1. Overview: How HOA foreclosure works in Maine

Maine forecloses through the courts, and only through the courts. An association cannot simply sell a delinquent owner's unit. First it files a civil action, wins a court judgment, waits out a 90-day post-judgment redemption period, and then holds a court-supervised public sale — and any appeal goes straight to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, because Maine keeps no intermediate appellate court.^1,2,3

Condominium associations draw their lien and foreclosure rights from the Maine Condominium Act, 33 M.R.S. § 1601-101 et seq., a statute the Legislature built on the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act rather than the later Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act.^4,5

Non-condominium homeowners associations work without a comprehensive planned-community statute; their assessment and lien rights come from recorded declarations of covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs), backed by the Maine Nonprofit Corporation Act and common law.^6,7 A contested matter moves through a familiar sequence: a pre-suit notice of the right to cure, then the foreclosure complaint, then mediation where the property qualifies, then judgment, then the 90-day redemption period, and finally the public sale.^8,9

Federal law can slow or freeze all of it — the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and the Bankruptcy Code's automatic stay each constrain what an association may do.¹⁰ The sections that follow walk through the statutory framework, the procedural sequence step by step, and the recent legislative and judicial developments.

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2. The statutory framework

2A. The Maine Condominium Act

The Legislature enacted the Maine Condominium Act, 33 M.R.S. § 1601-101 et seq., through P.L. 1981, c. 699, and it took effect on January 1, 1983.⁴ The Act follows the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act — a model that predates the 1982 Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act — and Maine has never adopted UCIOA. The Act governs condominiums, and only condominiums, not planned communities.⁵

Its applicability provision reaches every condominium created in Maine on or after the effective date. Condominiums created earlier under the Unit Ownership Act, 33 M.R.S. § 560 et seq. — the 1965 framework — stay under that older chapter unless they amend their instruments to opt in, though a defined set of Act sections, including the lien-for-assessments section, still reaches pre-1983 condominiums for events that occur after the effective date.^11,12

Section 1603-116 establishes the association's lien. Subsection (a) gives the association a lien on a unit for any assessment levied against that unit, and for any fine imposed on its owner, from the moment the assessment or fine comes due — and it provides that the lien "may be foreclosed in like manner as a mortgage on real estate."¹³

Unless the declaration says otherwise, fees, charges, late charges, fines, and interest all enforce as assessments under the section, and recording the declaration gives record notice and perfects the lien, so the association records no separate claim of lien.¹³ The lien dies unless the association begins enforcement within six years after the full amount comes due.¹³

On super-priority, Maine stands out among the states whose condominium statutes descend from the Uniform Condominium Act. Section 1603-116(b) makes the association lien prior to most other liens and encumbrances — but it carves out, among others, "[a] first mortgage recorded before or after the date on which the assessment sought to be enforced becomes delinquent."¹³

Maine never enacted the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act's optional six-month super-priority over first mortgages. A bill to create exactly that priority, LD 994 in the 127th Legislature, drew an "Ought Not to Pass" report and died in 2015, and the statute today carries no super-priority subsection.¹⁴ So a first mortgage holder's lien sits ahead of the association's assessment lien, no matter who recorded first.¹³

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Related Maine HOA Topics

• Reserve Studies
• Assessment Limits
• Collections & Liens
• Insurance Requirements
• Governing Statute

