Maine HOA Collections & Liens

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

Maine's condominium law traces back to the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act — not the later Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act — and that lineage has a concrete consequence. The Maine Condominium Act, 33 M.R.S. ch. 31, creates an assessment lien that sits behind the first mortgage. Maine grants no super-priority portion ahead of the first lender.¹ Planned communities have no comparable statute. Maine's appellate path is also distinctive: the state has no intermediate appellate court, so cases run directly from Superior Court or District Court to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court sitting as the Law Court.

The condominium lien arises automatically the moment an assessment or fine becomes due. Recording the declaration perfects it — no separate claim of lien needs to be recorded.^{2, 3} Maine does not extend any super-priority ahead of the first mortgage; the statute expressly subordinates the association lien to any first mortgage recorded before or after the delinquency.¹ Foreclosure is judicial, conducted in the same manner as a mortgage on real estate.^{2, 4} Maine sets no minimum dollar threshold and no minimum delinquency duration before an association may foreclose.¹

That puts Maine at the lender-favorable end of the spectrum — a first-in-time, judicial-only, no-threshold state. It is distinct from super-priority states such as Nevada and Connecticut, and from threshold-restricted states such as California and Arizona. The sections that follow set out the lien, its priority, and the step-by-step collection and foreclosure process.

Maine HOA Collections & Liens at a glance

Source: 33 M.R.S. § 1603-116; 33 M.R.S. § 1603-102; 13-B M.R.S.; 14 M.R.S. §§ 6321–6324. Last verified: June 9, 2026.

Section 2: The lien and its priority

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

For condominiums, the assessment lien is statutory. Under 33 M.R.S. § 1603-116(a), the association holds a lien on a unit for any assessment levied against that unit or any fine imposed against its unit owner. That lien arises from the moment the assessment or fine becomes due, and the association may foreclose it in the same manner as a mortgage on real estate.² No separate recording step is required to perfect it: under § 1603-116(d), recording the declaration constitutes record notice and perfection of the lien, with no further recordation of any claim of lien required.³ If an assessment is payable in installments, the full amount becomes a lien from the time the first installment becomes due.²

What the lien secures is broad. Unless the declaration provides otherwise, fees, charges, late charges, fines, and interest charged under 33 M.R.S. § 1603-102(a), paragraphs (10), (11), and (12) are enforceable as assessments under the lien statute.^{7, 9} A judgment or decree in an action to enforce the lien must include costs and reasonable attorney fees for the prevailing party.⁸ The lien attaches to the unit only; it does not reach other property of the unit owner.² For planned communities — non-condominium homeowners associations — no comparable statute exists. Any assessment lien arises only if the recorded covenants create one, and enforcement rests on those covenants, on the Maine Nonprofit Corporation Act (13-B M.R.S.) for corporate authority and procedure, and on common law. Those steps are contractual and corporate, not statutory.⁵

2B. Lien priority and any super-priority component

This is the point where Maine parts sharply from the super-priority states. Under 33 M.R.S. § 1603-116(b), the association lien takes priority over all other liens and encumbrances on a unit — except three categories: liens and encumbrances recorded before the recordation of the declaration; any first mortgage recorded before or after the date the assessment becomes delinquent; and liens for real estate taxes and other governmental assessments or charges.¹ The subsection also does not affect the priority of mechanics' or materialmen's liens. Where two or more associations hold assessment liens on the same real estate, those liens carry equal priority.¹

The practical consequence is that Maine grants no super-priority. The association lien sits behind any first mortgage — with no carve-out for a fixed number of months of assessments ahead of that mortgage. Although Maine adopted a version of the 1980 UCA, it never enacted the six-month limited-priority provision found in UCA section 3-116 and carried into the UCIOA states. Bills to add that priority were introduced and failed: LD 1332 in the 125th Legislature and LD 994 in the 127th Legislature each proposed a six-month "priority amount" ahead of the first mortgage, and neither became law.^{10, 11} Because Maine has no super-priority portion at all, the "rolling lien" question — whether a priority amount can be reasserted in successive periods — simply does not arise under current Maine law. The rule is unmistakable: the Maine condominium assessment lien is junior to the first mortgage, and a first-mortgage foreclosure can extinguish it.¹

