸ That leaves Indiana well short of the administrative dispute systems in comprehensive-statute states like California and Florida — yet it is not a pure no-statute jurisdiction either, because both Indiana statutes impose a mandatory pre-suit grievance step for covered claims. With no broad statutory ADR regime, dispute strategy falls back onto the recorded declaration and the general civil courts, so the declaration's arbitration, venue, and fee provisions do much of the work. For a multi-state operator, the first move in Indiana is to identify the governing statute — Condominium Act or Homeowners Associations Act — and then to test any arbitration clause under both the Indiana Uniform Arbitration Act and the Federal Arbitration Act.

HOA Weekly refreshes its Indiana dispute-resolution coverage each quarter, as the legislature and the courts act. Federal frameworks also bear on Indiana association disputes, whatever the state structure — most notably the Federal Arbitration Act, along with the FHA, ADA, FDCPA, SCRA, and OTARD rules.

Recommendations

1. First, identify the governing statute and read the declaration against it. Before you take any dispute step, confirm whether the community is a condominium (art. 32-25) or a homeowners association (art. 32-25.5), and whether a pre-2009 HOA has elected coverage. That threshold call controls which grievance chapter, if any, applies. Shift the approach when the association predates July 1, 2009 and has never elected statutory coverage — there, the CC&Rs and nonprofit corporate law carry most of the weight.
2. Screen every non-collection dispute for the pre-suit grievance requirement. For a claim that arises from the interpretation or enforcement of governing documents, serve a compliant written notice of claim before you file, or risk dismissal. Skip this step only when the claim is exempt — assessment or dues collection, emergency equitable relief, an imminent limitations deadline, or a matter already governed by contractual ADR.
3. Route ordinary assessment collection to small claims when the amount fits. Use the $10,000 circuit or superior docket outside Marion County, or the $8,000 township courts inside it, and plead the declaration's prevailing-party fee clause expressly to preserve fee recovery — including on appeal, as Talley confirms.
4. Evaluate declaration arbitration clauses under both state and federal law. Treat a clause as presumptively enforceable under the Indiana Uniform Arbitration Act and, for interstate-commerce contracts, under the Federal Arbitration Act. Do not lean on the state consumer-credit exemption until you have confirmed the FAA does not preempt it.
5. Benchmarks that would change this analysis: the enactment of a bill amending art. 32-25.5, ch. 5 or art. 32-25, ch. 8.5 (watch for HB 1401-type language linking fines, grievance, and fee recovery to return); the creation of any state HOA administrative forum or CAM licensing regime; or an Indiana Supreme Court decision on transfer that addresses declaration arbitration or fee-shifting. Any one of these would warrant a same-quarter update.

Caveats

• A common working premise needs correcting. The assumption that Indiana has no mandatory pre-suit ADR regime does not hold up: both statutes contain a mandatory pre-suit grievance process, added by P.L.141-2015. What Indiana lacks is mandatory mediation or arbitration and an administrative dispute forum — not a pre-suit process altogether.¹
• Statute-citation access. The iga.in.gov code pages render through JavaScript and returned no text to automated fetching, so we verified the current statutory text against the Indiana General Assembly's official PDF documents and cross-checked it against the published code. Editors should confirm each pinpoint citation against the live iga.in.gov chapter view.
• Talley is a memorandum decision and, under Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D), does not bind future courts as precedent; we cite it to illustrate settled fee-shifting principles, not as controlling authority.
• Section 32-25.5-5-8 repeal. The current code lists former section 8 as repealed. We could not independently confirm the exact repealing public law against a primary source, so we have omitted that detail rather than assert it. The remaining grievance sections, 9 through 17, are in force.
• The six- versus ten-year limitations question is genuinely unsettled in Indiana for contracts that both involve the payment of money and impose other obligations; counsel should analyze the specific covenant or contract rather than assume a single period.

