Kentucky HOA Fining Authority

Section 1: Overview — Fining authority in Kentucky

Kentucky answers the basic operational question — can this owner be fined, how much, and what happens if the fine goes unpaid — through three separate property statutes, not one, so the first job is always figuring out which one applies. Start with condominiums, and the creation date decides everything. Build one on or after January 1, 2011, and the Kentucky Condominium Act, KRS 381.9101 to 381.9207,¹ governs it — a modified version of the Uniform Condominium Act.² Build one before that date, and the older Horizontal Property Law, KRS 381.805 to 381.910, still runs the show.³ Owners can change that, though: if every single vote-holder agrees, or a lesser percentage the declaration sets for termination, they may elect the full Condominium Act into an older regime.⁴ Planned communities tell a different story than older summaries suggest. Those write-ups called planned communities purely contract-governed, but that's out of date. The Kentucky Planned Community Act, KRS 381.785 to 381.801, took effect June 29, 2023, and now covers them, with the Nonprofit Corporation Acts in KRS Chapter 273 supplying only the corporate formalities.⁵ Each statute ties fining power to a violation of the declaration, bylaws, or rules, judges it against a reasonableness standard rather than a fixed dollar cap, and requires notice and an opportunity to be heard before any fine sticks.⁶ The question that matters most downstream — can an unpaid fine become a lien that supports foreclosure — gets answered in the table below and in Section 3C. For condominiums, yes. For planned communities under the 2023 Act, also yes, which marks a real change from the old declaration-only regime. Kentucky has no dedicated HOA regulator and no agency that hears fine disputes; owners and associations settle these fights in Circuit Court. The Quick-Reference table below lays out these mechanics at a glance.

Section 2: Quick-Reference Fining Mechanics Table

Here's the picture at a glance. The Condominiums column reflects the Kentucky Condominium Act for condominiums created on or after January 1, 2011 — and, thanks to the carryover in KRS 381.9103(2), the same fining and lien provisions reach pre-2011 condominiums too, for anything that happens after January 1, 2011 (Section 3A explains why). The Planned Communities column reflects the Kentucky Planned Community Act of 2023 for communities within its scope; anything excluded from that Act still answers to its recorded declaration and general nonprofit-corporation law. Every figure below gets sourced in the detailed discussion that follows.

The Condominiums column reflects the Kentucky Condominium Act, KRS 381.9101 et seq., for condominiums created on or after January 1, 2011, plus its carryover provisions for older condominiums (the Horizontal Property Law, KRS 381.805 to 381.910, otherwise governs those). The Planned Communities column reflects the Kentucky Planned Community Act, KRS 381.785 to 381.801, effective June 29, 2023. Last verified: July 14, 2026.

Section 3: Fining mechanics in detail

3A. Source and outer limits of fining authority

For condominiums created on or after January 1, 2011, the fine power comes straight from the Kentucky Condominium Act. KRS 381.9167(1)(k) lets the association "impose charges for late payment of assessments and, after notice and an opportunity to be heard, levy reasonable fines for violations of the declaration, bylaws, and rules and regulations of the association," and recover reasonable enforcement fees and costs, including attorney fees.⁶ Lawmakers created the Act in 2010 Ky. Acts ch. 97, modeled it on the Uniform Condominium Act, and set it to take effect January 1, 2011.² It replaced the Horizontal Property Law going forward — but it didn't repeal it.

That creation-date line isn't as firm as it looks. Under KRS 381.9103(2), a list of Condominium Act sections — including KRS 381.9167, the fine power, and KRS 381.9193, the assessment lien — reaches condominiums built before January 1, 2011 too, "but only to the extent of events or circumstances occurring after January 1, 2011, and do not invalidate existing provisions of the declaration, bylaws, plats, or plans."⁴ In practice, a pre-2011 condominium levying a fine today draws its statutory fine power and its fine-inclusive lien from the newer Act, even though the Horizontal Property Law otherwise runs the regime. Owners can go further and elect the full Act into an older regime under KRS 381.9103(3) — but only with a unanimous vote of the association, or the lesser percentage the declaration sets for termination.⁴ The Horizontal Property Law itself says nothing about fines. Its lien provision, KRS 381.883, reaches only unpaid common expenses, so any fine-specific authority for a pre-2011 regime the carryover doesn't reach would have to come from the declaration and bylaws.⁷

Planned communities now have statutory fine authority too, thanks to the Kentucky Planned Community Act, KRS 381.785 to 381.801, effective June 29, 2023. KRS 381.797 folds "fines for violations levied by the board" directly into each lot's assessment.⁸ Neither statute sets a dollar cap. The condominium standard is expressly "reasonable"; the planned-community statute authorizes fines without naming a ceiling at all, leaving the amount to the declaration and to common-law reasonableness. Either way, the declaration stays the controlling document for what conduct gets fined and how much — these statutes just set the floor.