← All Maine HOA Topics

1. Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 14, § 6321 (mortgages and civil-action foreclosure; judicial-only foreclosure in Maine) ↩
2. Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 14, § 6322 (hearing and judgment; 90-day redemption period for instruments executed on or after Oct. 1, 1975) ↩
3. Appeals, State of Maine Judicial Branch (appeals proceed directly to the Supreme Judicial Court sitting as the Law Court; no intermediate appellate court) ↩
4. Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 33, § 1601-101 et seq. (Maine Condominium Act, ch. 31; enacted by P.L. 1981, c. 699, eff. Jan. 1, 1983) ↩
5. Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 33, § 1601-102 (applicability; modeled on the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act; UCIOA not adopted; condominiums only) ↩
6. Maine HOA Laws and Resources, Homeowners' Protection Bureau (no comprehensive planned-community statute; CC&R-based lien rights for non-condominium associations) ↩
7. Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 33, § 1603-101 (unit owners' associations organized as nonprofit corporations under Title 13-B) ↩
8. Foreclosure, State of Maine Judicial Branch (civil-action foreclosure procedure; 20-day response period; judicial path) ↩
9. Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 14, § 6321-A (Foreclosure Diversion Program; mediation for owner-occupied residential property of no more than four units) ↩
10. Maine Foreclosure Laws and Procedures, Nolo (federal overlays: FDCPA, Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and 11 U.S.C. § 362 automatic stay) ↩
11. Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 33, § 1601-102 (applicability; opt-in for pre-1983 condominiums; selected sections reach pre-1983 condominiums for post-effective-date events) ↩
12. Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 33, § 560 et seq. (Unit Ownership Act, 1965 framework); Maine HOA & Condominium Law Summary, CommunityPay ↩
13. Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 33, § 1603-116 (lien for assessments; foreclosure "in like manner as a mortgage"; first-mortgage priority; six-year enforcement limit; mandatory attorney fees under subsec. (g)) ↩
14. L.D. 994, 127th Leg. (Me. 2015), An Act To Create a Priority Lien Securing 6 Months of Assessments under the Maine Condominium Act (reported Ought Not to Pass, Apr. 29, 2015) ↩
15. Foreclosure Diversion Program, State of Maine Judicial Branch (primary-residence requirement; vacation, second-home, and commercial property excluded) ↩
16. Oak Hill Condominiums v. Marchetti, 2026 ME 31 (Me. Apr. 2, 2026) (affirming denial of occupant's motion to intervene; occupant lacked direct, legally protectable interest) ↩
17. Practical Guidance: Commercial Foreclosure (Me.), Pierce Atwood LLP (citing Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 14, §§ 6321, 6322, 6323) ↩
18. Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 32, § 11001 et seq. (Maine Fair Debt Collection Practices Act; licensing of debt collectors, including persons regularly enforcing security interests) ↩
19. Community Association Manager State-Mandated Licensing, Community Associations Institute (Maine does not require community association managers to be licensed) ↩
20. Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 33, § 581 (Unit Ownership Act; lien claimed 60 days after due date, signed and filed in the registry of deeds) ↩
21. Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 14, § 6111 (notice of default and right to cure; at least 35 days to cure before a foreclosure action may be filed) ↩
22. Tidewater Loft Condominium Ass'n v. Moskal-Kanz, 2026 ME 46 (Me. May 21, 2026) (vacating foreclosure judgment on due-process grounds; FHA and ADA counterclaim; $36,962.09 attorney-fee award not fully supported) ↩
23. Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 14, § 6323 (public sale; notice published once a week for three weeks and mailed to parties who appeared at least 30 days before sale); Maine Foreclosure Laws and Procedures, Nolo ↩
24. Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 14, § 6324 (deficiency; fair-market-value limits when the foreclosing party is the buyer); Understanding Maine's Judicial Foreclosure Process, Lawyers.com ↩
25. Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 33, § 576-A (electric-vehicle charging stations allowed; application, insurance, cost-bearing, and maintenance conditions), P.L. 2025, c. 280 (L.D. 1133, signed June 12, 2025) ↩
26. L.D. 403, 132d Leg., P.L. 2025, c. 275 (Me. 2025) (amending Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 14, § 6111 to add anti-fraud warning language) ↩
27. L.D. 1829, 132d Leg., P.L. 2025, c. 385 (Me. 2025), An Act to Build Housing for Maine Families and Attract Workers to Maine Businesses by Amending the Laws Governing Housing Density ↩
28. Heintz v. Jenkins, 514 U.S. 291 (1995) (attorneys regularly collecting debts through litigation are "debt collectors" under the FDCPA) ↩
29. 50 U.S.C. § 3931 (SCRA; military-status affidavit before default judgment; reopening within 90 days after service) ↩