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

Recorded declarations and covenants supplement the statutory lien and may, where the Act allows, vary default rules. For example, § 1603-116(a) lets the declaration alter whether late charges, fines, and interest are enforceable as assessments.² What a declaration cannot do is rearrange the statutory priority scheme to elevate the association lien above a first mortgage; the priority order in § 1603-116(b) controls.¹ For planned communities, the covenants are the primary source of any lien and collection right, subject to the corporate-formality requirements of the Maine Nonprofit Corporation Act.⁵

The statute of limitations on the underlying lien is set by 33 M.R.S. § 1603-116(e): a lien for unpaid assessments is extinguished unless proceedings to enforce it are instituted within six years after the full amount of the assessments becomes due. That period was three years until a 2019 amendment extended it to six.¹²

Three federal frameworks apply on top of the Maine framework. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act can reach associations and, in particular, their attorneys and outside collection agents when they collect consumer debts. The automatic stay in bankruptcy halts collection and foreclosure the moment a unit owner files a petition. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act constrains collection and foreclosure against active-duty servicemembers. These overlays apply regardless of the Maine rules.

Section 3: The collection and foreclosure process

3A. Pre-lien collection sequence

For condominiums, Maine imposes no statutory pre-lien notice. Because recording the declaration perfects the lien under § 1603-116(d), the lien attaches automatically when an assessment or fine becomes due — with no separate notice of delinquency or notice of intent to record required by the Act.³ The statute does create one related disclosure right running the other way: under § 1603-116(h), the association must furnish to a unit owner, on written request, a recordable statement of the amount of unpaid assessments currently levied against the unit. The association must deliver that statement within ten business days of the request, and it binds the association.¹³ Maine sets no statutory right to a payment plan and no mandatory itemized pre-lien statement beyond that on-request disclosure. For planned communities, any pre-lien notice, dispute right, or payment-plan offer exists only if the recorded covenants create it; those steps are contractual, not statutory.⁵

3B. Recording and the pre-foreclosure sequence

For condominiums, no claim of lien is recorded, because the declaration already perfects the lien. That removes a step that exists in many other states.³ There is likewise no statutory notice of intent to foreclose unique to the condominium lien, no statutory recorded-board-vote prerequisite, no statutory mandatory payment-plan offer, and no statutory mediation requirement attached to the association lien itself.² The Maine consumer-mortgage protections that do impose pre-foreclosure steps — the 35-day notice of right to cure under 14 M.R.S. § 6111 and the foreclosure mediation program under 14 M.R.S. § 6321-A — apply to a mortgagee enforcing a mortgage that secures a loan for personal, family, or household use against an owner-occupant, and by their terms they do not reach a condominium association's assessment-lien foreclosure.^{14, 15} No Maine Law Court decision has squarely resolved whether those sections bind an association foreclosing "in like manner as a mortgage," so an association proceeding should confirm current practice with counsel. For planned communities, the board's authority to act, any vote requirement, and any pre-suit notice come from the covenants and from the Maine Nonprofit Corporation Act, not from a collections statute.⁵

3C. Foreclosure mechanics and thresholds

Foreclosure of the condominium lien is judicial. Section 1603-116(a) directs that the lien may be foreclosed in the same manner as a mortgage on real estate, and Maine is a judicial-foreclosure state: a mortgage foreclosure proceeds by civil action in the Superior Court or the District Court under 14 M.R.S. § 6321 et seq.^{2, 4} The association files a complaint, serves the owner and any parties in interest, and obtains a judgment of foreclosure. Maine sets no minimum dollar threshold and no minimum delinquency duration that the debt must reach before the association may foreclose — nothing in § 1603-116 conditions foreclosure on a months-delinquent or dollar minimum, unlike Arizona (eighteen months or $10,000 as of September 26, 2025) or Colorado (a six-month balance plus a recorded board vote).^{1, 16, 17} Fines, as well as assessments, can support the lien and therefore the foreclosure: § 1603-116(a) expressly extends the lien to "fines imposed against its unit owner," and fines and late charges are enforceable as assessments under § 1603-102.^{2, 9} For planned communities, foreclosure is available only if the covenants grant a lien and a power to foreclose, and any such foreclosure likewise proceeds judicially as the enforcement of a contractual lien.⁵