3B. The required fining procedure

The Condominium Act builds due process straight into the grant of power: a board can levy a fine only "after notice and an opportunity to be heard," under KRS 381.9167(1)(k).⁶ The Planned Community Act runs parallel. KRS 381.797(2) requires that, "prior to imposing a charge for fines, damages, or an individual assessment pursuant to this section, the board shall give the owner a written notice and the opportunity to be heard."⁸ Both provisions set the predicate, but neither spells out the mechanics.

Neither statute sets a minimum notice period, a cure window, a deadline to request or schedule a hearing, or a requirement that the board put its decision in writing. Those details live in the declaration and bylaws — and where those documents stay silent, common law steps in with the expectation that a private association follows its own procedures and acts reasonably and in good faith. Pre-2011 condominiums reached by the carryover face the same notice-and-hearing predicate; for everything else in that older regime, the declaration and bylaws control. Neither statute says yes or no to per-day or continuing fines, so a running fine needs declaration or bylaw authority behind it, and it still has to stay reasonable. The takeaway holds across all three tracks: start every Kentucky fine question by confirming the community type and, for condominiums, the creation date — that's what decides which statute and which documents govern the procedure.

3C. Enforcement of unpaid fines: assessments, liens, and foreclosure

For condominiums, KRS 381.9193 is the provision that matters most to a treasurer weighing collection. It hands the association a lien on a unit "for any assessment levied against that unit or fines imposed against its unit owner from the time the assessment or fine becomes due," and lets that lien "be foreclosed in like manner as a mortgage on real estate." Fees, charges, late charges, reasonable collection costs, attorney fees, fines, and interest charged under KRS 381.9167(1)(j) to (l) are all "secured by the lien and enforceable as assessments under this section."⁹ Once a fine comes due, it stands on the same footing as an unpaid assessment — and it can support judicial foreclosure. The lien beats most other liens, but not those recorded before the declaration, a mortgage recorded before the assessment turned delinquent, or liens for real-estate taxes and other governmental charges.⁹ Kentucky grants no super-priority over a first mortgage, unlike Colorado, which gives its lien a six-month super-priority window, or Nevada, which gives nine months — so here, a fine-and-dues balance risks getting reduced or wiped out in a bank foreclosure.¹⁰ Recording the declaration perfects the lien; associations don't need to file anything separately. And because of the carryover, this same lien treatment reaches pre-2011 condominiums for charges after 2011 — the Horizontal Property Law's own lien, KRS 381.883, covers only common expenses and never mentions fines.⁷

For planned communities, the 2023 Act created a statutory lien where none existed before. KRS 381.799 gives the association "a continuing lien upon the real estate or interest in any lot" for unpaid assessments, special assessments, or charges levied under KRS 381.797, "as well as any related interest, fines, administrative late fees, enforcement assessments, collection costs, or reasonable attorney fees" left unpaid thirty days after coming due.¹¹ Follow the chain: KRS 381.797 folds fines into the assessment, and KRS 381.799 expressly secures fines — so a planned-community fine can be liened and enforced just like a mortgage. Priority mirrors the condominium rule: the lien beats everything except governmental tax and charge liens, including local-government liens under KRS 65.8835, and any mortgage or encumbrance recorded before the lien.¹¹ Short of foreclosure, boards have a lighter tool too: KRS 381.797(6) lets a planned-community association deny a delinquent owner access to common areas, though not a road that provides the owner's only way to reach the lot.⁸ The Condominium Act offers condominiums no equivalent statutory power to suspend voting or amenity rights — any such remedy there has to come from the declaration. And for any planned community the 2023 Act excludes, lien and foreclosure rights exist only if the recorded declaration creates them.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No bill enacted in Kentucky's 2024 through 2026 regular sessions amends the fining, due-process, or lien provisions in the Condominium Act, the Horizontal Property Law, or the Planned Community Act. Two measures still matter for anyone running a community, though — one widens what an association can restrict, the other gives cities a new tool against neglected communities.

B. Recent appellate rulings

No published opinion from the Kentucky Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court of Kentucky, in the 2023 through 2026 window, squarely addresses whether an association fine holds up, the notice-and-hearing predicate for fines, or how courts treat a fine-backed lien or foreclosure under either condominium statute or the Planned Community Act. Two unpublished Court of Appeals decisions touching Kentucky community associations do exist in that window, and both affirm the trial court — but neither is confirmed to turn on fine authority, so neither gets presented here as controlling. Kentucky has no administrative body that hears fine disputes, so these questions get resolved in the Circuit Courts, with appeal running to the Kentucky Court of Appeals and discretionary review sitting with the Supreme Court of Kentucky. This section will get updated as on-point appellate law develops.