1. Ind. Code art. 32-25.5, ch. 5 (Grievance Resolution), secs. 9-13 (notice of claim, negotiation meeting within ten business days, impasse, mediation or binding arbitration), added by P.L.141-2015; parallel condominium chapter Ind. Code art. 32-25, ch. 8.5 ↩
2. Ind. Code 32-25.5-5-4 (Exempt Claim), subd. (1) exempting association claims and actions for assessments or dues ↩
3. Ind. Code 34-52-1-1(b): "the court may award attorney's fees ... if the court finds that either party ... brought the action or defense on a claim or defense that is frivolous, unreasonable, or groundless ... or litigated the action in bad faith" ↩
4. Indiana House Bill 1152 (2026), "Homeowners association matters," enacted as P.L. 53-2026, eff. July 1, 2026; amends Ind. Code art. 32-21 and art. 32-25.5-3 (budgets, service fees, amateur radio antennas, child care), not the grievance chapter ↩
5. Ind. Code art. 32-25 (Condominiums) and art. 32-25.5 (Homeowners Associations); applicability at Ind. Code 32-25.5-1-1 ↩
6. Ind. Code 34-57-2-1 (Uniform Arbitration Act, enforceability); 9 U.S.C. § 1 et seq. (Federal Arbitration Act) ↩
7. Indiana Rules for Alternative Dispute Resolution, Rule 2 (Mediation), including Rules 2.5 (qualifications), 2.6 (costs), and 2.11 (confidentiality and admissibility); Rule 1.4 (application) and Rule 1.6 (judicial discretion) ↩
8. Ind. Code 32-25-6-3 (Unpaid Assessments; Lien): lien effective at time of assessment, priority over all liens except tax liens and first mortgage of record; foreclosure by suit and money-judgment alternative ↩
9. Ind. Code art. 32-25, ch. 8.5 (Grievance Resolution), added by P.L.141-2015, SEC.5; definition of "claim" and exemption of association assessment/dues actions ↩
10. Ind. Code art. 32-25.5, Chapters 1 (Applicability), 2 (Definitions), 3 (Homeowners Associations), 4 (Attorney General Actions), and 5 (Grievance Resolution) ↩
11. Ind. Code art. 32-28, ch. 14 (Homeowners association liens on real property) ↩
12. Ind. Code 32-25.5-5-8 (Repealed), shown as repealed in the current Indiana Code chapter listing ↩
13. Ind. Code 34-57-2-1 (enforceability; consumer lease, sales, and loan exemption) and 34-57-2-17 ("court" means any circuit or superior court; jurisdiction to enforce and enter judgment) ↩
14. 9 U.S.C. § 2 (Federal Arbitration Act, validity and enforceability of arbitration agreements in contracts evidencing a transaction involving commerce) ↩
15. Ind. Code 33-28-3-4(b)(1) (circuit court small claims docket, $10,000); Ind. Code art. 33-29, ch. 2 (superior court small claims docket) ↩
16. Ind. Code 33-34-3-2 (Marion County township small claims courts, $8,000 excluding interest and attorney's fees); limit raised by Senate Enrolled Act 523 (2015), eff. July 1, 2015 (Indiana Courts, "Reforms to the Marion County Small Claims Courts") ↩
17. Talley v. Cheswick Homeowners' Ass'n, No. 24A-SC-581 (Ind. Ct. App. Feb. 27, 2025) (enforcing declaration prevailing-party fee-shifting provision) ↩
18. Ind. Code 32-25.5-3-8 and art. 32-25.5, ch. 4 (Attorney General actions for misappropriation, fraud, and related abuses; injunction, restitution, removal, and civil penalties) ↩
19. Ind. Code 32-25.5-5-12 (impasse; submission to mediation or binding arbitration; requesting party responsible for mediator or arbitrator costs) and 32-25.5-5-13 (beginning legal proceedings after impasse) ↩
20. Ind. Code 34-11-2-11 (ten-year limitation, written contracts other than for payment of money, including recovery of real estate); Ind. Code 34-11-2-9 (six years, written contracts for payment of money) and 34-11-2-7 (six years, accounts and unwritten contracts) ↩
21. Indiana House Bill 1401 (2025), "Homeowners association governance"; sole action: read first time and referred to Committee on Judiciary, Jan. 13, 2025; died in committee, not enacted ↩
22. Talley v. Cheswick Homeowners' Ass'n, No. 24A-SC-581 (Ind. Ct. App. Feb. 27, 2025), slip op. at 2 ("$673.38 in damages plus $700 in attorneys' fees") and ¶23 ("Fee-shifting provisions that do not distinguish between trial and appellate fees and costs unquestionably apply to both") ↩
23. Community Associations Institute, 2026 Indiana End of Legislative Session Report (opposition to HB 1152 fee and budget provisions) ↩