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

Maine's redemption period runs before the sale, not after it — a feature that distinguishes it from many other states. Under 14 M.R.S. § 6322, for mortgages executed on or after October 1, 1975, the period of redemption is 90 days from entry of judgment, provided no appeal is taken; the same period applies to the condominium lien foreclosed in like manner as a mortgage.⁶ If the owner pays the amount the court adjudges due within those 90 days, the lien is discharged and the action dismissed.⁶ There is no post-sale redemption right.

After the 90 days expire, the foreclosing party publishes a notice of sale in a newspaper for three consecutive weeks and mails notice of the public sale to all parties who appeared — no fewer than 30 calendar days before the sale — under 14 M.R.S. § 6323.¹⁸ A deficiency judgment is available against the former owner as part of the action; where the foreclosing party itself buys at the sale, the deficiency is limited under 14 M.R.S. § 6324 to the difference between the property's fair market value at the time of sale, established by an independent appraisal, and the sum due.^{18, 19} Surplus proceeds go to the owner, or — if the owner did not appear — the clerk of courts holds them in escrow for six months before they pass toward the State under the unclaimed-property process, under § 6323.¹⁸ The owner may reinstate or redeem by paying the amount due any time before the sale, and acceptance of payment before expiration of the redemption period generally waives the foreclosure unless the parties agree otherwise in writing.⁴

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

4A. Recent bills

No bill in the 131st Legislature (2023–2024) or the 132nd Legislature (2025–2026) amended the assessment-collection, lien, or foreclosure provisions of the Maine Condominium Act. The statutory section histories for 33 M.R.S. § 1603-116 (lien for assessments), § 1603-115 (assessments for common expenses), and § 1603-117 (other liens) record no public-law change after 2019.²⁰ The four bills below represent the significant legislative actions on this topic.

4B. Recent appellate rulings

Maine's courts are not reshaping HOA law from the bench. What they are doing is more practical: they are holding associations to procedural rules and confirming how liens are extinguished. The ruling below illustrates both points.

4C. Active legislative debates

No active proposal in the 132nd Legislature would create a super-priority lien or otherwise change the condominium collection mechanics, and there is no pending comprehensive planned-community bill. Maine's collections framework for community associations is static.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Maine sits at the lender-favorable end of the collections spectrum. It is not a super-priority state: unlike Nevada, whose nine-month lien (NRS 116.3116) the Nevada Supreme Court held in SFR Investments Pool 1, LLC v. U.S. Bank to extinguish a first deed of trust, and Connecticut, whose priority portion is nine months under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-258(b), the Maine condominium lien is fully subordinate to a first mortgage.^{1, 23, 24} Maine also differs from the threshold-restricted states: California bars foreclosure below $1,800 or 12 months delinquent under Civil Code § 5720(b), and Arizona bars it below eighteen months or $10,000 (a threshold raised by SB 1494, effective September 26, 2025).^{25, 16} Maine sets no minimum at all. Colorado, often grouped with them, is itself a six-month super-priority state under C.R.S. § 38-33.3-316.¹⁷ Unlike purely CC&R-primary states, Maine does provide a statutory lien for condominiums while leaving planned communities to their covenants.

For a multi-state operator, the practical implication is concrete: a collection sequence or notice package that works in a super-priority or threshold state can be unnecessary, defective, or simply misaligned in Maine, where the lien is junior, perfection is automatic, and foreclosure is judicial. Maine's current direction of travel is static; repeated attempts to add a priority lien have failed, and no pending bill would change the mechanics.

