Massachusetts HOA Reserve Studies
Massachusetts HOA Reserve Studies
| Reserve study factor | Massachusetts treatment |
|---|---|
| Statutory reserve study required | No. Chapter 183A does not require a reserve study for condominiums, and no Massachusetts statute requires one for non-condominium associations.1 |
| Communities covered | The reserve-funding mandate reaches every condominium organized under Chapter 183A. No statewide reserve statute covers non-condominium associations.2 |
| Initial study deadline | Not required by statute.1 |
| Study update interval | Not required by statute.1 |
| On-site / physical inspection interval | Not required by statute.1 |
| Preparer qualification | No statutory provision identified. |
| Reserve funding required | Yes, for condominiums. Section 10(i) requires every condominium to maintain an "adequate replacement reserve fund." No statute requires it of non-condominium associations.3 |
| Funding standard | "Adequate," and the statute leaves it undefined. It specifies no percentage, dollar amount, or funding model.3 |
| Component / useful-life scope | Section 1 defines the replacement reserve fund as common funds used to replace, restore, or rebuild common areas and facilities. It prescribes no component list or useful-life schedule.4 |
| Annual member disclosure | Condominiums must prepare an annual financial report that includes a statement of funds available and make it available to all unit owners; the statute does not separately mandate reserve-specific disclosure.5 |
| Resale / buyer disclosure | No reserve-specific resale disclosure is mandated. The Section 6(d) certificate addresses only unpaid common-expense assessments and related charges against the unit, not reserve adequacy.6 |
| Reserve account protections | Yes, for condominiums. Reserve funds must stay segregated from operating funds; a managing agent's reserve funds must sit in separate accounts shielded from the agent's creditors; and reserve-account checks require a second signature from a board member.7 |
| Waiver or underfunding mechanism | Yes. Under Section 10(m), once declarant control ends, an annual vote of 67 percent in beneficial interest may modify the reserve-fund requirement, and a majority may rescind that modification.8 |
| Enforcement / penalty | No reserve-specific statutory penalty. Enforcement runs through trustee fiduciary duty, owner or mortgagee suit, and the financial-report attorneys'-fee provision; non-condominium associations rely on contract and fiduciary remedies.5 |
| Primary statutory citation(s) | Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 183A, §§ 1, 10(c)–(m); for non-condominium associations, recorded covenants together with Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 180 or trust law.9 |
Section 1: Overview — Reserve study requirements in Massachusetts
Massachusetts does not require a reserve study. It does require something else: under the Massachusetts Condominium Act, every condominium has to maintain an "adequate replacement reserve fund." Here is the catch.
No statute defines "adequate," none calls for a study, and none sets a funding formula.3 That pairing — a real funding duty with no study and no number behind it — makes Massachusetts an outlier among the no-study states.
The statute doing the work is the Massachusetts Condominium Act, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 183A. The Legislature passed it in 1963, and it runs short — an enabling statute that sets a framework and leaves most of the operating detail to each condominium's governing instruments.10
Massachusetts condominiums usually take the form of a condominium trust: the unit owners organize as a trust, and trustees run the condominium under a declaration of trust. Some organize as corporations or unincorporated associations instead.11 The state has no comprehensive planned-community or HOA statute, so non-condominium associations answer to their recorded covenants together with the Massachusetts nonprofit corporation law (ch. 180) or trust law.2
Look at the country as a whole, and the states sort into three groups: hard-mandate states with fixed study intervals and funding rules, disclosure-mandate states, and no-mandate states. Massachusetts sits in the no-mandate group on reserve studies.
But its reserve-funding duty for condominiums lifts it above the thinnest no-mandate frameworks. The sections that follow lay out the statutory text, the governance structure, the role of the governing instruments and trustee fiduciary duty, the specific compliance obligations, and the recent moves in the Legislature and the courts.
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Related Massachusetts HOA Topics
- Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 183A, § 10 (full text; no reserve-study or inspection-interval requirement appears) ↩
- Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 180 (nonprofit corporations); see also discussion that the Condominium Act does not apply to non-condominium homeowners' associations, which are governed by recorded covenants and ch. 180 or trust law ↩
- Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 183A, § 10(i): "All condominiums shall be required to maintain an adequate replacement reserve fund, collected as part of the common expenses and deposited in an account or accounts separate and segregated from operating funds." ↩
- Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 183A, § 1 (definitions of "Replacement reserve fund" and "Organization of unit owners") ↩
- Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 183A, § 10(d) (annual financial report within 120 days; availability to owners and mortgagees; CPA review for 50-plus-unit condominiums at least every two years; prevailing-party attorneys' fees) ↩
- Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 183A, § 6(d) (certificate of unpaid common-expense assessments and related charges; addresses arrears, not reserve adequacy) ↩
- Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 183A, § 10(f) (managing-agent quarterly reports and segregated reserve accounts shielded from creditors) and § 10(g) (second-signature requirement on reserve-account checks) ↩
- Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 183A, § 10(m) (after transfer of control from declarant, 67 percent in beneficial interest may modify the reserve-fund requirement; modification rescindable by majority) ↩
- Mass. Gen. Laws c. 183A (annotated section list, Mass.gov / Trial Court Law Libraries) ↩
- Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 183A (Condominiums), §§ 1–23 (Massachusetts Legislature codification) ↩
- Condominium Ownership and Operation in Massachusetts (organization of unit owners may take the form of a trust, association, or corporation; trustees administer the condominium), citing Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 183A, § 10(b) ↩
- Trustees of Beechwood Village Condominium Trust v. USAlliance Federal Credit Union, 95 Mass. App. Ct. 278, 285 (2019), quoting Queler v. Skowron, 438 Mass. 304, 312–13 (2002) (Chapter 183A is an enabling statute setting a framework for the development and operation of condominiums) ↩
- St. 1992, c. 400, "An Act Relative to the Protection of Condominium Residents" (approved Jan. 14, 1993; added the replacement reserve fund mandate and financial-management subsections to § 10 and the "Replacement reserve fund" definition to § 1), Massachusetts State Archives ↩
- Condominium Reserve Funding Amendments: A Legal Tool with Complications (discussing reserve-funding bylaw amendments to satisfy § 10(i)) ↩
- Cigal v. Leader Dev. Corp., 408 Mass. 212, 219 (1990); Office One, Inc. v. Lopez, 437 Mass. 113, 125 (2002) (condominium board members owe a fiduciary duty to the association, not to individual unit owners) ↩
- S.980, An Act relative to the condominium owners' rights (CORA), 194th General Court (filed by Sens. Edwards and Kennedy); see also S.2498 (193rd General Court) for predecessor text including the decennial capital reserve fund study for 50-plus-unit condominiums ↩
- Massachusetts Senate No. 980 (194th General Court), bill history, Massachusetts General Court (reported favorably Oct. 23, 2025 to Senate Ways and Means; no further action) ↩
- Geezil v. White Cliffs Condominium Four Association, 105 Mass. App. Ct. 103, No. 23-P-1103 (decided Nov. 13, 2024) (condominium association is not the "owner" of common areas under G. L. c. 151B) ↩
- Fannie Mae Lender Letter LL-2026-03 (March 18, 2026) (raising the minimum reserve-funding requirement to 15 percent of budgeted annual income for loan applications dated on or after January 4, 2027); see also Freddie Mac Bulletin 2026-6 (May 6, 2026) ↩
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