C. Active legislative debates

Nothing pending in Frankfort targets association fining authority or a dollar cap on fines specifically. Kentucky's community-association legislation since 2023 has focused on building out the Planned Community Act — records, budgets, meetings, and the political-sign and receivership provisions covered above — rather than on fine mechanics.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Kentucky sits between the model-code states and the light-touch ones. Its condominiums run on a modified Uniform Condominium Act layered over an older Horizontal Property Law, and since June 2023 its planned communities run on a home-grown Planned Community Act rather than the Uniform Planned Community Act or the full UCIOA. That sets Kentucky apart from full-UCIOA states like Alaska, Connecticut, and Colorado, and from the older comprehensive two-statute states like Florida and Arizona — while pulling it out of the shrinking group of states with no HOA statute at all. The defining condominium feature is the creation-date split: the fine power and the fine-inclusive lien reach pre-2011 regimes only through statutory carryover. The planned-community track, once purely contractual, is now statutory too, though it still leans heavily on each community's declaration. On the enforcement question that really drives whether owners pay up, Kentucky lands in the middle of the pack. Fines are liened and judicially foreclosable in both condominiums and covered planned communities, but the association lien carries no super-priority over a first mortgage — so a fine balance stays more exposed in a bank foreclosure here than in super-priority states like Colorado or Nevada.

HOA Weekly updates this Kentucky coverage quarterly as the General Assembly and the Kentucky appellate courts act. Federal law applies here too, regardless of what Kentucky's own statutes say — notably the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which can reach third-party collection of fines, along with the Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and the rules governing satellite dishes and antennas.

1. Kentucky Revised Statutes, Chapter 381 (Kentucky Condominium Act, KRS 381.9101 to 381.9207), Kentucky Legislature. ↩
2. Stites & Harbison PLLC, "New Law Brings Changes to Kentucky's Condominium Laws" (KCA modeled on the Uniform Condominium Act; created 2010 Ky. Acts ch. 97, effective January 1, 2011; amended by 2012 Ky. Acts ch. 99 / HB 433). ↩
3. KRS 381.810, Definitions for KRS 381.805 to 381.910 (Horizontal Property Law), Kentucky Legislature. ↩
4. KRS 381.9103, Application and construction (creation-date rule, carryover subsection (2), and election subsection (3)), as reflected in 2012 Ky. Acts ch. 99 (HB 433), Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. ↩
5. 2023 Ky. Acts ch. 23 (SB 120), the Planned Community Act, KRS 381.785 to 381.801, signed March 20, 2023, effective June 29, 2023, Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. ↩
6. KRS 381.9167(1)(k), Powers of unit owners' association (notice and opportunity to be heard; reasonable fines), Kentucky Legislature. ↩
7. KRS 381.883, Lien for unpaid assessments -- Foreclosure -- Suit (Horizontal Property Law lien limited to unpaid common expenses; enforced by suit in like manner as a mortgage), Kentucky Revised Statutes Chapter 381 index (Justia; cross-verify at legislature.ky.gov). ↩
8. Planned Community Act, Section 13 (codified KRS 381.797): fines as an assessment component; subsection (2) written notice and opportunity to be heard; subsection (6) denial of common-area access for nonpayment except access roads, 2023 Ky. Acts ch. 23 (SB 120). ↩
9. KRS 381.9193, Lien for assessments (lien for assessments and fines; foreclosure like a mortgage; fines secured and enforceable as assessments; priority exceptions), Kentucky Legislature. ↩
10. Nolo, "HOA Super Liens Explained" (Colorado super-lien of six months' assessments under Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-33.3-316; Nevada nine months); Kentucky grants no such super-priority. ↩
11. Planned Community Act, Section 15 (codified KRS 381.799): continuing lien for unpaid assessments, charges, interest, and fines unpaid 30 days; priority except governmental tax/charge liens (including KRS 65.8835) and prior-recorded mortgages or encumbrances, 2023 Ky. Acts ch. 23 (SB 120). ↩
12. 2025 Ky. Acts ch. 32 (HB 27), amending KRS 381.800 (political yard signs in planned communities; effective June 27, 2025), Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. ↩
13. KRS 381.803 (city petition to appoint a receiver for a planned community failing to maintain infrastructure or common areas), created by 2024 HB 472, Kentucky Revised Statutes Chapter 381 index, Kentucky Legislature. ↩