1. 33 M.R.S. § 1603-116(b), (c) (Lien prior to all others except encumbrances recorded before the declaration, any first mortgage recorded before or after delinquency, and tax/governmental liens; equal priority among association liens; no super-priority and no statutory threshold) ↩
2. 33 M.R.S. § 1603-116(a), (f) (Lien for assessments; lien arises when assessment or fine becomes due, foreclosed in like manner as a mortgage, attaches to the unit) ↩
3. 33 M.R.S. § 1603-116(d) (Recording of the declaration constitutes record notice and perfection; no further recordation of any claim of lien required) ↩
4. 14 M.R.S. § 6321 (Commencement of foreclosure by civil action in Superior Court or District Court; waiver of foreclosure on acceptance of payment) ↩
5. 13-B M.R.S. (Maine Nonprofit Corporation Act) (Corporate authority and procedure for associations organized as nonprofit corporations; no comprehensive Maine planned-community collections statute) ↩
6. 14 M.R.S. § 6322 (Hearing and judgment; 90-day period of redemption from entry of judgment for mortgages executed on or after October 1, 1975; discharge on payment within the period) ↩
7. 33 M.R.S. § 1603-116(a) (Fees, charges, late charges, fines, and interest enforceable as assessments unless the declaration provides otherwise) ↩
8. 33 M.R.S. § 1603-116(g) (Judgment or decree must include costs and reasonable attorney fees for the prevailing party) ↩
9. 33 M.R.S. § 1603-102(a)(10), (11), (12) (Association power to impose late-payment charges and, after notice and opportunity to be heard, reasonable fines) ↩
10. LD 1332 (HP 978), 125th Legislature, "An Act To Amend the Maine Condominium Act" (proposed six-month "priority amount" ahead of first mortgage; the priority provision was not enacted into 33 M.R.S. § 1603-116) ↩
11. LD 994 (HP 689), 127th Legislature, "An Act To Create a Priority Lien Securing 6 Months of Assessments under the Maine Condominium Act" (not enacted) ↩
12. 33 M.R.S. § 1603-116(e) (Lien extinguished unless proceedings instituted within 6 years after the full amount becomes due; amended by PL 2019, c. 3, §1 from 3 years) ↩
13. 33 M.R.S. § 1603-116(h) (Recordable statement of unpaid assessments on written request within 10 business days; binding on association) ↩
14. 14 M.R.S. § 6111 (Notice of mortgagor's right to cure; applies to a mortgagee enforcing a mortgage securing a loan for personal, family, or household use against a mortgagor occupying the property as a primary residence) ↩
15. 14 M.R.S. § 6321-A (Foreclosure mediation program for foreclosure of a mortgage on owner-occupied residential property of no more than 4 units that is the owner-occupant's primary residence) ↩
16. A.R.S. § 33-1807(A) (foreclosure barred unless owner is 18 months delinquent or owes $10,000 or more; threshold raised by SB 1494, effective September 26, 2025) ↩
17. Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-33.3-316(2)(b) (six-month super-priority portion ahead of first mortgage; § 38-33.3-316(11) requires a recorded board vote and a six-month balance before filing a foreclosure action) ↩
18. 14 M.R.S. § 6323 (Sale following expiration of period of redemption; three-week newspaper publication; 30-day mailed notice; surplus held in escrow 6 months if mortgagor did not appear; deficiency limited to amount established as of date of public sale) ↩
19. 14 M.R.S. § 6324 (Deficiency where foreclosing party acquires the property limited to difference between fair market value at public sale, by independent appraisal, and sum due) ↩
20. 33 M.R.S. § 1603-116, Section History (latest amendment PL 2019, c. 3, §1; no public-law amendment in the 131st or 132nd Legislature) ↩
21. 33 M.R.S. § 1602-101 (amended by PL 2023, c. 198, §1; conveyance of units by declarant, unrelated to assessment, lien, or foreclosure provisions) ↩
22. Maples v. Compass Harbor Village Condominium Ass'n, 2025 ME 19 (Maine Supreme Judicial Court sitting as the Law Court) ↩
23. Nev. Rev. Stat. § 116.3116 (nine-month super-priority lien); SFR Investments Pool 1, LLC v. U.S. Bank, N.A., 334 P.3d 408 (Nev. 2014) ↩
24. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-258(b) (priority portion equal to nine months of common-expense assessments; "nine months" substituted for "six months" by P.A. 13-156, effective June 24, 2013) ↩
25. Cal. Civ. Code § 5720(b) (no assessment-lien foreclosure unless delinquent assessments reach $1,800, excluding fees/costs/interest, or are more than 12 months delinquent) ↩